Peoples Express Airlines Case Study

Peoples Express Airlines: Rise and Decline

1. What approach to Job Design did Burr most likely utilize when he set out to create this airline?

Clearly, Donald Burr used motivational job design approach to create positions in People Express Airlines. The job characteristics of the motivational job design are structured to have a psychological meaning to a person and results in high motivation. The foundation of this approach is to create a position that is meaningful to an employee through job enlargement and enrichment. The theory behind this job design states that a person will be highly motivated at work if the performed duty addresses three psychological states of experienced meaningfulness, responsibility and knowledge of results. In order to achieve that in a position, the following 5 parts of the Job Characteristics Model must be reflected in the job design: Autonomy, Task Significance, Task Variety, Feedback and Satisfaction.

Burr’s unique approach to the job design was focused on the development of his people and clearly reflected parts of the Job Characteristic Model listed above.

1. Autonomy: Employees in People Express Airlines had extensive responsibility. Every employee had a manager title and had a freedom to make decisions. Burr was very big on self-management and made sure that different layers of employees were involved in the decisions across the company.

2. Task significance: Employees were also responsible for setting up their own objectives and monitoring and assessing their own performance. Additionally, every employee in the airline performed multiple duties through cross-utilization.

3. Task Variety: Burr’s rotational program ensured that every person was involved in every step of the airline operations from the front office to the back office. This approach ensured that employees were not doing the same work and had the potential for development.

4. Feedback: Roles in People Express were individualistic and team...