Job Enrichment Free Essays

Based on a major study of High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs) in North America by Appelbaum et al. (2000) found that new forms of job design provided production line employees with the opportunity to contribute increased discretionary effort and to participate in workplace problem-solving. These researchers provided empirical evidence that conscious efforts by employers to increase employee discretion and job autonomy resulted in improved job satisfaction for employees and higher levels of organizational performance (Appelbaum et al. We will write a custom essay sample on Job Enrichment or any similar topic only for you Order Now 000). Workforce involvement in decision-making may also be consistent with job enrichment practices (Spence Laschinger et al. 2004). Job enrichment involves providing increased levels of responsibility to lower level employees, including the delegation of work tasks previously undertaken by supervisors, and the provision of increasingly skilled tasks to line employees. The theoretical basis for enrichment efforts is Hackman and Oldham’s (1975) ‘job characteristics’ model, which explores how a combination of specific job characteristics such as skill variety and task significance affect the individual’s experience of meaningful work and their sense of responsibility for work outcomes. These characteristics have, in turn, been linked to improvements in work motivation, job satisfaction and work quality, reduced absenteeism and lower labour turnover (Ford 1969; Hackman et al. 1975). However, job enrichment has received wide publicity but has not always produced favourable results in the workplace. A great deal of debate exists over the benefits and limitations of job enrichment: it clearly is not for everyone. Ralph Brown (2004) summed it up very nicely: Some people are very resistant to more responsibilities or to opportunities for personal growth. Researchers report that some people they expected to resist seized the opportunity. Enriching jobs is a particularly effective way to develop employees provided the jobs are truly enriched, not just more work for them to do. The disadvantages are that job enrichment may lead to greater work pressure and that employees have to start performing tasks which were not originally required of them. Job design: Job design is the specification of the content of a job, the material and equipment required to do the job, and the relation of the job to other jobs. A well-designed job promotes the achievement of the organization’s strategic business objectives by structuring work so it integrates management requirements for efficiency and employee needs for satisfaction. Thus, effective job design presents a major challenge for the HR manager. And job enrichment is one of the methods of job design. 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’ increases the complexity of work to promote interest. Thus, job enrichment builds motivating factors into the job content by: combing tasks, establishing client relationships, creating natural work units, expanding jobs vertically and opening feedback channels. Supporter: Patterson, West and Wail (2004) found that firms providing lower level employees with job enrichment and skill enhancement experienced a significant boost in productivity and profitability. A Sri Lankan study of the impact of introducing self managed teams in a large textile mill reported increased productivity, higher product quality, lower reject rates and higher employee satisfaction. The process of delegating increased decision-making responsibility to workplace teams changed the organization’s structures, decision making processes and job design at workplace level, with increased levels of empowerment and training being provided to team members (Jayawardana and Fonseka 1996). Nevertheless, the potential for improved performance outcomes to follow the provision of increased employee input into workplace decision-making relies on employee acceptance of the relevance of these practices and on the existence of a climate of involvement. One means of creating this climate is to appoint work group leaders who will model the behaviours valued by the organisation, and who are also able to motivate employees to mirror these behaviours (Richards and Vandenberg 2005). In Sri Lanka’s Garment Industry, the manager introduced process controllers into the three production lines from January to April 2002; line employees underwent a series of training programs. The training focused on the company’s customers and products, the production process and techniques related to increasing quality and problem-solving. The sessions were conducted by the plant manager, the quality assurance manager and the work study manager. Each session was followed by a discussion with production line members. The training programs lasted for two hours after work, with all line employees paid for their participation. At production meetings, held once a week, line employees were given feedback on their performance, in particular in relation to line efficiency and end-line rejects. During the initial training, production line employees were given a briefing on market conditions in the industry and customer requirements. They were also provided with an opportunity to study their line’s performance for the previous three months in relation to on-time delivery, total rejects and customer returns. The training provided encouraged employees to take responsibility for performance outcomes such as product reject rates and on-standard efficiency levels. The training manager provided feedback to line employees where the performance of one production line lagged that of the organisation as a whole. The training also addressed skill development, the organisation of work and the use of computer-aided information systems and quality control systems. Each machine was equipped with a computer terminal, which gave details of efficiency standards, losses, stoppages and earnings based on incentive payments. The case explored the impact of a job enrichment initiative to devolve increased responsibility for monitoring workplace productivity, product quality and workforce attendance to line employees. We found that the introduction of process controllers generated substantial improvements in LM Collection’s performance over this period. Efficiency levels rose from 41 per cent to 61 per cent and product rejects declined from 10 per cent to 2 per cent, while absenteeism levels declined from almost 10 per cent to 2. 4 per cent by March 2003. On the whole, productivity levels improved, product quality increased and workforce absence and turnover episodes declined over the period of this study. Critiques: In the other hand, there are drawbacks of job enrichment when the HR managers do not think about the matters from employees, and no one seems to mention the costs. In some employees eyes, the job enrichment is merely an enforce change to jobs in order for the organisation to obtain higher productivity from its workers. With the pressure of more responsibilities and tasks, the employees may not have enough time to give the feedback of performance. Either actually the workers do not want enriched their jobs or the job is not that easy to enrich. . Job enrichment is a type of job redesign intended to reverse the effects of tasks that are repetitive requiring little autonomy. Some of these effects are boredom, lack of flexibility, and employee dissatisfaction (Leach Wall, 2004). The underlying principle is to expand the scope of the job with a greater variety of tasks, vertical in nature, that require self-sufficiency. Since the goal is to give the individual exposure to tasks normally reserved for differently focused or higher positions, merely adding more of the same responsibilities related to an employee’s current position are not considered job enrichment. Job enrichment can only be truly successful if planning includes support for all phases of the initiative. Ohio State University Extension began a job enrichment program in 1992 and surveyed the participants five years later. The results, broken down into 3 sub-buckets of data beyond the main grouping of advantages/disadvantages as shown in Table 1, indicate the University had not fully considered the planning and administrative aspects of the program (Fourman and Jones, 1997). While the benefits are seemingly obvious, programs fail not because of a lack of benefits, but rather due to implementation problems. These problems can include a perception of too great a cost, lack of long-term commitment of resources, and potential job classification changes (Cunningham and Eberle, 1990). In order for a job enrichment program to produce positive results, worker needs and organizational needs must be analyzed and acted upon. According to Cunningham and Eberle (1990), before an enrichment program is begun, the following questions should be asked: 1. Do employees need jobs that involve responsibility, variety, feedback, challenge, accountability, significance, and opportunities to learn? 2. What techniques can be implemented without changing the job classification plan? 3. What techniques would require changes in the job classification plan? A job enrichment program can be a very effective intervention in some situations where a Performance Technician is faced with a request for motivational training. Conclusion: In my opinion, job enrichment can bring about improvement in both job performance and job satisfaction. A survey of almost 100 research studies found job enrichment resulted in greater productivity, improved product quality, fewer employee grievances, improved worker attitudes; reduce absenteeism and labour turnover, and lower costs. Therefore, improved quality of working life brought about by job enrichment has not only social benefits but also bottom-line benefits to the organization. How to cite Job Enrichment, Papers Job Enrichment Free Essays Conceptual Paper on Job Enrichment Ritesh Dhak 12PGP090 Abstract: This is a conceptual paper to study the phenomenon of ‘Job Enrichment’ in details. The various studies carried out on this topic. It’s relation with phenomenon of ‘motivation’ and ‘Job satisfaction’. We will write a custom essay sample on Job Enrichment or any similar topic only for you Order Now It also deals with the effective job enrichment programs and implementing them. Introduction: Job enrichment is a type of job redesign intended to reverse the effects of tasks that are repetitive requiring little autonomy. The underlying principle is to expand the scope of the job with a greater variety of tasks, vertical in nature, that require self-sufficiency. It is an idea that was developed by the American psychologist Frederick Herzberg in the 1950s. The first who tried to introduce the concept of job enrichment and modifications were the practitioners in the beginning of the 20th century in order to increase the performance of employees. What was in the fashion at that time were simplification and specialization of the tasks, which, in collaboration with scientists, confirmed to be useful to enhance the efficiency of the production (Taylor 1911, Gilbreth 1911, as cited in Morgeson Campion 2002). Another wave of the approach, at that time called job enlargement, began with an initiative of IBM in the mid-1940s, which included both enlargement and enrichment of the jobs, intending to introduce more interest, variety and significance into the work (Miner 2002). But initial work on job enrichment practices is done by Frederick Herzberg in the 1950’s and 60’s, Frederick Herzberg performed studies to determine which factors in an employee’s work environment caused satisfaction or dissatisfaction. He published his findings in the 1959 book ‘The Motivation to Work,’ he name his theory as Herzberg’s Motivation-hygiene Theory (Two Factor Theory), which was further refined in 1971 by Hackman Lawler (1971) and further by 1975 by Hackman and Oldham using what they called the Job Characteristics Model. This model assumes that if five core job characteristics are present, three psychological states critical to motivation are produced, resulting in positive outcomes. Important Theories: Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Two Factor Theory) Herzberg conducted a study where he asked employees about the factors causing satisfaction and dissatisfaction at their workplace. Herzberg found that the factors causing job satisfaction (and presumably motivation) were different from that causing job dissatisfaction. He developed the motivation-hygiene theory to explain these results. He called the satisfiers motivators and the dissatisfies hygiene factors, using the term â€Å"hygiene† in the sense that they are considered maintenance factors that are necessary to avoid dissatisfaction but that by themselves do not provide satisfaction. According to the Frederick Herzberg’s study the factors which affect Job Attitudes are Leading to Dissatisfaction Leading to Satisfaction Company policyAchievement SupervisionRecognition Relationship w/BossWork itself Work conditionsResponsibility SalaryAdvancement Relationship w/PeersGrowth These factors being different from each other Herzberg said that these two feeling can’t be treated as opposite of each other. Herzberg further argued that there are two distinct human needs portrayed. First, there are physiological needs that can be fulfilled by money, for example, to purchase food and shelter. Second, there is the psychological need to achieve and grow, and this need is fulfilled by activities that cause one to grow. Herzberg stated that the job enrichment is required for intrinsic motivation. According to Herzberg: †¢The job should have sufficient challenge to utilize the full ability of the employee. †¢Employees who demonstrate increasing levels of ability should be given increasing levels of responsibility. †¢If a job cannot be designed to use an employee’s full abilities, then the firm should consider automating the task or replacing the employee with one who has a lower level of skill. If a person cannot be fully utilized, then there will be a motivation problem. Job Characteristics Theory According to this theory there are four important concepts: core job characteristics, critical psychological states, outcomes, and moderators. The theory proposes that high levels of outcomes are obtained when the critical psychological states are present for a given employee. The theory states that these critical psychological states are created by the presence of the core job characteristics, in a way that is specified later in the text. Each of those relationships is moderated by several moderators which may differ for each individual (Hackman Oldham 1975). The following five features are considered in the model Skill variety – It is the degree to which a job requires a variety of different activities during the work to involve the use of a number of different skills and talents of the employee. Task identity – It is the degree to which the job requires completion of a †whole† and identifiable piece of work that is, doing a job from beginning to end with a visible outcome. Task significance – It is the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of the other people whether in the immediate organization or in the external environment. Autonomy – It is the degree to which the job provides substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to the employee in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out. Feedback from job – It is the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the job results in the employee obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance. There are three critical psychological states provided by the model experienced meaningfulness of the work, experienced responsibility for the outcomes of the work and knowledge of the actual results of the work activities which result into three outcomes Internal work motivation, Growth satisfaction, General Job satisfaction and Work effectiveness. Further research has shown that the psychological needs of people are very important in determining who can (and who cannot) become internally motivated at work with enriched job. Some people have strong needs for personal accomplishment, for learning and developing themselves beyond where they are now, for being stimulated and challenged, and so on. These people are high in â€Å"growth-need strength. † These people get motivated with enriched jobs while the people who are not interested in improving themselves in jobs do not get much affected with enriched job. The diagnostic tools- The instrumental gauge in assessing the target job and employee for it are as follows. 1. The objective characteristics of the jobs itself indicate the â€Å"motivating potential† of the job using MPS score. . The current levels of motivation, satisfaction, and work performance of employees on the job and how people feel about other aspects of the work setting, such as pay, supervision, and relationships with co-workers. 3. The level of growth-need strength of the employees. Employees who have strong growth needs are more likely to be more responsive to job enrichme nt than employees with weak growth needs. In order for a job enrichment program to produce positive results, worker needs and organizational needs must be analyzed and acted upon. As per Cunningham and Eberle (1990), before enrichment program following questions should be asked: 1. Do employees need jobs that involve responsibility, variety, feedback, challenge, accountability, significance, and opportunities to learn? 2. What techniques can be implemented without changing the job classification plan? 3. What techniques would require changes in the job classification plan? Conclusion: Job enrichment is an important phenomenon in the motivation and employee engagement. Research studies on job enrichment found out decreased levels of absenteeism among the employees, reduced employee turnover and a manifold increase in job satisfaction. There are certain cases however where job enrichment can lead to a decrease in productivity, especially when the employees have not been trained properly. Even after the training the process may not show results immediately, it takes time to reflect in the profit line. Refrences: 1. ‘Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Two Factor Theory)’ from www. abahe. co. uk 2. J Richard Hackman, Greg Oldham, Robert Janson and Kenneth Purdy A new Strategy for Job Enrichment (Motivating Individuals in Organizational settings) 3. Peter Jacko Enriching the Job Enrichment Theory – Research Methods for the Social Scientist March 04 ( Carlos III University in Madrid Department of Business Administration) 4. Mary T. Guise Test of Hackman and Oldhmam’s Job Chaaracteristics Model in a Post Secondary Educational Setting (COLLEGE OF EDUCATION BROCK UNIVERSITY St. Catharines, Ontario September, 1988) 5. J. Barton Cunningham and Ted Eberle A guide to job enrichment and redesign (COPYRIGHT American Management Association 1990) How to cite Job Enrichment, Essay examples