Which scientific job-design approach emphasizes highly specified and directed work and is appropriate for routine tasks and workers with relatively low skills or confidence?

Which scientific job-design approach emphasizes highly specified and directed work and is appropriate for routine tasks and workers with relatively low skills or confidence?

• A. Just-in-time
• B. Functions
• C. Inspiration
• D. Job simplification

Answer: (D)

The main idea is designing work to be highly specified and directed, which fits routine tasks and workers with lower skills or confidence. Job simplification does this by breaking tasks into simple, repetitive steps, standardizing procedures, and limiting how much discretion a worker has. This makes training faster, performance more predictable, and supervision easier, which is exactly what’s needed when tasks are routine and workers may need more guidance. In practice, it reduces cognitive load and variability by codifying the exact motions and decisions required, so output is consistent and efficient. Other approaches address different goals: just-in-time focuses on material flow and production timing rather than how a job is designed; organizing by functions groups work by specialty rather than by simple, repeatable tasks; inspiration isn’t a formal job-design method.

The main idea is designing work to be highly specified and directed, which fits routine tasks and workers with lower skills or confidence. Job simplification does this by breaking tasks into simple, repetitive steps, standardizing procedures, and limiting how much discretion a worker has. This makes training faster, performance more predictable, and supervision easier, which is exactly what’s needed when tasks are routine and workers may need more guidance.

In practice, it reduces cognitive load and variability by codifying the exact motions and decisions required, so output is consistent and efficient. Other approaches address different goals: just-in-time focuses on material flow and production timing rather than how a job is designed; organizing by functions groups work by specialty rather than by simple, repeatable tasks; inspiration isn’t a formal job-design method.