Temporal aspects of job structure as a function of organizational hierarchy

Time structure of a job is affected by the length and frequency of its constituting tasks. It is probably one of the major variables in the subjective perception of variety of jobs. This paper defines an index called Non-Repetitive Cycle Time (NRCT) which can be used as an indicator of the temporal pattern of the job. Investigation of the value of NRCT for jobs in two organizations confirmed the hypothesis that NRCT is positively correlated with the job level in the organizational hierarchy. This index can be used by job designers in estimating the temporal impact of assigning tasks to jobs.