4
JOB ENRICHMENT
Job Enrichment is the addition to a job of tasks that increase the amount of employee control or responsibility. It is a vertical expansion of the job
as opposed to the horizontal expansion of a job, which is called job enlargement.
Examples: We use job enrichment to make work more challenging and rewarding for our employees to make it easier to keep them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
job description
A formal statement of duties, qualifications, and responsibilities associated with a job.
job enrichment
An increase in the number of tasks that an employee performs and an increase in the control over those tasks. It is associated with the design of jobs and is an extension of job enlargement.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Job enrichment in organizational development, human resources management, and organizational behavior, is the process of improving work processes and environments so they are more satisfying for employees. Many jobs are monotonous and unrewarding. Workers can feel dissatisfied in their position due to a lack of a challenge, repetitive procedures, or an over-controlled authority structure. Job enrichment tries to eliminate these dysfunctional elements, and bring better performance to the workplace.
Job enrichment, as a managerial activity includes a three steps technique:
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 she fits into the overall process and be aware of how important her 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:
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?
Ask them
Use surveys( checklist, listing, questions)
================================================== ==========
EXAMPLE OF BASIC JOB DESCRIPTION
=====================================
Technical Service Representative
BASIC JOB lUNCTION‑.
Provides technical assistance to Dealership Service Department and assists in
customer inquiries to assure proper repair procedures.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
1 . Provides hands‑on technical assistance to dealer personnel.
2. Provides hands‑on technical assistance at site operation.
3. Inspects warranty parts.
4. Performs quality audits as requested.
5. Completes Technical Product Reports; reports on product problems
encountered.
6. Provides dealer contact reports.
7. Provides warranty authorizations.
8. Maintains proper repair standards.
9. Creates a communication system between the dealer body, the District
Manager, and the Service Department to better serve the needs of our
dealers, our customers, and the interests of the company.
10. Investigates product liability claims by providing written reports and
testimony in regard to technical product failure.
11. Provides one‑on‑one technical training.
12. Represents the company in third‑party arbitration.
13. Handles other requests from management on a timely basis.
================================================== ======
EXAMPLE OF JOB ENRICHMENT OF THE ABOVE JOB .
=================================================
ENRICHMENT OF THE JOB DESCRIPTIONS OF TECHNICAL
SERVICE REP.
1.ACCOUNTABILITY
-responsible for the coordination and final resolution of all
customer complaints.
-responsible for providing feedback for all customer inquiries.
2.AUTONOMY
-responsible for all customer contact/reports / documentations and
resolution.
3.TASK SIGNIFICANCE
-solely Responsible for guiding customer complaint resolution
and to ensure that proper and satisfactory closing are obtained
from all recognized dealers .
4.TRAINING
-responsible for training of all tech. people at the
dealer point.
ETC ETC
============================================
================================================
==================================================
MORE ABOUT JOB ENRICHMENT
Job Enrichment
Job enrichment is a way to motivate employees by giving them increased responsibility and variety in their jobs. Many employers traditionally believed that money was the only true motivating factor for employees and that if you wanted to get more work out of employees, offering them more money was the only way to do it. While that may be true for a small group of people, the majority of workers today like to work and to be appreciated for the work they do. Job enrichment— allowing the employees to have more control in planning their work and deciding how the work should be accomplished—is one way to tap into the natural desire most employees have to do a good job, to be appreciated for their contributions to the company, and to feel more a part of the company team.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Job enrichment has its roots in Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory, according to which two separate dimensions contribute to an employee's behavior at work. The first dimension, known as hygiene factors, involves the presence or absence of job dissatisfacters, such as wages, working environment, rules and regulations, and supervisors. When these factors are poor, work is dissatisfying and employees are not motivated. However, having positive hygiene factors does not cause employees to be motivated; it simply keeps them from being dissatisfied. The second dimension of Herzberg's theory refers to motivators, which are factors that satisfy higher-level needs such as recognition for doing a good job, achievement, and the opportunity for growth and responsibility. These motivators are what actually increase job satisfaction and performance. Job enrichment becomes an important strategy at this point because enriching employees' jobs can help meet some of their motivational needs. There are basically five areas that are believed to affect an individual employee's motivation and job performance: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Job enrichment seeks to find positive ways to address each of these areas and therefore improve employee motivation and personal satisfaction.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Skill variety involves the number of different types of skills that are used to do a job. This area is important because using only one skill to do the same task repeatedly can be quite boring, typically causing the employee's productivity to decrease after a period of time. However, using a variety of skills in a job will tend to keep the employee more interested in the job and more motivated.
One way businesses are focusing on this area is through job rotation, that is, moving employees from job to job within the company, thereby allowing employees a variety of tasks in their work and helping prevent boredom. While this process can be costly to the company because employees must be trained in several different areas, the cost tends to be balanced by the increase in morale and productivity. JOB ROTATION also gives each employee the opportunity to see how the different jobs of a company fit together and gives the company more flexibility in covering tasks when workers are absent. However, while job rotation is a good way to enrich employees' jobs, it can also hinder performance: Having to know several different jobs in order to rotate, can prevent employees from becoming proficient at any of the jobs. Therefore, the advantages and disadvantages of job rotation as an enrichment strategy have to be carefully weighed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Task identity is a matter of realizing a visible outcome from performing a task. Being able to see the end result of the work they do is an important motivator for employees. One way to make task identity clearer is through job enlargement, which means adding more tasks and responsibilities to an existing job. For example, instead of building just one component part of a humidifier, a team of employees builds the entire product from start to finish. When using job enlargement as an enrichment strategy, it is important that enlarging the job gives the employee more responsibility and more variety, not just more work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Task significance involves how important the task is to others in the company, which is important in showing employees how the work they do fits in with that done in the rest of the organization. If employees can see how their work affects others, it will be a motivator to do the best job they can.
Many companies take new employees on a tour of the company and provide training sessions on how each part of the company works together with the other parts. In order to accept and handle responsibility, it is important that employees know how the various areas of the company work together; without this knowledge, it is very difficult for them to handle decision-making responsibilities. Putting employees from different areas of the company into planning teams can also help them see the significance of the tasks they perform.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autonomy involves the degree of freedom, independence, and decision-making ability the employee has in completing assigned tasks. Most people like to be given responsibility; it demonstrates trust and helps motivate employees to live up to that trust. Responsibility can also help speed up work processes by enabling the employee to make decisions without having to wait for management approval. Autonomy is a very important part of job enrichment because it gives the employee power and a feeling of importance.
A type of job enrichment that restructures work to best match the employee to the job is job redesign. Job redesign can focus on combining existing jobs, forming work groups, and/or allowing closer contact between employees and individual suppliers or customers. The idea behind job redesign is to match employees with a job they like and are best qualified to perform. Self-managed teams are a type of job design whereby employees are grouped into teams and given certain guidelines to follow as well as goals to accomplish—and then left alone to accomplish those goals. Self-managed teams demonstrate the company's faith in the employees and give employees a feeling of power and pride in the work they accomplish.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feedback describes how much and what type of information about job performance is received by the employee. It is one of the most important areas for motivation. Without feedback, employees have no way of knowing whether they are doing things correctly or incorrectly. Positive feedback helps to motivate employees by recognizing the efforts they have put into their work. While monetary rewards for doing a good job can be a strong incentive, sometimes saying "you did a really good job on that project" can mean just as much. Corrective feedback is also important because it lets employees know what areas need improvement.
There are many different types of job-enrichment activities and programs that companies can implement to encourage worker participation and enhance motivation. The team atmosphere is one way to enrich jobs. Grouping employees into teams and allowing the team the freedom to plan, make decisions, and accomplish their goals gives employees a feeling of importance and responsibility. It can also help employees come up with creative ideas on ways to improve work activities by giving them the opportunity to work closely with others. Asking for and encouraging employees to give input on company strategies and plans is another way to enrich jobs. Often times employees have the best input because they are the ones actually performing the activity on a daily basis. PARENT COMPANY award ceremonies can also help to enrich jobs and motivate employees by recognizing individual employees for their contributions to the company.
The purpose of job enrichment is to improve the quality of an employee's job and therefore motivate the employee to accomplish more. However, in order for job enrichment to work, the employee has to desire and accept new ways of accomplishing tasks. Some employees lack the skills and knowledge required to perform enriched jobs, while others are quite happy doing routine jobs because they feel the current work situation is relatively stress-free. It is likely that these types of employees would not like job-enrichment activities and would not accept the new way of doing things. Therefore, asking for employee input and keeping communication lines open is essential to the success of job-enrichment programs.
===============================
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 - - - 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.
================================================== =====
JOB ENRICHMENT --- 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.
================================================== ====================
================================================== ========
================================================== ======
REGARDS
LEO LINGHAM
From India, Mumbai
Job Enrichment is the addition to a job of tasks that increase the amount of employee control or responsibility. It is a vertical expansion of the job
as opposed to the horizontal expansion of a job, which is called job enlargement.
Examples: We use job enrichment to make work more challenging and rewarding for our employees to make it easier to keep them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
job description
A formal statement of duties, qualifications, and responsibilities associated with a job.
job enrichment
An increase in the number of tasks that an employee performs and an increase in the control over those tasks. It is associated with the design of jobs and is an extension of job enlargement.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Job enrichment in organizational development, human resources management, and organizational behavior, is the process of improving work processes and environments so they are more satisfying for employees. Many jobs are monotonous and unrewarding. Workers can feel dissatisfied in their position due to a lack of a challenge, repetitive procedures, or an over-controlled authority structure. Job enrichment tries to eliminate these dysfunctional elements, and bring better performance to the workplace.
Job enrichment, as a managerial activity includes a three steps technique:
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 she fits into the overall process and be aware of how important her 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:
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?
Ask them
Use surveys( checklist, listing, questions)
================================================== ==========
EXAMPLE OF BASIC JOB DESCRIPTION
=====================================
Technical Service Representative
BASIC JOB lUNCTION‑.
Provides technical assistance to Dealership Service Department and assists in
customer inquiries to assure proper repair procedures.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
1 . Provides hands‑on technical assistance to dealer personnel.
2. Provides hands‑on technical assistance at site operation.
3. Inspects warranty parts.
4. Performs quality audits as requested.
5. Completes Technical Product Reports; reports on product problems
encountered.
6. Provides dealer contact reports.
7. Provides warranty authorizations.
8. Maintains proper repair standards.
9. Creates a communication system between the dealer body, the District
Manager, and the Service Department to better serve the needs of our
dealers, our customers, and the interests of the company.
10. Investigates product liability claims by providing written reports and
testimony in regard to technical product failure.
11. Provides one‑on‑one technical training.
12. Represents the company in third‑party arbitration.
13. Handles other requests from management on a timely basis.
================================================== ======
EXAMPLE OF JOB ENRICHMENT OF THE ABOVE JOB .
=================================================
ENRICHMENT OF THE JOB DESCRIPTIONS OF TECHNICAL
SERVICE REP.
1.ACCOUNTABILITY
-responsible for the coordination and final resolution of all
customer complaints.
-responsible for providing feedback for all customer inquiries.
2.AUTONOMY
-responsible for all customer contact/reports / documentations and
resolution.
3.TASK SIGNIFICANCE
-solely Responsible for guiding customer complaint resolution
and to ensure that proper and satisfactory closing are obtained
from all recognized dealers .
4.TRAINING
-responsible for training of all tech. people at the
dealer point.
ETC ETC
============================================
================================================
==================================================
MORE ABOUT JOB ENRICHMENT
Job Enrichment
Job enrichment is a way to motivate employees by giving them increased responsibility and variety in their jobs. Many employers traditionally believed that money was the only true motivating factor for employees and that if you wanted to get more work out of employees, offering them more money was the only way to do it. While that may be true for a small group of people, the majority of workers today like to work and to be appreciated for the work they do. Job enrichment— allowing the employees to have more control in planning their work and deciding how the work should be accomplished—is one way to tap into the natural desire most employees have to do a good job, to be appreciated for their contributions to the company, and to feel more a part of the company team.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Job enrichment has its roots in Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory, according to which two separate dimensions contribute to an employee's behavior at work. The first dimension, known as hygiene factors, involves the presence or absence of job dissatisfacters, such as wages, working environment, rules and regulations, and supervisors. When these factors are poor, work is dissatisfying and employees are not motivated. However, having positive hygiene factors does not cause employees to be motivated; it simply keeps them from being dissatisfied. The second dimension of Herzberg's theory refers to motivators, which are factors that satisfy higher-level needs such as recognition for doing a good job, achievement, and the opportunity for growth and responsibility. These motivators are what actually increase job satisfaction and performance. Job enrichment becomes an important strategy at this point because enriching employees' jobs can help meet some of their motivational needs. There are basically five areas that are believed to affect an individual employee's motivation and job performance: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Job enrichment seeks to find positive ways to address each of these areas and therefore improve employee motivation and personal satisfaction.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Skill variety involves the number of different types of skills that are used to do a job. This area is important because using only one skill to do the same task repeatedly can be quite boring, typically causing the employee's productivity to decrease after a period of time. However, using a variety of skills in a job will tend to keep the employee more interested in the job and more motivated.
One way businesses are focusing on this area is through job rotation, that is, moving employees from job to job within the company, thereby allowing employees a variety of tasks in their work and helping prevent boredom. While this process can be costly to the company because employees must be trained in several different areas, the cost tends to be balanced by the increase in morale and productivity. JOB ROTATION also gives each employee the opportunity to see how the different jobs of a company fit together and gives the company more flexibility in covering tasks when workers are absent. However, while job rotation is a good way to enrich employees' jobs, it can also hinder performance: Having to know several different jobs in order to rotate, can prevent employees from becoming proficient at any of the jobs. Therefore, the advantages and disadvantages of job rotation as an enrichment strategy have to be carefully weighed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Task identity is a matter of realizing a visible outcome from performing a task. Being able to see the end result of the work they do is an important motivator for employees. One way to make task identity clearer is through job enlargement, which means adding more tasks and responsibilities to an existing job. For example, instead of building just one component part of a humidifier, a team of employees builds the entire product from start to finish. When using job enlargement as an enrichment strategy, it is important that enlarging the job gives the employee more responsibility and more variety, not just more work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Task significance involves how important the task is to others in the company, which is important in showing employees how the work they do fits in with that done in the rest of the organization. If employees can see how their work affects others, it will be a motivator to do the best job they can.
Many companies take new employees on a tour of the company and provide training sessions on how each part of the company works together with the other parts. In order to accept and handle responsibility, it is important that employees know how the various areas of the company work together; without this knowledge, it is very difficult for them to handle decision-making responsibilities. Putting employees from different areas of the company into planning teams can also help them see the significance of the tasks they perform.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autonomy involves the degree of freedom, independence, and decision-making ability the employee has in completing assigned tasks. Most people like to be given responsibility; it demonstrates trust and helps motivate employees to live up to that trust. Responsibility can also help speed up work processes by enabling the employee to make decisions without having to wait for management approval. Autonomy is a very important part of job enrichment because it gives the employee power and a feeling of importance.
A type of job enrichment that restructures work to best match the employee to the job is job redesign. Job redesign can focus on combining existing jobs, forming work groups, and/or allowing closer contact between employees and individual suppliers or customers. The idea behind job redesign is to match employees with a job they like and are best qualified to perform. Self-managed teams are a type of job design whereby employees are grouped into teams and given certain guidelines to follow as well as goals to accomplish—and then left alone to accomplish those goals. Self-managed teams demonstrate the company's faith in the employees and give employees a feeling of power and pride in the work they accomplish.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feedback describes how much and what type of information about job performance is received by the employee. It is one of the most important areas for motivation. Without feedback, employees have no way of knowing whether they are doing things correctly or incorrectly. Positive feedback helps to motivate employees by recognizing the efforts they have put into their work. While monetary rewards for doing a good job can be a strong incentive, sometimes saying "you did a really good job on that project" can mean just as much. Corrective feedback is also important because it lets employees know what areas need improvement.
There are many different types of job-enrichment activities and programs that companies can implement to encourage worker participation and enhance motivation. The team atmosphere is one way to enrich jobs. Grouping employees into teams and allowing the team the freedom to plan, make decisions, and accomplish their goals gives employees a feeling of importance and responsibility. It can also help employees come up with creative ideas on ways to improve work activities by giving them the opportunity to work closely with others. Asking for and encouraging employees to give input on company strategies and plans is another way to enrich jobs. Often times employees have the best input because they are the ones actually performing the activity on a daily basis. PARENT COMPANY award ceremonies can also help to enrich jobs and motivate employees by recognizing individual employees for their contributions to the company.
The purpose of job enrichment is to improve the quality of an employee's job and therefore motivate the employee to accomplish more. However, in order for job enrichment to work, the employee has to desire and accept new ways of accomplishing tasks. Some employees lack the skills and knowledge required to perform enriched jobs, while others are quite happy doing routine jobs because they feel the current work situation is relatively stress-free. It is likely that these types of employees would not like job-enrichment activities and would not accept the new way of doing things. Therefore, asking for employee input and keeping communication lines open is essential to the success of job-enrichment programs.
===============================
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 - - - 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.
================================================== =====
JOB ENRICHMENT --- 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.
================================================== ====================
================================================== ========
================================================== ======
REGARDS
LEO LINGHAM
From India, Mumbai
Very comprehensive and interesting write-up:-
I thought that Job Redesign is more practical than Job Rotation though rotation may also help in Job enrichment at times. Rotation works only when a person's profile matches the job requirements reasonably well. One of my well to do business friends told me how he tried to switch roles of his two partners- One was an A type personality who was good in assertive situations and the other was a B type personality who was better at defensive situations. He told me that it was not just a matter of skill but they lacked conviction while performing their switched roles. I read once about how an assertive person in the United states was doing miserably in a sales job where one has to be diplomatic but did very well when he became a policeman because it matched his personality better.
The book "First, break all the rules" explains all this very well taking the example of switched roles of hollywood movie actors and how similar miscasting ruins individuals and companies in the corporate world.
Your statement "Each employee should know exactly how she fits into the overall process and be aware of how important her contributions are to the organization and its customers" is very correct. There are however extreme cases in which one has to look into the big picture whether the "overall process fits the employee". The problem according to fortune 500 company consultants at www.yoursoulatwork.com is that organizations tend to be company centric instead of individual centric and even after reaching the top, some people feel that the ladder is leaning against the wrong building. Alongwith them other links including Harvard University based research is there on my blog " Make your passion your profession" - http://mypyp.wordpress.com/ with my published articles.
Everything written about Workers participation, respect for the individual, importance of feedback and job expansion is very true. The only problem is what happens if the macro situation is different- the Harvard consultants have suggested that people change jobs because of dissatisfaction because they are not able to get an occupation based on their "deeply embedded life interest' and not just hobby or topical enthuiasm. Many consultants express interests in terms of heart/ soul.
To conclude, your write up talks well about doing things right; many others are talking about doing the right thing and career transition is far more dicey than job rotation. Books like "Working identity" state that career transition can take anything between three to five years which considering that they could be the best years of a majority of your waking hours is a little too long.
How does one do career enrichment faster in addition to job enrichment?
From India, New Delhi
I thought that Job Redesign is more practical than Job Rotation though rotation may also help in Job enrichment at times. Rotation works only when a person's profile matches the job requirements reasonably well. One of my well to do business friends told me how he tried to switch roles of his two partners- One was an A type personality who was good in assertive situations and the other was a B type personality who was better at defensive situations. He told me that it was not just a matter of skill but they lacked conviction while performing their switched roles. I read once about how an assertive person in the United states was doing miserably in a sales job where one has to be diplomatic but did very well when he became a policeman because it matched his personality better.
The book "First, break all the rules" explains all this very well taking the example of switched roles of hollywood movie actors and how similar miscasting ruins individuals and companies in the corporate world.
Your statement "Each employee should know exactly how she fits into the overall process and be aware of how important her contributions are to the organization and its customers" is very correct. There are however extreme cases in which one has to look into the big picture whether the "overall process fits the employee". The problem according to fortune 500 company consultants at www.yoursoulatwork.com is that organizations tend to be company centric instead of individual centric and even after reaching the top, some people feel that the ladder is leaning against the wrong building. Alongwith them other links including Harvard University based research is there on my blog " Make your passion your profession" - http://mypyp.wordpress.com/ with my published articles.
Everything written about Workers participation, respect for the individual, importance of feedback and job expansion is very true. The only problem is what happens if the macro situation is different- the Harvard consultants have suggested that people change jobs because of dissatisfaction because they are not able to get an occupation based on their "deeply embedded life interest' and not just hobby or topical enthuiasm. Many consultants express interests in terms of heart/ soul.
To conclude, your write up talks well about doing things right; many others are talking about doing the right thing and career transition is far more dicey than job rotation. Books like "Working identity" state that career transition can take anything between three to five years which considering that they could be the best years of a majority of your waking hours is a little too long.
How does one do career enrichment faster in addition to job enrichment?
From India, New Delhi
Well, the real job enrichment takes place when you follow your "calling" or "vocation" in life.
Today(22/5/2007)' ETEMPOWER from the economic times gives the example of one Mr Sanjeev Roy who was in the advertisement industry. In his own words" I wanted to do something with people. I knew I had been a good counselor and mentor to my colleagues. Vast reserves of patience and natural empathy were my strenghts. I started looking for jobs in Search and Training organizations". He is trying his luck in HR- www.bulzi-inc.com
This is HRD at its best- "Choose your career not on the basis of what you know but who you are". It does not always depend upon formal qualifications or experience.
Great things have happened in history when people have followed their convictions- There are lots of celebrity examples on my blog in Quotable Quotes(http://mypyp.wordpress.com/2005/10/1...itable-career/) but here, we shall stick to the "Aam Aadmi":-
I had written an article a couple of months ago(March) for the magazine "The Eternal solutions". There are lots of real life Indian examples(both negative and positive):-
http://wplay.wordpress.com/2007/03/0...a-double-life/
American common men examples.
http://mypyp.wordpress.com/2006/10/2...r-professions/
One does not have to "follow your dream" blindly. One of my bosses got several double promotions and completely outclassed the chairman but he made sure that the team would go with him before rocking the boat and venturing on his own. Today, he is a big shot but he worked for several years and knew his functional strengths and limitations well before he took the plunge. There are honorable exceptions- Bill Gates and Michael Dell but god knows what is their number in relative terms.
As explained in the article above, success happens when the personal profile, the business profile and the market profile combine which is an entire subject by itself and does not always happen by "following your dream" blindly as some consultants say. Life is like a relay race and the person who starts a company is not always the best person to take it forward. When one realizes all this in depth, there is continous enrichment.
Being able to determine your interest and functional talent correctly is not just job enrichment but life enrichment- majority of your waking hours go there and has a critical bearing on the work-life balance.
From India, New Delhi
Today(22/5/2007)' ETEMPOWER from the economic times gives the example of one Mr Sanjeev Roy who was in the advertisement industry. In his own words" I wanted to do something with people. I knew I had been a good counselor and mentor to my colleagues. Vast reserves of patience and natural empathy were my strenghts. I started looking for jobs in Search and Training organizations". He is trying his luck in HR- www.bulzi-inc.com
This is HRD at its best- "Choose your career not on the basis of what you know but who you are". It does not always depend upon formal qualifications or experience.
Great things have happened in history when people have followed their convictions- There are lots of celebrity examples on my blog in Quotable Quotes(http://mypyp.wordpress.com/2005/10/1...itable-career/) but here, we shall stick to the "Aam Aadmi":-
I had written an article a couple of months ago(March) for the magazine "The Eternal solutions". There are lots of real life Indian examples(both negative and positive):-
http://wplay.wordpress.com/2007/03/0...a-double-life/
American common men examples.
http://mypyp.wordpress.com/2006/10/2...r-professions/
One does not have to "follow your dream" blindly. One of my bosses got several double promotions and completely outclassed the chairman but he made sure that the team would go with him before rocking the boat and venturing on his own. Today, he is a big shot but he worked for several years and knew his functional strengths and limitations well before he took the plunge. There are honorable exceptions- Bill Gates and Michael Dell but god knows what is their number in relative terms.
As explained in the article above, success happens when the personal profile, the business profile and the market profile combine which is an entire subject by itself and does not always happen by "following your dream" blindly as some consultants say. Life is like a relay race and the person who starts a company is not always the best person to take it forward. When one realizes all this in depth, there is continous enrichment.
Being able to determine your interest and functional talent correctly is not just job enrichment but life enrichment- majority of your waking hours go there and has a critical bearing on the work-life balance.
From India, New Delhi
In the article \'Managing Oneself\' (12 page - PDF - great reading!) Peter Drucker mentions that 5 questions need to be answered before she can become an outstnading performer.
They are:
1. How do I learn? (Reading/ Writing/ Listening)?
2. Am I decision Maker or an adviser?
3. Do I work well in a structured, predictable environment or in a stressful atmosphere?
4. Do I work best in a small organisation or Big organisation?
5. What are my values? Are they in alignment with the organisation\'s values?
6. What are my strengths?
7. What is my method of working? (Working Style)?
When these queries are answered employees can chose the jobs where they fit best and automatically love their job and thus become outstanding performers.
Then there will be no requirement to fit the organisation to match the individual, when they already match!! The employee will feel naturally enriched and will coming for work!
Hope this helps! the article really did! Do read it!
From India
They are:
1. How do I learn? (Reading/ Writing/ Listening)?
2. Am I decision Maker or an adviser?
3. Do I work well in a structured, predictable environment or in a stressful atmosphere?
4. Do I work best in a small organisation or Big organisation?
5. What are my values? Are they in alignment with the organisation\'s values?
6. What are my strengths?
7. What is my method of working? (Working Style)?
When these queries are answered employees can chose the jobs where they fit best and automatically love their job and thus become outstanding performers.
Then there will be no requirement to fit the organisation to match the individual, when they already match!! The employee will feel naturally enriched and will coming for work!
Hope this helps! the article really did! Do read it!
From India
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