Job enlargement means increasing the scope of a job through extending the range of its duties and responsibilities.
This contradicts the principles of specialisation and the division of labour whereby work is divided into small units, each of which is performed repetitively by an individual worker.
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 specialisation.
Job enlargement means increasing the scope of a job through extending the range of its job duties and responsibilities. This contradicts the principles of specialisation 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 specialisation. 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 unmaangable workload.
There are several common approaches to make the work place better, but it's all up to the employees to put in good quality day of work. There are these three ways to make the employees happier and that is job enlargement, job rotation, and job enrichment. They are different in some ways but alike in many.
The first way is job enlargement. This way is to expand in several tasks than just to do one single task. It is also 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. This would also be considered multi tasking by which one person would do several persons jobs, saving the company money and man hours that normally would be paid to additional workers. Small companies may not have as many opportunities for promotions, so they try to motivate employees through job enlargement. An example of this would be when I worked at a restaurant. I would bus the tables, wash the dishes, and run food upstairs. If they had just one person doing each job on the same night, it would cost the management three times the money. There is another way to do what job enlargement does, and that is job rotation.
The second way is job rotation. Job rotation is just like job enlargement by training and teaching the workers to do several different jobs. By training your workers to do everyone's job you are enriching the workers job knowledge and benefitting the company. Because job rotations see the immediate results of their learning, they are more likely to develop a passion for learning about the job. Job rotation may be especially valuable for organizations that require firm-specific skills because it provides an incentive to organizations to promote from within because that is when they are most likely to find the needed skill sets.
