HUMAN FACTORS OF JOB DESIGN
6. JOB DESIGN, MACROERGONOM1CS, AND PRODUCTIVITY 123 transferred to one of the largest department stores in the Tokyo area, Seibu
Department Store. It attempted to introduce a variation of the RSO system. The new concept was named "Shop Master System," which implies that all manage
ment authority was provided to the master of each "small shop" inside the department store.
According to this concept, a master is responsible for managing his or her small shop, including stocking goods and selecting subordinates within the com
pany, as well as for the profitability of the small shop. At present, the Shop Master System is one of the main department sales systems in Seibu and is prevalent in all department stores throughout Japan, ironically, including Tenrnaya. The trade management division supports the Shop Master System and the overall decision-making process.
There is another case of a company in which the self-order system was intro
duced. Itoyokado is one of the largest supermarkets in Japan and famous for the introduction of a point-of-sales (POS) computer system in all shops. The company can access the daily sales information through the computer system. All part- time female employees are given responsibility for the self-order system. They are permitted to order goods themselves, based on hourly sales data. They man
age their own shop by controlling inventory cost and by timely ordering with au
tonomous responsibility. Although they are part-time employees, they are not considered supplementary workers, but as key persons in the labor force. Higher organizational performance resulted from the implementation of the self-order system. The gross profit ratio in Itoyokado increased from 25.1% in 1982 to 30.3% in 1991, even though net profit already had been the highest among Japanese supermarkets. The returned goods rate dramatically dropped from 8.0 to 1.5% during this decade.
Itoyokado's introduction of the autonomous decision-making system and res
ponsibility into the organization meant employees in this company were given the authority to decide shop control as an integral part of shop management. The orga
nizational structure was changed to a flat hierarchy that led to easier, more effec
tive communication. As this case demonstrated, people, if given the authority, will attempt to manage their own shops autonomously toward the desired outcome.
Self-Organization and Organizational Design
Principle 5: The most important traits for human beings are self-development and self-realization. The organization that permits self-organization enhances the worker's self-development.
An organization is surrounded by economic and social factors that permeate and impact it, for instance, technological progress influences the level of product development; world economic and financial conditions affect the organization's cost-cutting strategies; training and education provided to the labor force deter
mine the development of organizations.
It is desirable that the organization solves problems on its own. The organiza
tion needs updated information about the changing factors that impact it and it needs to cultivate the people who belong to the organization to solve these prob
lems in a timely and effective manner.
Assuming their basic physical and security needs are being met, most people in organizations want self-development and self-realization (Alderfer, 1972;
Maslow, 1943). They want to know what is going on inside the organization to which they belong. They want to challenge their organizational problems. They develop on their own through their behavior in the organization and then choose a new organizational problem to solve. Self-organizing behavior focuses on solv
ing problems originating both inside and outside the organization.
The process of organizational design can occur as a result of self-organizing change. Macroergonomics may be a special case of self-organizing design—
organizational design that results from people working to solve the organization's hardware and software problems. People are able to design their organizations according to their desires and the challenging spirit and self-fulfillment that re
sults from this activity.
In the same way, total quality control (TQC) and company-wide quality con
trol (CWQC) can build a total quality assurance system. It can be said confidently that TQC is one way to manage the organization and guide it in the desired direc
tion. TQC emphasizes a "market-in" philosophy to produce a quality control system. Market-in need, which reflects the customers' desires, is changeable.
Accordingly, TQC must adjust to the changing direction of the customer's desire and satisfaction. Therefore, an ideal TQC structure should be a self-organizing work system design. My colleagues and I simulated the organizational character
istics of TQC through our augmented "garbage can model" (Cohen, March &
Olson, 1972; Nagamachi, Kaneda & Matsubara, 1993) and discovered that both organizational performance and people's satisfaction reached to an optimal level through self-organizing behavior.
A good example of an adaptive self-organizing work system is provided by the Suntory Whisky Corporation. When Suntory decided to build its Hiroshima plant as a base for delivering its product in western Japan, the company esti
mated that the number of employees needed to operate this plant would be about 54. However, the plant manager estimated the number of persons needed to be 72. The plant opened with 54 employees. To meet the company's personnel requirements, the plant manager started educating and training his subordinates to strengthen their ability and, thus, increase their flexibility to accomplish the work with only 54 people. He also introduced quality circle activities based on a job design model (Nagamachi, 1973a, 1987) to enrich the employees' abilities
and to expand their jobs. The quality circles discussed ways to eliminate waste
ful tasks and ways to enrich their jobs to perform a larger number of tasks using a smaller number of people. In addition to this, the increased societal demand for
6. JOB DESIGN. MACRQERGONOMICS, AND PRODUCTIVITY 125 whisky emphasized the importance of productive activity. The quality circle members solved their problems by having each worker assume several responsi
ble roles and move to the different places as needed. They discussed ways to set
tle each person's multiple roles and train themselves for improving productivity in their multiple roles.
Figure 6.9 shows the change in the organizational structure of the Hiroshima plant after the self-organizing design. The chart on the left shows the original structure; the one on the right illustrates the changed structure. For instance, an electrical engineer was responsible for the maintenance of all electric equipment and systems; but now he had multiple roles, including financial, computer soft
ware, automated equipment development, and sensory test jobs. There were no distinctions between staff and workers. Each person chose the tasks that he or she felt able to do with personal motivation. Therefore, an ordinary map showing an organizational hierarchy was not applicable. The Hiroshima plant's organiza
tional structure is complicated, as shown on the right side of Fig. 6.9.
As a result of the redesign of the work system, the original 54 employees eventually decreased to 19; but whisky production doubled. The employees were satisfied and fulfilled with the redesigned organization. I have labeled Suntory's work system an "amoeba-type organization," which implies an autonomous prob- lem-solving group and a self-organization with the collective ability to solve prob
lems originating from both inside and outside the firm. As noted in Chapter 3, this amoeba-type of organizational design is also called a "free form" design. The concept and activity of amoeba-type organizations has spread to all Suntory plants. As a result, these plants have achieved higher efficiency, productivity, and personnel savings, as well as increased employee satisfaction.
FIG. 6.9. Comparison of former and new organizational struc
tures of Suntory Hiroshima plant.