Bagby Copy Company

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Bagby Copy Company has to decide how to assign tasks in the company - specialized or broad task assignment. Broad task assignment is assigning multiple tasks to the employee. Specialized task assignment is assigning few or on task that are in one functional specialty. Both task assignments are offering benefits and costs. Choosing to use specialty task assignment the specialization will be maximized and lower the cross-training costs. That is allowing the company to match employees with jobs considering their skills and training. Employee will be limited to performing one function and are not flexible to perform other task and fill the gaps when need it. That also mean the company has to hire more staff depending on the productivity rate and production technology. In specialized task assignment we observe functional myopia, meaning workers are concentrated on the function they perform instead of the whole process. Specialized task assignment requires greater coordination and complementarities across tasks are forgone. (Brickley, Smith & Zimmerman, 2009, p. 396) On the other side is broad task assignment that offers flexibility and the company gain workforce as employees are trained to perform various tasks. There is no need of hiring new personnel; the available employees can rotate tasks depending on the production needs. Trade-off in this case is the cross-training cost. Every employee has to be trained to perform various tasks. Using broad task assignment may lower the quality of the products and company is losing specialist workers. In making decision which forms of task assignment to adapt, Bagby Copy Company has to consider the incentive issues. In specialized task assignment employees’ evaluation and reward is done based on how hard is he or she working. In broad task assignment more complex evaluation and rewarding systems are needed. Company is concerned
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