4.7 Key Terms

Autonomy is the degree to which a person has the freedom to decide how to perform his or her tasks. (4.4)

Compressed work week An employee’s work week is shortened by the number of days worked per week, and maintains the same hours. (4.6)

Ergonomics is defined by the Government of Canada as “the science of matching the job to the worker and the product to the user”. (4.5)

Feedback refers to the degree to which people learn how effective they are being at work. (4.4)

Flex time allows employees to choose when they will start their work day, and when it will end. (4.6)

Industrial engineering is a process that reduces the complexity of the work, making it so simple that almost anyone can be trained quickly and easily to perform the job. (4.5)

Job is a paid position to complete a task or a piece of work. (4.1)

Job Analysis is a systematic process used to identify and determine, in detail, the particular job duties and requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job. (4.2)

Job description is a document that includes job tasks and duties. (4.3)

Job design pertains to the specification of contents, methods and relationship of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the social and personal requirements of the job holder. (4.4)

Job enlargement is a job design approach in which the scope of a job is increased through extending and enhancing the range of its job duties and responsibilities. (4.5)

Job enrichment is a job design approach aimed at making work more interesting and challenging for the employees. (4.5)

Job family is when similar positions are grouped together. (4.1)

Position is paid and is a group of responsibilities assigned to one person, and this person has specific duties. (4.1)

Skill Variety refers to the extent to which the job requires a person to utilize multiple skills. (4.4)

Task Identity refers to the degree to which a person is in charge of completing an identifiable piece of work from start to finish. (4.4)

Task Significance refers to whether a person’s job substantially affects other people’s work, health, or well-being. (4.4)

Telecommuting is working from home. (4.6)

Teamwork involves a set of tasks and activities performed by individuals who collaborate with each other to achieve a common objective. (4.6)

The National Occupation Classification (NOC) Code provides a standardized nomenclature for describing the work performed by Canadians. (4.3)