Based on the breadth of tasks fulfilled by genealogists at Ancestry described in the article, which alternative to job specialization has likely been used in job design to overcome the problems associated with overly specialized jobs? a. Work teams b. Job enlargement c. Job enrichment d. Job rotation In your recommendations to Ancestry, you suggest the company seek to enrich the jobs of the genealogists. Which of the following suggestions would result in job enrichment? a. Genealogists like Crista could determine for themselves when the ancestral trail warranted the acquisition of additional data from external sources. b. The genealogist staff could be divided into those who focus on digital records and those who deal with traditional records. c. The genealogists with the best performance could be awarded the opportunity to work on the more interesting family histories. d. The genealogists could learn to analyze and enter data in one unified step. To align the jobs at Ancestry with the company’s strategy, you’ve decided that the genealogist job should be redesigned. You’ve also determined that taking the job characteristics approach to job design will yield the best results. Which step will you take to ensure that the employees feel their jobs are enriching? a. Give the genealogists feedback on their performance at the end of each project. b. Communicate the importance of the tasks performed to increase task significance. c. Publicize which genealogists were involved in which completed historical projects, so that the employees feel they identify with the total job. d. Increase each employee
Researching your family history has become easier than ever thanks to companies like Ancestry, but to develop detailed family trees, human labor is still required. In fact, Ancestry employs more than 1,000 employees. In addition to employees focused on software, data storage, and data science, the work of the organization also requires content acquisition and management, indexing, analyzing, and transcribing historical records, digitizing documents, sourcing information, entering data into the software, analyzing DNA results, assessing validity of tests, educating clients on genealogy, and communications like the development of tutorials.
Consider, for instance, Crista Cowan, a professional genealogist at Ancestry.com. She said, “As a genealogist, I spend the majority of my time researching, both online and offline in libraries, archives and courthouses that hold documents yet to be digitized and placed online. I also spend time analyzing and transcribing records and crafting source citations. Numerous hours also go into resolving conflicting evidence, writing up conclusions and entering data into the family tree software, which naturally leads to further research. . . . Additional hours are spent in analyzing DNA results and working with matches to determine the validity of the research paper trail and helping people to locate biological family members.”
The field of genealogists is both broad and deep. Professional genealogists tend to specialize in specific geographic areas, time periods, and/or types of research. Crista explained, “My specialties are Jewish immigration into the United States, autosomal DNA match analysis for identifying biological family, and descendancy research (working down the tree identifying descendants of a particular ancestor as opposed to working up the tree identifying ancestors of a particular individual). I have colleagues who specialize ... in Native American research or colonial U.S. research.”
Based on the breadth of tasks fulfilled by genealogists at Ancestry described in the article, which alternative to job specialization has likely been used in job design to overcome the problems associated with overly specialized jobs?
a. Work teams
b. Job enlargement
c. Job enrichment
d. Job rotation
In your recommendations to Ancestry, you suggest the company seek to enrich the jobs of the genealogists. Which of the following suggestions would result in job enrichment?
a. Genealogists like Crista could determine for themselves when the ancestral trail warranted the acquisition of additional data from external sources.
b. The genealogist staff could be divided into those who focus on digital records and those who deal with traditional records.
c. The genealogists with the best performance could be awarded the opportunity to work on the more interesting family histories.
d. The genealogists could learn to analyze and enter data in one unified step.
To align the jobs at Ancestry with the company’s strategy, you’ve decided that the genealogist job should be redesigned. You’ve also determined that taking the job characteristics approach to job design will yield the best results.
Which step will you take to ensure that the employees feel their jobs are enriching?
a. Give the genealogists feedback on their performance at the end of each project.
b. Communicate the importance of the tasks performed to increase task significance.
c. Publicize which genealogists were involved in which completed historical projects, so that the employees feel they identify with the total job.
d. Increase each employee’s autonomy, so that they feel they have more control over how the work is performed.
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