The review of the main job design approaches (JCM in particular) has led to the conclusion that development in job design theory has not kept pace with the changes that have occurred in the organisational landscape. The JCM was developed principally from studies conducted during the 1950s of male shop floor in large scale industrial manufacturing plants. Work context and the workforce itself have changed dramatically since that time. The developments of technology have had a huge impact on the way in which work is conducted (Zijlstra et al, 1996; Gottfredson, 1997). While this change is widely recognised, the JCM remains the dominant influence in job design research and is yet to be superseded. In addition, little is known about the effect of such change in perception of the work psychosocial variables or people's reaction towards these developments. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore employees' opinion and reaction towards workplace developments in order to identify the critical job characteristics in contemporary jobs from the employee's perspective. The proposal was that allowing employees to decide what they like/dislike in their jobs would help in identifying the critical job characteristics in modem workplace. This was also expected to help in solving the narrow focus of the existing job design approaches' especially the lack of job contextual factors (e.g. social contact, work-life balance) that enhance employee' wellbeing and work performance. In light of this, three studies were conducted: the first two studies were designed to identify the critical job characteristics in the current workplace from the employee's perspective. By conducting a pilot study using qualitative techniques (interviews and content analysis) followed by a confirmatory study using quantitative techniques (checklist and factor analysis), 10 job characteristics were identified which were considered the critical dimensions for diagnosing the quality of modem jobs. Four of these characteristics were responsible for 'job content' design (intellectually challenging tasks, control, feedback, and training adequacy). The rest of the characteristics were factors responsible for 'job context' design (i.e. supportive supervision, supportive co-workers climate, work-life balance, financial rewards, recognition and physical environment). The third study was the formulation and empirical evaluation of a model for job redesign. The model was based partly on the critical job characteristics identified earlier and partly informed by psychological knowledge of job design and organisational behaviour research. Overall, each of the aims of the present research were achieved and some of the existing criticisms of job design approaches were addressed. The model dimensions attained significant results that were extracted from data collected from 667 employees working in various British organisations. A general conclusion that can be drawn from the present research is that job design is no longer a matter of job content (task) design (the tangible feature of the job itself such as control and feedback); it is also a matter of job context design (the features of the work environment where the tasks are delivered such as supervisors' practices and work-life balance). Both aspects were found to influence work performance and employees' wellbeing via cognitive and motivational mechanisms. The present research challenges the popular belief of the inapplicability of redesigning job context factors (e.g. the social aspect of the job) and provides initial recommendations for job context redesign interventions.

Orientador : Profª. Drª. Natália Rese / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Administração. Defesa: Curitiba, 11/02/2016 / Inclui referências : f.204-211 / Área de concentração: Estratégia e análise organizacional / Resumo: Esta pesquisa objetiva analisar como as Lógicas Institucionais (IL) orientam a construção da identidade profissional policial-militar, por meio da realização de estudo de caso na Polícia Militar do Paraná (PMPR). As IL podem ser compreendidas por seus elementos práticos, de identidade, objetos e de valor (FRIEDLAND et al, 2014). Para isso foram utilizadas as perspectivas do Identity Work (WATSON, 2008), práticas sociais (GIDDENS, 2003) e Sensemaking (WEICK, 1995) como apoio para analisar este fenômeno. Trata-se de estudo de caso qualitativo (STAKE, 2009), que adota entrevistas narrativas com indivíduos pertences à PMPR e análise de conteúdo de documentos do Comando-Geral da PMPR, utilizando o do software Atlas.ti, para codificação e categorização (AGUIAR; OZELLA, 2013). A análise das entrevistas permitiu a construção de uma narrativa genérica, que contém os elementos coletados nas estratégias de pesquisas mencionadas, permitindo essa análise conjunta alcançar o objetivo. Conclui-se que as IL orientam a construção da identidade profissional dos sujeitos por uma orientação do Institucional Substance corporificado em práticas, atributos de identidade e objetos; foi ainda identificado que o Sensemaking pode ser um dos responsáveis por articular os níveis e que as organizações podem atuar como Sensegivers de tal processo, mesmo sendo orientadas pelas IL nas quais se encontram imersas. / Abstract: This research aims to analyze how the Institutional Logics (IL) guide the construction of police-military professional identity by conducting a case study in the Military Police of Paraná (PMPR). IL can be understood by its practical elements, identity, objects and value (Friedland et al, 2014). To reach that, it was used the perspectives of Identity Work (WATSON, 2008), social practices (Giddens, 2003) and Sensemaking (Weick, 1995) as support to analyze this phenomenon. This research is also a qualitative case study (Stake, 2009), which adopts narrative interviews with individuals belongings to PMPR and content analysis of the General Command of the PMPR documents, using the Atlas.ti software for coding and categorization (AGUIAR; OZELLA, 2013). The analysis of the narrative interviews allowed the construction of a narrative of a generic individual, which contains the elements collected in the mentioned research strategies, allowing such a joint analysis to achieve the goal. It was concluded that IL guide the construction of professional identity of the persons by an orientation of the Institutional Substance embodied in practice identity and object attributes; It was also identified that Sensemaking can be responsible for articulating levels and organizations can also act as Sensegivers of the process, even being driven by IL in which they are immersed.

Οι επιχειρήσεις λειτουργούν και αναπτύσσονται σε ένα περιβάλλον που συνεχώς εξελίσσεται και αλλάζει και όπως είναι φυσικό οφείλουν να προσαρμόζονται στα νέα δεδομένα. Το προσωπικό των επιχειρήσεων αποτελεί ένα σημαντικό παράγοντα για την επιβίωση, την εξέλιξη και γενικά την καλή λειτουργία των επιχειρήσεων. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία πραγματεύεται το πρόβλημα της επιλογής και αξιολόγησης του προσωπικού μιας επιχείρησης. Πρέπει να αναφέρουμε ότι είναι δύο ξεχωριστά προβλήματα που έχουμε να αντιμετωπίσουμε, η επιλογή και η αξιολόγηση, χωρίς αυτό να σημαίνει ότι δεν συνδέονται ή ότι δεν μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν παρόμοια εργαλεία επίλυσης. Έχουν προταθεί αρκετά μαθηματικά υποδείγματα για την επίλυση αυτού του προβλήματος. Τα μαθηματικά υποδείγματα που χρησιμοποιούνται για την επίλυση αυτών των προβλημάτων σκοπό έχουν να βοηθήσουν τους αποφασίζοντες να πάρουν ορθότερες αποφάσεις. Με τη χρήση μαθηματικών μεθοδολογιών για την επιλογή και αξιολόγηση του προσωπικού, επιτυγχάνεται μεγαλύτερη αντικειμενικότητα καθώς και η τυποποίηση της διαδικασίας. Μία τέτοια μεθοδολογία είναι και η TOPSIS, μια από τις πρώτες που παρουσιάστηκε στη βιβλιογραφία. Είναι μια εύκολα εφαρμόσιμη μέθοδος και με αξιόπιστα αποτελέσματα. / Organizations function and grow in an environment that is constantly developing and changing, so they have to adjust with the new data. The personnel has a crucial role for the survival, the evolution and generally the good function of every organization. This dissertation is about the problem of selection and evaluation an organization's personnel. Many mathematical patterns have been proposed for the solution of this problem. We will discuss some of them with details in this dissertation. At this point, we must mention that selection and evaluation process are two different problems that we have to face. This does not mean that they do not connect or that we can not solve both with the same tools. Certainly, the first step is the choice of an employee and the second is the evaluation. Choosing the right employee for the right job is a very difficult problem and that because is hard to judge objectively the candidates΄ personalities. Also, it is difficult to decide about the criteria, based on which the choice will be maid. For example, the experience or the knowledge is more important for a certain job, and how that’s can be represent with numbers or functions at a mathematical pattern. Organizations have to ensure that they made the right choice of a new employee and afterwards they have to measure the efficiency of the other employees. In the first step, we try to predict the future working behavior of a new employee, as well as in the second to describe the working behavior of the employees that already working in an organization.