Job design techniques and employee performance: an investigation on the management service employees of the divisional secretariat in Ampara district, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Purpose: This research aimed to explore the relationship between job design techniques and employee performance among management service officers working in divisional secretariats in the Ampara district of Sri Lanka. Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 217 was drawn from twenty Divisional secretariats in Ampara District. This study used the survey method. A standardized job design questionnaire (Munyiri, 2018) and a self-administered questionnaire was distributed among the respondents to collect the data using a random sampling method. The data that was gathered was presented in graphs and tables to explain the pattern of responses. Popular statistical SPSS version 26 package was used to analyze the data. Results obtained from descriptive, correlations and regression analyses were used for interpretations. Findings: This study has shown that job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment, and job simplification have an impact on employee performance. The results showed that there is a strong positive correlation (r= 0.803), (r= 0.809), (r= 0.854) between job rotation, job enrichment, and job simplification with employee performance respectively. Also, the results showed that there is a negative correlation (r= -0.499), between job enlargement and employees’ performance. Practical implications: This research has shown that the management service officers who work in the divisional secretariats in Ampara District are aware that their job design and job design techniques impact their performance. This finding will be useful for employees in choosing the most appropriate job design techniques to increase the level of employee performance. Originality value: This study reveals that job design techniques are important to the management service officers to increase performance which increases the efficient service for the public sector.