【精读组织】工作设计之工程方法

<OrganizationDevelopment & Change>Thomas G. Cummings Christopher G. Worley

《组织发展学 原理与应用》 加里·麦克莱恩（著）

This chapter examines three approaches to work design. First, the engineering approach focuses on efficiency and simplification, and results in traditional job and work-group designs. Traditional jobs involve relatively routine and repetitive forms of work, where little interaction among people is needed to produce a service or product. Call center operators, data-entry positions, and product support representatives are examples of this job design. Traditional work groups are composed of members performing routine yet interrelated tasks. Member interactions are typically controlled by supervisors, schedules, and rigid workflows, such as might be found on assembly lines. 本章探讨工作设计的三种方法。首先，工程方法注重效率和简化，并产生传统的工作和工作群体设计。传统工作涉及相对常规和重复的工作形式，生产服务或产品几乎不需要人与人之间的互动。呼叫中心操作员、数据输入职位和产品支持代表就是这种工作设计的例子。传统的工作群体由执行常规但相互关联任务的成员组成。成员互动通常由主管、日程安排和严格的工作流控制，例如可能在装配线上找到的工作流。

A second approach to work design derives from motivational theories and attempts to enrich the work experience. Job enrichment involves designing jobs with high levels of meaning, discretion, and knowledge of results. A well-researched model focusing on job attributes has helped clear up methodological problems with this important intervention. 第二种工作设计方法来自激励理论，并试图丰富工作经验。工作丰富化包括设计具有高水平意义、判断力和结果知识的工作。聚焦工作特征并经过充分研究的模型（工作特征模型），通过工作设计这一重要干预措施，帮助解决了方法上的问题。

The third approach to work design derives from sociotechnical systems methods, and seeks to optimize both the social and the technical aspects of work systems. This method has led to a popular form of work design called “self-managed teams,” which are composed of multi-skilled members performing interrelated tasks. Members are given the knowledge, information, and power necessary to control their own task behaviors with relatively little external control. New support systems and supervisory styles are needed to manage them. 第三种工作设计方法源自社会技术系统方法，旨在优化工作系统的社会和技术方面。这种方法导致了一种流行的工作设计形式，称为“自管理团队”，由执行相关任务的多技能成员组成。成员获得了控制自己任务行为所需的知识、信息和权力，而外部控制相对较少。管理他们需要新的支持系统和监督方式。

The chapter describes each of these perspectives on work design, and then presents a contingency framework for integrating the approaches based on personal and technical factors in the workplace. When work is designed to fit these factors, it is both satisfying and productive. 本章描述了工作设计的每一种观点，然后提出了一个权变框架，用于整合基于工作场所个人和技术因素的方法。当工作被设计成适合这些因素时，工作既令人满意又富有成效。

The oldest and most prevalent approach to designing work is based on engineering concepts and methods. The engineering approach is less an organization development (OD) intervention than a benchmark in history. It proposes that the most efficient work designs can be determined by clearly specifying the tasks to be performed, the work methods to be used, and the workflow among individuals. The engineering approach is based on the pioneering work of Frederick Taylor, the father of scientific management, in the late 1800s. He developed methods for analyzing and designing work and laid the foundation for the professional field of industrial engineering.最古老、最普遍的工作设计方法，基于工程概念和方法。工程方法与其说是组织发展（OD）干预，不如说是历史上的基准。它提出，最有效的工作设计可以通过明确指定要执行的任务、要使用的工作方法以及个人之间的工作流程来确定。工程方法基于科学管理之父泰勒在19世纪末的开创性工作。泰勒开发了分析和设计工作的方法，为工业工程的专业领域奠定了基础。

The engineering approach scientifically analyzes workers’ tasks to discover those procedures that produce the maximum output with the minimum input of energies and resources. This generally results in work designs with high levels of specialization and specification. Such designs have several benefits: They allow workers to learn tasks rapidly; they permit short work cycles so performance can take place with little or no mental effort; and they reduce costs because lower-skilled people can be hired and trained easily and paid relatively low wages. 工程方法科学地分析工人的任务，以发现那些以最少的能量和资源投入产生最大产出的程序。这通常会导致工作设计具有高度的专业化和规范性。这样的设计有几个好处：工人可以快速学习任务；允许较短的工作周期，这样就可以在很少或根本不费心的情况下完成工作；降低了成本，因为低技能人员可以很容易地被雇佣和培训，而且工资相对较低。

The engineering approach produces two kinds of work design: traditional jobs and traditional work groups. When the work can be completed by one person, such as with bank tellers and telephone operators, traditional jobs are created. These jobs tend to be simplified, with routine and repetitive tasks having clear specifications concerning time and motion. When the work requires coordination among people, such as on automobile assembly lines, traditional work groups are developed. They are composed of members performing relatively routine, yet related, tasks. The overall group task is typically broken into simpler, discrete parts (often called jobs). The tasks and work methods are specified for each part, and the parts are assigned to group members. Each member performs a routine and repetitive part of the group task. Members’ separate task contributions are coordinated for overall task achievement through such external controls as supervisors, schedules, and rigid workflows. This method of work design, pioneered in the early 1900s by Henry Ford’s assembly line, was popularized in the 1950s and 1960s by the mass-production methods of American automobile manufacturers and was an important reason for the growth of American industry following World War II. 工程方法产生两种工作设计：传统工作和传统工作群体。当工作可以由一个人完成时，比如银行出纳员和电话接线员，就会创造出传统的工作岗位。这些工作往往被简化，常规和重复性的任务对时间和动作有明确的规定。当工作需要人与人之间的协调时，比如在汽车装配线上，传统的工作群体就应运而生。他们由执行相对常规但相关任务的成员组成。

Critics of the engineering approach to work design argue that the method ignores workers’ social and psychological needs. They suggest that the rising educational level of the workforce and the substitution of automation for menial labor point to the need for more enriched forms of work in which people have greater discretion and are more challenged. Moreover, the growth of the service economy and work that involves information processing and decision making require work designs that do not readily conform to the traditional engineering approach. The current competitive climate requires a more committed and involved workforce able to make online decisions and to develop performance innovations. Work designed with the employee in mind is more humanly fulfilling and productive than that designed in traditional ways. However, it is important to recognize the strengths of the engineering approach. It remains an important work design intervention because its cost savings and efficiency can be measured readily, is well understood, and is easily implemented and managed. 工程设计方法的批评者认为，这种方法忽视了工人的社会需要和心理需要。他们认为，劳动力的教育水平不断提高，自动化取代了体力劳动，这表明人们需要更丰富的工作形式，在这种形式中，人们有更大的自由裁量权并面临更大的挑战。此外，服务经济和涉及信息处理与决策的工作的增长所要求的工作设计，与传统的工程方法并不相符。当前的竞争环境要求员工更加敬业、参与度更高，能够在线做出决策、设计/革新绩效新举措。相比传统方法的工作设计，以员工为中心的工作设计，更满足人性化和生产力。但是，认识到工程方法的优势依然重要。工程方法仍然是一项重要的工作设计干预措施，因为它的成本节约和效率提高，可以很容易地衡量，被很好地理解，并且易于实施和管理。

【注1】工业工程 Industrial Engineering 简称IE，是研究由人、物料、信息、设备和能源构成的集成系统的设计、改进和实施，它应用数学、物理学和社会科学的知识和技能，结合工程分析和设计的原理与方法，来说明、预测和评价这一集成系统将得到的结果。——美国工业工程学会（American Institute of Industrial Engineering,简称AIIE）