Question

Explain Autonomy (Task, Time, Team, and Technique) that you have at your present job. What would you change?

Based on book, Drive by Daniel Pink (but don't need book to answer Q) -

Read below or explanation and definitions

" Pink argues that for a person to be motivated completely, he or she must have autonomy over four things in his or her work environment: Task, Time, Technique, and Team. without reinventing the wheel, allow me to explain (you should read the book for full details).

Task - If I give a teacher a task and set parameters, he or she will seek to do the task and probably will do it well. If I give a teacher autonomy over the task and I get out of the way, he or she not only will do it well, but also will invest more time, energy and creativity in the task because with autonomy comes ownership. Besides, the parameters I would set probably would be determined by the limits of my own knowledge and experience.

Time - If I require a task to be completed by a particular date and time, practically none of my teachers would take issue with it. If I give a detailed timeline including checkpoints, some teachers likely will work only in the small increments required to complete the task. However, if I assign a task and a deadline and give a teacher autonomy over his or her time, that teacher is far more likely to invest a great deal of time in the task (especially if I have granted autonomy over the task). Do I care if the teacher works in erratic chunks of time including marathon sessions as the deadline approaches? As long as the deadline is met, I absolutely do not. Some of my best work has been generated that way. This is a concept that is causing fits for many baby-boomer leaders and managers who have been brought up and trained to work by a schedule, put in x amount of hours each day, etc.

Technique - If I simply empower teachers to teach a particular way, I am short-changing them and their students. However, if I can give my teachers autonomy over their technique, their pedagogy, I am setting them free to explore new and better ways of teaching, to seek creative new ways of doing the same old thing. By granting autonomy over technique, I will be tapping into what really motivates human beings to excel.

Team - While I can't completely turn teachers loose to choose their own teams in all aspects of daily life at school, I can find some ways to grant teachers autonomy over some of their team assignments. Grade levels and departments obviously must be determined by a division head or director. However, committees, duty rotations, football game gate workers, and more, could be chosen by the team members themselves. After all, who knows better than the team members which teachers will work best together and be most productive?

I hear the cynics now... "Yes, but, you are giving your employees way too much credit." To the cynics, Dan Pink and I both would say two things. First, we are looking for and expecting the best from those who work with us. Second, to grant autonomy to those who work with us, i.e. teachers, certainly requires a higher order of faculty. How do we achieve that higher order faculty? That's a conversation for another day but the short answer is better training of the teachers we have and better hiring to replace those who leave us."

Answer 1

Job Autonomy:

Task: Usually job descriptions include only the basic functions of work. Its broad scope makes it possible to use discretion to carry out your duties. The less comprehensive job description is, the more likely you are to have discretion or power over your roles and duties. I am responsible for sales of the room at a hotel. I have to follow a very strict procedure for managing relationship with clients. If given a chance, I would give every salesperson the liberty to handle the clients their way leading to more innovation and timely collection of money.

Time: Sound judgment and flexibility are essential features for autonomous employees. Your decision-making ability is based on an impartial assessment to decide how and how you conduct your tasks. Your organizational and time leadership skills are based on your job freedom. Autonomy gives you the opportunity to set your own time limits or to decide which deadlines are most important to your competition at least. I currently have to follow a strict timeline for sending bills and following up for monkey. If given a chance to work on my own schedule, I would be able to focus more on my work rather than following the procedure for invoice sending and collection of money.

Technique: Working beyond your role is an instance of job independence. You are unable to perform tasks outside of your job description with a given list of tasks unless your boss provides additional work. Autonomy, however, is the freedom to decide if the assigned tasks will gain from the peripheral or related role you perform, without having to get a boss or an expert's permission or consent. Increasing the workload is directly linked to task autonomy. Currently, we have no autonomy above our current role. We can not advise our operation staff to follow a particular rule for receiving guests even if it is better compared to currently what they are following. By letting us give our suggestion and arranging an interdepartmental meeting for discussion regarding the operational issue and ways to improve it, my company can surely increase its customer satisfaction.

Authority: Authority is far from autonomous. The authority usually refers to your organizational status or position regarding the roles of your colleagues, supervisors, and managers. You may assign duties and obligations to other staff on the basis of your experience, tenure or role. Unit managers and supervisors are professional and so are other workers who are regarded as experts in their area. On the other hand, autonomy focuses more on the individual— in fact it controls itself— because it does not usually affect your coworkers ' ability to choose how you do your work. Currently only designated salespeople are allowed to handle particular clients. Even if you bring the account, then also only a particular departmental sales team will handle the account. Allowing to handle everyone's account would surely make every salesperson more productive.