Horti-Business Management (2+0)

Factors influencing Job Design

• The factors that influence the preparation of Job design fall under three major categories, viz., Organizational factors, environmental factors and behavioural factors.
Organizational factors

• These are job oriented factors such as nature of job, the sequence of activities, physical abilities and working methods to be adopted.
• Nature of job - what kind of tasks have to be performed under the job - a manager of horticulture farm is expected prepare plans, implement them and coordinate and monitor the implementation of the plan
• Sequence of activities: the whole job can be done by executing a sequence of activities - if the manager has to raise a crop, first he has to plan for land preparation, raise seedlings or sowing etc.
• Physical abilities: For some jobs, they prescribe the required physical fitness, which is essential to perform the job. As in the case of persons recruited for army, forest, police services etc.
• Working methods: It involves the way of doing the tasks. Spraying of pesticides is a hazardous task; the person involved has to take precautions.
Environmental Factors

• Environmental factors include employee availability and social and cultural expectations. The job design must be able to attract talented employees in a competitive world. In India the people in rural areas are engrossed in social and cultural practices. Hence the jobs have to be designed taking into account the socio-cultural practices.
Behavioral Factors

• These are factors that have an impact on the behavior of the employees. Employees must be given certain degree of freedom to take decisions and implement them. If there is pest attack, the farm manager has to respond at the earliest so as to minimize loss, so he must be empowered to take decisions on his own and implement. Conditions must be created so that employees can fully utilize their abilities. One of the major retarders of progress is monotony due to performing the job. Care must be taken to make jobs more interesting and challenging.