Job Enlargement

It is a process of increasing the scope of a job by adding more tasks to it.The related tasks are combined.The widwned and more complex job is expected to satisfy the higer order needs of employee.Due to varity of tasks,an employee gets the opportunity to make greater use of his mind and skills.In words of Strauss ans Styles,"It implies taht,instead of assinning of one man to each job,a group of men can be assigned a group of tasks and then allowed to decide to themselves how to organise the work such changes permit more social contract and grreater control over the work process".

Definition: 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. It is different than job enrichment (see sidebar).

Examples: Small companies may not have as many opportunities for promotions, so they try to motivate employees through job enlargement.

What is Job Enlargement?

Job enlargement (sometimes also referred to as “horizontal loading”) involves the addition of extra, similar, tasks to a job.

In job enlargement, the job itself remains essentially unchanged. However, by widening the range of tasks that need to be performed, hopefully the employee will experience less repetition and monotony that are common on production lines which rely upon the division of labour.
With job enlargement, the employee rarely needs to acquire new skills to carry out the additional task, and the motivational benefits of job enrichment are not usually experienced.
One important negative aspect is that job enlargement is sometimes viewed by employees as a requirement to carry out more work for the same amount of pay.

"Job enlargement is doing different tasks and not just the same thing all the time. It may involve taking on more duties and adds variety to a person's job. Horizontal loading is often used which is giving people more jobs to do that require the same level of skill".