What is Job Design?

Job design is a combination of the position, duty, and task of a job description. According to Spector (2017), a position is a collection of multiple duties performed by an employee or single individual, a duty is the overall component of the job, and a task (which can be divided into activities) is a piece of work that accomplishes some part of the job duty. To properly design a job one must understand knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). Knowledge is what a person needs to know to perform the job, skills are what a person can do on the job, and ability is the person’s capability to do job tasks or to learn them (Spector, 2017). Each job should be designed with these components while taking into consideration health and safety elements.

Spector, P.E. (2017). Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wile & Sons.