ABSTRACT
HR managers routinely analyse and are involved in designing how work is done. This relates to work analysis and work design. Work analysis is important for recruitment and selection, performance management, rewarding people and developing organisational learning. Work design involves four basic instruments: designing work so that it is motivational; so that work is efficient; so that work fits human beings (ergonomics); and so that it does not overload the mental capacity of people. But historical changes in work also brought changes in control, moving from simple control to technical and later to bureaucratic control. Eventually new forms of work such as, for example, knowledge and emotional work, entered the workplace. The future of work may move towards three different types of work: some jobs will be analytical; others will remain routine production jobs; while one of the biggest growths is predicted in the area of in-person jobs.
