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.
Examples:
Small companies may not have as many opportunities for promotions, so they try to motivate employees through job enlargement.
"Job enlargement refers to adding a few more task elements horizontally."
"Job enlargement involves performing a variety of jobs or operations at the same time. Thus it involves horizontal job loading as compared to vertical one in job enrichment."
"Job enlargement focuses on enlarging jobs by increasing tasks and responsibilities. It involves expansion of the scope and width of the job by means of a horizontal loading of certain closely related operations."
For example
If a clerk in an office who is doing the typing work is asked to type 20 letters a day instead of 10 letters, his job is enlarged.
Another way of job enlargement is that the clerk who is doing the typing work may also be assigned the tasks of drafting letters, sorting of incoming mail and filing the letters. This will reduce his monotony and make him satisfied with the job. His efficiency will also improve.
ADVANTAGES OF JOB ENLARGEMENT
Argyris feels that "job enlargement avoids monotony which is the result of high degree of specialisation and division of labour. Since a person performs a variety of jobs, he remains interested in this variety."
An enlarged job can motivate the worker in the following ways.
1. Variety of tasks: - In job enlargement, horizontal loading of the tasks is in there. Increasing the number of tasks can reduce the level of boredom of the employees.
2. Enlarged and Meaningful Work Modules: - Sometimes, the jobs are enlarged so that one worker completes a whole unit of work or a major portion of it. This will increase the satisfaction of the worker as he can see his contribution to the entire