Job Enrichment

Job enrichment is based on the application of Herzberg's ideas and entail modifying a job such that an employee has the opportunity to experience achievement, recognition, stimulating work, responsibility and advancement and are incorporated into a job through vertical loading. Instead of loading a job horizontally (giving employees additional tasks of similar difficulty), vertical loading consists of giving workers more responsibility (Kreitner et al. 1999). Employees therefore take on chores normally performed by their supervisors. Kreitner et al. (1999) advises managers to follow seven principles when vertically loading jobs (see Table 3.3).

Herzberg's theory has unfortunately received scant empirical support (Swanepoel, 2000:359), however from an organisational-world perspective, it is appealing to managers and has been implemented in numerous organisations, such Hewlett-Packard (Ivancevich et al. 1996:165).

Kreitner, Kinicki and Buelens. 1999. Organisational Behaviour