Job Expansion: Understanding Its Mechanism, Benefits, Drawbacks
Job enlargement, a method used by companies to motivate employees, involves giving them more tasks without significantly changing the challenges. This approach can lead to several benefits, such as the development of skills in employees, aiding in their personal and professional growth.
One example of job enlargement is giving an employee in marketing additional tasks such as conducting consumer research to explore customer needs. This not only broadens their skillset but also increases their responsibilities, which can help reduce absenteeism.
However, job enlargement is not without its challenges. The success of this method depends on adjusting the workload to the individual capacity of employees. If the workload becomes too heavy, it can lead to stress, decreased productivity, and potential declines in the quality of work as employees prioritize getting work done over maintaining high standards.
Employees may also lose motivation over time due to the increased workload. To mitigate this, companies need to provide appropriate support, such as adequate resources and proper training, for employees to complete their additional tasks effectively.
In the short term, companies can save costs because existing employees have the capacity to do more tasks, reducing the need to recruit and train new employees. Moreover, job enlargement can encourage job satisfaction and motivation in the short term. It can also increase employee pride as they feel trusted by the company and their efforts are directed towards achieving what the company targets for their work.
On the other hand, long-term costs may increase due to declining employee productivity and costs incurred to train employees to adapt to the enlarged job. Additionally, job enlargement can give rise to industrial problems, such as employees feeling exploited due to increased workload without increased compensation.
Despite the absence of specific companies being named in recent years as having explicitly introduced job enlargement as a motivation method for employees, it is expected to reduce boredom due to doing the same task repeatedly. Furthermore, job enlargement does not change the overall authority and autonomy of the employees.
In conclusion, while job enlargement can offer benefits in terms of employee development and motivation, it is crucial for companies to manage the workload effectively to avoid potential negative impacts on productivity and employee well-being.
