Job enrichment

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Job enrichment is an attempt to motivate employees by giving them the opportunity to

use the range of their abilities. It is an idea that was developed by the American
psychologist Frederick Hertzberg in the 1950s. It can be contrasted to job enlargement
which simply increases the number of tasks without changing the challenge. As such job
enrichment has been described as 'vertical loading' of a job, while job enlargement is
'horizontal loading'. An enriched job should ideally contain:

• A range of tasks and challenges of varying difficulties (Physical or Mental)

• A complete unit of work - a meaningful task

• Feedback, encouragement and communication

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Techniques
• 2 Literature
• 3 References

• 4 See also

[edit] Techniques
Job enrichment, as a managerial activity includes a three steps technique:[citation needed]

1. Turn employees' effort into performance:

• Ensuring that objectives are well-defined and understood by everyone. The

overall corporate mission statement should be communicated to all. Individual's
goals should also be clear. Each employee should know exactly how he/she fits
into the overall process and be aware of how important their contributions are to
the organization and its customers.
• Providing adequate resources for each employee to perform well. This includes
support functions like information technology, communication technology, and
personnel training and development.
 • Creating a supportive corporate culture. This includes peer support networks,
supportive management, and removing elements that foster mistrust and
politicking.
• Free flow of information. Eliminate secrecy.
• Provide enough freedom to facilitate job excellence. Encourage and reward
employee initiative. Flextime or compressed hours could be offered.
• Provide adequate recognition, appreciation, and other motivators.
• Provide skill improvement opportunities. This could include paid education at
universities or on the job training.
• Provide job variety. This can be done by job sharing or job rotation programmes.
• It may be necessary to re-engineer the job process. This could involve redesigning
the physical facility, redesign processes, change technologies, simplification of
procedures, elimination of repetitiveness, redesigning authority structures.

2. Link employees performance directly to reward:[citation needed]

• Clear definition of the reward is a must

• Explanation of the link between performance and reward is important
• Make sure the employee gets the right reward if performs well
• If reward is not given, explanation is needed

3. Make sure the employee wants the reward. How to find out?[citation needed]

• Ask them
• Use surveys( checklist, listing, questions)

Job enrichment is the process of enhancing job satisfaction and fulfillment by reforming
the roles and duties that an employee carries out on a day to day basis. Too many
employees are trapped in unrewarding and monotonous jobs that offer little or no
professional satisfaction. It is particularly common among primary and secondary
occupations that involve the repetition of tasks and little or no responsibility. The absence
of job fulfillment and consequently enrichment, can often lead to anxiety and
unhappiness among the workforce which ultimately affects employee performance. There
are a number of helpful ways that can contribute to job enrichment among the workforce
that will ultimately boost your output however it is important to consider the following:

Existing working conditions for staff

Procedures for employee appraisal

What is already expected of the each staff member

The role played by management and supervisory staff

Job Design
There are five features of job design that are linked to employment enrichment among
staff and if applied successfully, will contribute to their overall happiness and personal
development:

Skill Variety

Task Identity

Task Significance

Independence and self-sufficiency

Feedback

Skill variety supports the increase of skills and expertise staff should employ during their
work. Task identity involves allowing an employee to undertake a particular task and
performing it from start to finish. This will give them a sense of achievement and enable
them to identify the duty as exclusively theirs. Task significance refers to a particular
duty that will have a direct impact on the business. Independence and self sufficiency
involve increasing the amount of decision making bestowed upon an employee whereas
feedback appreciates the importance of recognition following a job well done.

In essence, enhancing job design will increase job satisfaction and fulfilment to create a
contented and more productive workforce.

The following are some suggested strategies that can be employed to encourage increased
job enrichment and personal development.

Alternate Job
By enabling employees to rotate tasks throughout the business gives them a greater
awareness of the functions of the company. It will allow them to see different parts of the
company as well as diversifying their original duties. This strategy works particularly
well for jobs that involve the repetition of one of two skills.

Encourage Teamwork
Managers and supervisory staff who initiate teamwork are systematically improving the
job satisfaction of their employees. By appointing the final goal, all internal decision-
making and influence now rests in the hands of the team. This method is especially good
for businesses with a large hierarchy as it reduces the pressure placed on management
and allows staff to acquire management skills without formal training.

Combine Tasks
Following on from job rotation which offers a greater degree of skill variety, the merging
of differing work activities improves task identity. Task identity enables an employee to
witness the complete evolution of a product, from start to finish. The same principles are
espoused in the process of joining tasks. It must be remembered however, that the
implementation of this strategy may forfeit an increased level of productivity. Employees
who are unfamiliar with the new task may work at a slower pace at the beginning.

Delegation of power and responsibility

An employee's feeling of job enrichment can also come from the attainment of
responsibility through supervisor delegation. Placing an employee in charge of various
tasks and affording them accountability of certain responsibilities can improve job
satisfaction and fulfillment. It is crucial that the employee is made aware that such power
comes with responsibility.

Employee feedback
Employee feedback is potentially one of the most important aspects of employee
satisfaction. It is important that you deliver feedback on both good and poor employee
performances. A personal approach is always more appreciated than a bureaucratic one.
Employees are more likely to heed the advice from their manager whom they know and
respect as opposed to a supervisor from another department who was asked to carry out
the evaluation.

James Farrell has worked in the selling business for over thirty years and is an
acknowledged expert in sales, management and personal development

The goal of job enrichment is not merely to make the more varied but I the words of M.Scoot
myers research for taxes investment, which has been experimenting with the techniques is to
make every employee a manager ‘ . Thus the employee job is enriched will perform the
management function of manning and controlling so far as his work is concerned.

How to enrich a job

A job may be enriched by giving it Varity, and also may be enriched by :

1. Given worker more latitude in deciding about such things as work method, sequences and
pace or by letting them make decisions about accepting or rejecting materials :

2. Giving workers a felling of personal responsibility for their tasks.

3. Taking steps to make sure that people can see how their tasks contribute to a finished
products and the welfare of the enterprises.

4. Giving people feedback on their job performance preferable before their supervisors get in and

5. Involving workers in analysis and change of physical aspects of the worker environment such
as lay out of office or plant, temperature, lighting and cleanliness.

Thus in an enriched job the employee know the overall deadlines and the quality standard he
must meet and with in that frame work plans the order in which he will take the various task and
the time that should be devoted to each one. He holds himself responsible both or meeting the
deadline and for producing the work of necessary quality, and he does not pass his work on for
others to judge until he is satisfied that it meets the standards. Or if the work is necessarily group
work, the groups plan or help to check the result.
Job Enrichment in action

A number of companies have introduced programs of job enrichment in all these, companies
claims have been made that productivity was increased, that absenteeism and turnover reduced ,
and that moralo improved . A study conducted by the United States Department of Health
Education and welfare Published in 1973 reports that the primary course of dissatisfaction among
workers is the nature of their work. It also reported that managerial personnel react favorably after
jobs are enriched. How ever after analyzing a number of studies. Fein disclosed the following:

(a) University of Michigan survey research center in a large scale found that people ranked
interesting work first in importance. But when managers are removed from the sample. Fein
discovered that the worker ranked pay and job security higher than interesting.

(b) A company which claimed great success with the experiment was taxes instruments. But here
Fein found that only 10.5% workers were actively involved work.

(c) Fein cautions not to be carried away by the success in toptaka of primal foods as the point has
only 63 employees who were selected carefully. And in case of AT and T benefits accrued due to
simple redesigning of job.

(d) Fein also expressed the view that the presumption of workers demand for job enrichment is
not supported by labor leader saying that the union member have never asked them to negotiate
for it . More ever these programs have been initiated by manager and not by managed.

Despite Fein’s analysis and criticism it is difficult to believe that people do not want more
meaningful work. This must be true of managers and professionals and there can be some
demand from workers.

Limitations

But even the strongest supporters of job enrichment readily admit that three are limitations in its
application They can be analyzed in the following manner.

1. Technology: There are some jobs, which are highly technical requiring skill it would be difficult
to enrich such jobs. And with specialized machinery and assembly line techniques it may not be
possible to make every job meaningful.

2. Cost: Thought a great many companies appear to be interested in job enrichment programs,
the extra cost may seem high if a company is not convinced that the return will at least offset the
increase expenditure. General Motors tried six man and three man teams in the assembly line but
from that they found the work shoed and cost increased. At Saab & Volvo and motors India. It
was found that increase cost is compensated by reduced absenteeism and labour turnover. Yet
the cost of the programme is formidable factor.

3. Attitude of managers: Another problem is the tendency of top managers and personal
specialist to apply their own scale people’s personalities. As a result a few companies have
abandoned or modified their programs. M.Scott Myers belives that the failures have occurred
because the manager were not really committed to theory ‘Y’ and in most cases job enrichment is
usually imposed on people . They are told about it rather than consulted.

4. Attitude of Workers: The attitude of some employers also represent obstacles. Various surveys
of workers attitudes have shown that high percentages of workers attitude have shown that high
percentages of workers are not interesting jobs. Some have complained that enriched jobs
provide too many opportunities to commit mistakes. Some workers fears that the increased
productivity sought may even mean loss of jobs.
5. Reaction of union Leaders: There has been little or no support of job enrichment by union
Leaders. If job enrichment was so important to workers. It must have been translated in to united
demand but it has never happened . Instead Leonard woodcock the President of united
Automobile Worker has been quoted to have said about job enlargement that “a” lot academic
writer are writing a lot of nonsense’.

How to make it Effective

The limitation of job enrichment apply mainly to jobs requiring low level of skills. The job of highly
skilled workers professional and manager already contain varying degrees of challenge and
accomplishment. Perhaps these could be enriched considerably more than they are by applying
modern management techniques . And all level particularly in non-managerial levels several
approaches could be made to job make enrichment appeal to higher-level motivations.

1. The people involved must have a substantial voice in the planning process. It should not be
overlooked that people like to be involved, to be involved to be consulted and to be given an
opportunity to offer suggestions. They like to be considered as people. This would effectively
result in the successful functioning of the programme.

2. There is needed for better understanding of what people want. It has been pointed out by
motivation researches that this varies with people and situations generally people with few skill
want extrinsic factors such as pay, benefits, job security, sympathetic supervisor as then one
moves up the ladder intrinsic factors do become increasingly important.

3. It should also result in worker enrichment if productivity increases are the main goal of job
enrichment, the programme must show how workers would benefit.

Job enrichment, in short involves redesigning of the immediate job, it also requires an
enlargement of sense of respect by those who manage. In our complex personal impersonal
bureaucratic organizations, this respect for the individual can be lost all too quickly. But with out
this respect we can never expect to make full use of our human resources.

Advantage of Job Enrichment

1. It makes the work enjoyable and interesting.

2. Increases job satisfaction.
3. Decreases the rate of absenteeism and labour turnover.
4. It provides opportunities for growth and advancement and thus motivates the
employees to work better and more.
5. The increased responsibility improves the skill of the workers.
6. There is an improvement in output and quality of the product or service rendered.

Job Enrichment: Job enrichment is improvisation of both tasks efficiency and human
satisfaction by building into people’s jobs, quite specifically, greater scope for personal
achievement and recognition, more challenging and responsible work and more
opportunity for individual advancement and growth. An enriched job will have more
responsibility, more autonomy (vertical enrichment), more variety of tasks (horizontal
enrichment) and more growth opportunities. The employee does more planning and
controlling with less supervision but more self-evaluation. In other words, transferring
some of the supervisor’s tasks to the employee and making his job enriched.

Benefits of Job enrichment

1. It benefits employee and organization in terms of increased motivation, performance,

satisfaction, job involvement and reduced absenteeism.
2. Additional features in job meet certain psychological needs of jobholders due to skill
variety, identity, significance of job etc.
3. It also adds to employee self-esteem and self-control.
4. Job enrichment gives status to jobholder and acts as a strong satisfier in one’s life.
5. Job enrichment stimulates improvements in other areas of organization.
6. Empowerment is a by-product of job enrichment. It means passing on more authority
and responsibility.

Demerits of Job Enrichment

1. Lazy employees may not be able to take additional responsibilities and power. It won’t
fetch the desired results for an employee who is not attentive towards his job.
2. Unions resistance, increased cost of design and implementation and limited research on
long term effect of job enrichment are some of the other demerits.
3. Job enrichment itself might not be a great motivator since it is job-intrinsic factor. As
per the two-factor motivation theory, job enrichment is not enough. It should be preceded
by hygienic factors etc.
4. Job enrichment assumes that workers want more responsibilities and those workers
who are motivated by less responsibility, job enrichment surely de-motivates them
5. Workers participation may affect the enrichment process itself.
6. Change is difficult to implement and is always resisted as job enrichment brings in a
changes the responsibility.