| dc.description.abstract | There is a great need to develop operational technical staff. The manufacturing industry is changing rapidly under the influence of technology. The consequence of this change is that the work of the technical employees becomes more complex and requires more complex skills off the employee working with this new technology. These skills might be developed according to Parker (2014) by adapting the work design in a way that it continuously stimulates the employee to learn, i.e. a smart job (Douglas, Hall & Heras, 2010). The purpose of this study is therefore to look at which elements of work design contribute, according to technical staff, to transforming their job towards this smart job. And to see how these elements can be combined to create a smart job.
The base of this study is the work design model (WDQ) which originally links the way work is designed to the motivation of employees. According to Parker (2014) this model can be enriched to link the way work is designed, to learning of new skills. In order to do so people need control and autonomy in their work, complex tasks, the support of colleagues, the support and challenge of their supervisor, and an organisation that has a positive attitude towards learning. This combination should result in an informal and adaptive way of continuous learning.
In order answer the research questions, data is collected by the use of narrative and semi-structured interviews with 7 operational employees working at various manufacturing companies in eastern and middle part of the Netherlands. Further 3 solar team employees have been interviewed. And third the secondary data of 11 interviews with supervisors on company learning has been analysed. Based on their experiences the crucial elements linking work design with learning have been determined.
The results show that work has to have complex but complete tasks in which people are challenged to come up with solutions. Further they need to have the space and time to experiment and learn from the mistakes they make. Next these task related elements, show the results that the social elements are important. The smart job has to have a high level of social support available from colleges and supervisors who can help and challenge the employee too complete the complex tasks. At last an organisation has to have a positive attitude towards learning.
A few recommendations have been made for the research group based on these results. The first recommendation focusses on the new research line on smart working. The second recommendation focuses on the role the research group can take in helping technical companies. The final recommendation is aimed at the technical sector that wants to work with smart jobs and the way in which this could be done. | |
