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Job Enlargement

Job enlargement involves horizontally expanding a job by adding more tasks at the same skill and responsibility level to prevent boredom. It aims to motivate employees by reversing specialization through replacing repetitive assembly lines with modular work where employees perform multiple tasks on a single item. While it can reduce monotony, increased flexibility, and not require new skills training, it may also increase work burden and employee frustration if not properly implemented or incentivized. The objectives of job enlargement are to provide variety, responsibility, skill development opportunities, and relieve boredom through a more interesting set of tasks.

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Sugantha Mohan
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211 views2 pages

Job Enlargement

Job enlargement involves horizontally expanding a job by adding more tasks at the same skill and responsibility level to prevent boredom. It aims to motivate employees by reversing specialization through replacing repetitive assembly lines with modular work where employees perform multiple tasks on a single item. While it can reduce monotony, increased flexibility, and not require new skills training, it may also increase work burden and employee frustration if not properly implemented or incentivized. The objectives of job enlargement are to provide variety, responsibility, skill development opportunities, and relieve boredom through a more interesting set of tasks.

Uploaded by

Sugantha Mohan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Definition: Job Enlargement is the horizontal expansion of a job.

It involves the addition of tasks at the same level of skill and responsibility. It is done to keep workers from getting bored. Example: Small companies may not have as many opportunities for promotions, so they try to motivate employees through job enlargement. Job enlargement means increasing the scope of a job through extending the range of its job duties and responsibilities generally within the same level and periphery. This contradicts the principles of specialization and the division of labour whereby work is divided into small units, each of which is performed repetitively by an individual worker. Some motivational theories suggest that the boredom and alienation caused by the division of labour can actually cause efficiency to fall. Thus, job enlargement seeks to motivate workers through reversing the process of specialization. A typical approach might be to replace assembly lines with modular work; instead of an employee repeating the same step on each product, they perform several tasks on a single item. In order for employees to be provided with Job Enlargement they will need to be retrained in new fields which can prove to be a lengthy process. However results have shown that this process can see its effects diminish after a period of time, as even the enlarged job role become the mundane, this in turn can lead to similar levels of demotivation and job dissatisfaction at the expense of increased training levels and costs. The continual enlargement of a job over time is also known as 'job creep,' which can lead to an unmanageable workload. Benefits of Job Enlargement The following are the major benefits of Job enlargement 1. Reduced Monotony: Howsoever interesting the job may appear in the beginning, sooner or later people complain of boredom and monotony. Job enlargement if planned carefully can help reduce boredom and make it more satisfying and fulfilling for the employees. 2. Increased Work Flexibility: There is an addition to the number of tasks an individual performs. There is thus an increased scope of carrying out tasks that are versatile and yet very similar in certain aspects. 3. No Skills Training Required: Since the individual has already been performing the task in the past, there is no great requirement for imparting of new skills. However people and time management interventions may be required. The job thus gets more motivational for the one performing it.

Disadvantages of job enlargement 1. Increases work burden:Job enlargement increases the work of the employee and not every company provides incentives and extra salary for extra work. Therefore the efforts of the individual may remain unrecognized. 2. Increasing frustration of the employee:In many cases employees end up being frustrated because increased activities do not result in increased salaries. 3. Problem with union members:Many union members may misunderstand job enlargement as exploitation of worker and may take objection to it. Objectives: The act of job enlargement increases the variety of tasks involved in a job function. It accomplishes this by combining a few of the tasks that were previously performed by separate job positions. Job enlargement allows organizations to provide workers with greater responsibility and opportunities for skill enhancement. It also strives to relieve individual workers of boredom associated with routine and repetition. A secondary objective of job enlargement is to increase employee motivation by creating work-related challenges and giving them a more interesting set of tasks to perform.

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