Job Enrichment

The following entry is the one originally submitted by the contributors. The previous version of this entry that appeared in the original printing of the encyclopedia was not the one submitted by the contributors and was mistakenly used by the Publisher. The entry was written by Drs. Efthimios Poulis and Konstantinos Poulis, and the Publisher apologizes for submitting the wrong version of this entry for publication.

Job enrichment arises with the inherent need of employees to be satisfied with their jobs and the tasks that need to be accomplished. Daily tasks and routines might lead employees to lose their interest in their jobs and subsequently become dissatisfied and lose their morale. Similarly, job content and intrinsic motivation factors such as job scope, the lack of complexity and challenge of work duties routine, job stress, lack of intrinsic or internal motivation, lack of job involvement, and lack of managerial motivation and support can lead to the dissatisfaction of employees. This can have an adverse impact on organizational practices as well as on the productivity of the company.

One way of motivating employees to perform better and to increase the commitment to the organization is through redesigning and enriching their job descriptions and task specifications. Job enrichment, sometimes also referred to as vertical role integration, offers greater scope for personal achievement and recognition on the job. Job enrichment is an attempt to motivate employees by giving them the opportunity to use a wide range of their abilities, knowledge, and skills. It allows employees to perform beyond their predefined duties, to feel valuable to the organization, and to further contribute to the realization of organizational goals and targets. It provides scope for challenging and responsible work. Job enrichment also offers opportunities for continuous growth and advancement. Job enrichment can take a variety of forms and arise for many reasons, but it normally involves many aspects such as variety of tasks or skills, autonomy, and completeness, namely, the extent to which the job produces an identifiable end result that the person can point to.

[Page 958]Job enrichment can take two forms. The first one is to increase responsibility for decisions traditionally made by supervisors. For instance, certain tasks could include scheduling of work and allocation of tasks. This increased responsibility gives employees the autonomy to perform their duties without direct and strict supervision that occasionally can lead to demotivation and increased stress in the workplace. The second form refers to upgrading jobs to include additional skilled tasks that are not elements of supervisory work, like machine maintenance and ordering supplies. This provides employees with a range of tasks and challenges of varying difficulties that will help them engage in their work. Ideally, these two forms of job enrichment should also contain feedback, encouragement, and communication so as to further motivate employees to go beyond their duties and perform better. Getting feedback on their performance means that errors can be detected and corrected so as to improve the productivity and accountability of workers. Therefore, if employees perform their jobs correctly, then satisfaction is greater, performance is improved, and this leads to enhanced motivation and organizational commitment.

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