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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Job enrichment

There are various methods in which job design can be carried out. These methods help to analysis the job, to design the contents of the and to decide how the job must be carried out .these methods are as follows :-
I. Job rotation
II. Job enlargement
III. Job enrichment

Job enrichment :-
Job enrichment is a term given by Fedric herzberg. According to him a few motivators are added to a job to make it more rewarding, challenging and interesting. According to herzberg the motivating factors enrich the job and improve performance.
In other words we can say that job enrichment is a method of adding some motivating factors to an existing job to make it more interesting. The motivating factors can be-
a) Giving more freedom.
b) Encouraging participation.
c) Giving employees the freedom to select the method of working.
d) Allowing employees to select the place at which they would like to   work.
e) Allowing workers to select the tools that they require on the job.
f) Allowing workers to decide the layout of plant or office.

Job enrichment gives lot of freedom to the employee but at the same time increases the responsibility. Some workers are power and responsibility hungry. Job enrichment satisfies the needs of the employees.

Advantages of job enrichment
1. Interesting and challenging job :-
When a certain amount of power is given to employees it makes the job more challenging for them, we can say that job enrichment is a method of employee empowerment.
2. Improves decision making :-
Through job enrichment we can improve the decision making ability of the employee by asking him to decide on factory layout, method and style of working.
3. Identifies future managerial caliber :-
When we provide decision making opportunities to employees, we can identify which employee is better that other in decision making and mark employees for future promotion.
4. Identifies higher order needs of employees :-
This method identifies higher order needs of the employee. Abraham maslow’s theory of motivation speaks of these higher order needs e.g. ego and esteemed needs, self actualization etc. These needs can be achieved through job enrichment.
5. Reduces work load of superiors :-
Job enrichment reduces the work load of senior staff. When decisions are taken by juniors the seniors work load is reduced.

Disadvantages of job enrichment
1. Job enrichment is based on the assumptions that workers have complete knowledge to take decisions and they have the right attitude. In reality this might not be the case due to which there can be problems in working.
2. Job enrichment has negative implications ie. Along with usual work decision making work is also given to the employees and not many may be comfortable with this.
3. Superiors may feel that power is being taken away from them and given to the junior’s. This might lead to ego problems.
4. This method will only work in certain situations. Some jobs already give a lot of freedom and responsibility; this method will not work for such jobs.
5. Some people are internally dissatisfied with the organization. For such people no amount of job enrichment can solve the problem.

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