User Experience Quarter

Work Setup Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is the first of four lectures of Operations Quadrivium (hereinafter, the Quadrivium):

• The Quarter is designed to introduce its learners to enterprise discovery, or, in other words, to concepts related to obtaining data needed to administer the enterprise effort; and
• The Quadrivium examines concepts of administering various types of enterprises known as enterprise administration as a whole.

The Quadrivium is the first of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi, which is a course designed to introduce its learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Outline

The predecessor lecture is Stakeholder Engagement Quarter.

Concepts

• Open workplace. Workplace with few physical barriers and enclosures.
• Staff authority. Positions with some authority that have been created to support, assist, and advise those holding line authority.
• Task conflict. Conflict over content and goals of the work.
• Task conflict. A conflict over content and goals of the work.
• Telecommuting. Working remotely at least 2 days a week on a computer that is linked to the employer office.
• Workforce diversity. The concept that organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics.
• Workforce diversity. The ways in which people in an organization are different from and similar to one another.
• Work specialization. Dividing work activities into separate job tasks.
• Work specialization. The degree to which tasks in an organization are subdivided into separate jobs.
• Autonomy. The degree to which a job provides substantial freedom and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.
• Autonomy. The degree to which a job provides substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling work and determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.
• Cross-functional team. A work team composed of individuals from various functional specialties.
• Cross-functional team. A work team composed of individuals from various functional specialties.
• Cross-functional team. A work team of employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task.
• Compressed workweek. A workweek where employees work longer hours per day but fewer days per week.
• Downsizing. The planned elimination of jobs in an organization.
• Affirmative action. Organizational programs that enhance the status of members of protected groups.
• Decentralization. The degree to which lower-level employees provide input or actually make decisions.
• Centralization. The degree to which decision making is concentrated at upper levels of the organization.
• Centralization. The degree to which decision making is concentrated at a single point in an organization.
• Employee empowerment. Giving employees more authority (power) to make decisions.
• Chain of command. The line of authority extending from upper organizational levels to the lowest levels, which clarifies who reports to whom.
• Chain of command. The unbroken line of authority that extends from the top of the organization to the lowest echelon and clarifies who reports to whom.
• Formalization. How standardized an organization's jobs are and the extent to which employee behavior is guided by rules and procedures.
• Formalization. The degree to which jobs within an organization are standardized.
• High-involvement work practice. Work practice designed to elicit greater input or involvement from workers.
• High-performance work practice. Work practice that leads to both high individual and high organizational performance.
• Human resource planning. Ensuring that the organization has the right number and kinds of capable people in the right places and at the right times.
• Interpersonal justice. The degree to which employees are treated with dignity and respect.
• Job analysis. An assessment that defines jobs and the behaviors necessary to perform them.
• Job characteristics model. A framework for analyzing and designing jobs that identifies five primary core job dimensions, their interrelationships, and their impact on outcomes.
• Job characteristics model. A model that proposes that any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback.
• Job depth. The degree of control employees have over their work.
• Job description. A written statement that describes a job.
• Job design. The way tasks are combined to form complete jobs.
• Job design. The way the elements in a job are organized.
• Job engagement. The investment of an employee's physical, cognitive, and emotional energies into job performance.
• Job enlargement. The horizontal expansion of a job by increasing job scope.
• Job enrichment. The vertical expansion of a job by adding planning and evaluating responsibilities.
• Job involvement. The degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively participates in it, and considers performance important to self-worth.
• Job involvement. The degree to which an employee identifies with her or his job, actively participates in it, and considers her or his job performance to be important self-worth.
• Job rotation. The periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another.
• Job score. The number of different tasks required in a job and the frequency with which those tasks are repeated.
• Job sharing. An arrangement that allows two or more individuals to split a traditional 40-hour-a-week job.
• Job sharing. The practice of having two or more people split a full-time job.
• Job specification. A written statement of the minimum qualifications a person must possess to perform a given job successfully.
• Labor union. An organization that represents workers and seeks to protect their interests through collective bargaining.
• Line authority. Authority that entitles a manager to direct the work of an employee.
• Mental model. Team members' knowledge and beliefs about how the work gets done by the team.
• Mentoring. A process whereby an experienced organizational member (a mentor) provides advice and guidance to a less experiences member (a protégé).
• Multiteam system. A collection of two or more interdependent teams that share a superordinate goal; a team of teams.
• Participative management. A process in which subordinates share a significant degree of decision-making power with their immediate superiors.
• Personality-job fit theory. A theory that identifies six personality types and proposes that the fit between personality type and occupational environment determines satisfaction and turnover.
• Person-organization fit. A theory that people are attracted to and selected by organizations that match their values, and leave when there is not compatibility.
• Problem-solving team. A work team of 5 to 12 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work environment.
• Problem-solving team. A work team from the same department of functional area that's involved in efforts to improve work activities or solve specific problems.
• Proactive perspective of work design. An approach to job design in which employees take the initiative to change how their work is performed.
• Reflexivity. A team characteristic of reflecting on and adjusting the master plan when necessary.
• Self-managed work team. A work team of 10 to 15 people who take on responsibilities of their former supervisors.
• Self-managed work team. A type of work team that operates without a manager and is responsible for a complete work process or segment.
• Virtual team. A work team that use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal.
• Virtual team. A type of work team that uses technology to link physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal.
• Relational job design. Constructing jobs so employees see the positive difference they can make in the lives of others directly through their network.
• Relational perspective of work design. An approach to job design that focuses on how people's tasks and jobs are increasingly based on social relationships.
• Responsibility. The obligation of expectation to perform any assigned duties.
• Skill-based pay. A pay system that rewards employees for the job skills they can demonstrate.
• Variable pay. A pay system in which an individual's compensation is contingent on performance.
• Variable-pay program. A pay plan that bases a portion of an employee's pay on some individual and/or organizational measure of performance.
• Merit-based pay plan. A pay plan based on performance appraisal ratings.
• Pay-for-performance program. Variable compensation plans that pay employees on the basis of some performance measure.
• Piece-rate pay plan. A pay plan in which workers are paid a fixed sum for each unit of production completed.
• Work team. A group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs.
• Work team. A group whose members work intensely on a specific, common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills.

Roles

1. Mentor. A senior employee who sponsors and supports a less-experienced employee, called a protégé.
2. Board representative. An employee who sits on a company's board of directors and represents the interests of the firm's employees.
3. Contingent worker. A temporary, freelance, or contract worker whose employment is contingent on demand for her or his services.

Practices

The successor lecture is Leadership Quarter.