Concept Of Job Enrichment

The concept of Job enrichment has become a fundamental tool for management in improving employees’ motivation and organizational growth. It occurs when an employer through development and intensification, placed extra amount of work on employees with the aim of making it more interesting, meaningful and increasing job challenge and responsibility. Jobs are enriched to motivate employees by adding to their responsibilities with a greater need for skill varieties in their jobs. Due to the rapid change in environment and increasing level of competitive rivalry, organizations are now beginning to shift from the traditional orientation of seeing money as the greatest motivating factor to a situation where workers today will continue to value their

This implies that workers can sense job dissatisfaction when they realize their jobs lack necessary challenge(s), lack of adequate recognition, respect, creativity and other motivators, repetitive procedures, or a highly bureaucratic and over-controlled authority structure. Job enrichment, according to Kotila (2001) is a job design technique that is useful in providing autonomy and encouraging employees’ initiative towards high quality performance and job excellence. Mione (2004) sees Job enrichment as a managerial activity intended to provide employees with the necessary resourcing strategies to facilitate skill development opportunities. Ralph Brown (2004) concluded that enriching job brings about internal work motivation and not just more work for them to do. Hence, Job enrichment serves as a roadmap to job fulfillment by improving the level of employees’ responsibility, acknowledgement, creativity, autonomy and control of the job to be performed in the organization. Job enrichment is a motivational need giving to an employee to increase the opportunity to optimally and effectively utilize his talents, abilities, and capacities towards the realization of organizational

Several studies have indicated that when tasks are routine, monotonous, repetitive and unrewarding with an over controlled authority structure, workers tend to be highly dissatisfied, bored and de-motivated. Job enrichment in organizational development has contributed in reducing these de-motivating factors by giving employees the right of decision making (Derek, & Laura, 2000), and control over their task in order to promote healthier performance to the workplace (Garman, Davis-Lenane, and Corrigan, 2003). Though Brown (2004) argued that “Job enrichment doesn't work for everyone”. The principle of individual differences indicate that some people tend to assume more responsibilities which later leads to skill varieties, self-sufficiency, personal growth and satisfaction while others resist (Hower,