How do most employees react to job enrichment

The concept of employee participation is common to many different discipline areas in the social sciences. The form participation takes varies considerably depending on the discipline. On the one hand, it can relate to trade union representation through joint consultative committees and collective bargaining, to worker cooperatives or to legislation designed to provide channels for employee representatives to engage in some form of joint decision making with employers. On the other hand, it can encompass myriad mechanisms that employers introduce in order to provide information to their staff or to offer them the chance to engage in joint problem-solving groups or use their skills at work via job-enrichment programmes.

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Content:

• how do most employees react to job enrichment?
• A new mandate for operations managers
• Employee motivation in logistics
• Job Enrichment Theory
• Conceptualizing Employee Participation in Organizations
• Potential pitfalls in employee participation
• What Are the Dangers of Using Job Enlargement & Enrichment in a Workplace?
• Emotions in the workplace
• Job characteristics: their relationship to job satisfaction, stress and depression
• Motivation

WATCH RELATED VIDEO: 7 Habits of Highly Effective Employees

how do most employees react to job enrichment?

This chapter uses the most recent version of Job Demands—Resources JD-R theory to explain how working conditions influence employees, and how employees influence their own working conditions. We show how employee self-undermining activates a loss cycle of job demands, strain, and negative behaviors over time, whereas employee job crafting activates a gain cycle of job resources, work engagement, and positive behaviors.

Moreover, we argue that employee well-being and organizational behavior is a function of factors located at different levels i. Although JD-R theory provides answers to many questions regarding employee well-being and performance, we discuss several issues that deserve research attention. The chapter closes with practical implications.

We discuss how managers and supervisors can help employees to avoid health problems and flourish at work.

Bakker, A. Multiple levels in job demands-resources theory: Implications for employee well-being and performance.

Diener, S. Tay Eds. Our knowledge about well-being at work comes from thousands of studies among the various stakeholders in organizational life: employees, their supervisors, HR managers, work teams, and clients. High-quality studies use multiple sources of information to investigate the predictors and outcomes of occupational well-being.

In the past decades, we have created a rich knowledge base about the psychosocial factors in the work environment that are responsible for the experience of job stress or well-being, as well as organizational behavior.

We know now which job demands and resources predict employee well-being and have an impact on performance e. However, one important problem of the current literature is that the vast majority of studies in occupational well-being follow a relatively simplistic stimulus-response model; assuming that employees are passive and simply react to the working conditions they are exposed to.

We argue that organizational life should be modeled at the various levels organization, team, individual , which influence each other within and over time. In this way, we can start to understand the stable and dynamic properties of occupational well-being. Using this multilevel approach, we can explain how managers and supervisors can help employees to avoid job stress, and enhance well-being and job performance.

Since the end products of modern labor are so diverse that they range from the optimization of search engines to the provision of personal health care, it is obvious that working conditions can differ dramatically between organizations. Job demands are the aspects of work that cost energy, like workload, complex tasks, and conflicts.

Job resources are the aspects of work that help employees to deal with job demands and achieve their goals. Job demands and resources have unique and independent effects on employee well-being Proposition 2.

As already proposed in the original version of the JD-R model Demerouti et al. In this case, job demands lead to chronic exhaustion and may eventually result in physical health problems including cardiovascular diseases. In contrast, job resources initiate a motivational process. Proposition 3 of JD-R theory is that job resources can buffer the impact of job demands on negative strain. Thus, even though job demands and job resources have clear and independent main effects, they also work in concert see Figure 1.

Job resources are instrumental in that they arm employees with the means it takes to cope with the job demands. Figure 1. The Job Demands—Resources model. Proposition 4 brings the JD-R theory one step further as it suggests that job resources particularly influence motivation and work engagement when job demands are high.

Thus, autonomy, skill variety, performance feedback, and task identity become particularly important when the job demands are very challenging. Particularly when employees are confronted with a high workload and with emotionally demanding clients, they can use their autonomy, skills, and sense of prosocial impact to deal persistently with these demands and choose the right approach.

Thus, job resources are particularly useful and motivating when needed. Proposition 5 is that personal resources such as optimism and self-efficacy play a similar role as job resources see Figure 1.

Personal resources refer to the beliefs people hold regarding how much control they have over their work environment. Individuals who are high in optimism and self-efficacy believe that good things will happen to them, and that they are capable of handling unforeseen events. Such beliefs help employees to actively approach their job demands and deal with them in an effective way.

Additionally, when nurses realize they have many personal resources, they are better able to deal with possible hindrance job demands, such as bureaucracy and conflicts. JD-R theory puts employee well-being center stage, but an important goal of the theory is to predict employee behavior and organizational outcomes absenteeism, productivity, organizational citizenship, client satisfaction. Proposition 6 is that motivation has a positive impact on job performance, whereas job strain has a negative impact on job performance.

Whereas motivation helps employees to be goal-directed and to focus all their energetic and cognitive resources on the tasks at hand, job strain impairs performance because it undermines the ability to focus.

Furthermore, combining daily diary reports with objective financial data, Xanthopoulou et al. As indicated in the opening paragraphs, most research in the domain of occupational health and well-being follows a stimulus-response model, thereby implicitly assuming that employees are passive and simply react to their working conditions. However, there is considerable evidence for the idea that employees play an active role in interpreting and modifying their working conditions.

These propositions are discussed in more detail below. In his conservation of resources theory, Hobfoll proposes that people who lack various types of resources e. Loss spirals will follow initial losses, with each loss resulting in depletion of resources for confronting the next threat or loss Hobfoll, For example, in a study on coping with traumatic stressors, Heath, Hall, Russ, Canetti, and Hobfoll found that exposure to political violence resulted in the loss of important personal and social resources.

Resources loss predicted psychological distress, which predicted further resource loss. It is important to note that resource loss also prevents the switching of the situation into gain cycles, because there are not enough resources to invest in order to gain new resources. For example, in the context of work, one could invest knowledge, energy, and time to learn new skills in order to qualify for a new job.

JD-R theory refers to loss cycles , because loss spirals eventually imply a complete depletion of resources. In most work organizations, people always have access to some resources. However, they may end up in a vicious cycle of resource loss in which one problem leads to another that aggravates the previous problem.

There is considerable evidence for loss cycles in an occupational context. Bakker, Schaufeli, Sixma, Bosveld, and Van Dierendonck found that general practitioners who had lost their enthusiasm and were more cynical towards their patients cynicism at the first wave of data collection faced more patient demands complaints, threats at the second wave five years later.

In a similar vein, Ten Brummelhuis, Ter Hoeven, Bakker, and Peper found that financial consultants who had lost their enthusiasm and showed more burnout complaints reported a stronger increase in work overload, work hours, and work-home barriers over a period of two years. In a recent study, Frins, van Ruysseveldt, Van Dam, and Van den Bossche found that older employees who lost their energy, felt exhausted and wished to retire at an earlier age reported more time pressure and more hectic work one year later.

Employees who experience high levels of job strain e. Proposition 7 in JD-R theory is that negative job strain leads to self-undermining behaviors, which result in higher levels of job demands, and even higher levels of job strain.

Bakker and Wang showed that employees who engaged in self-undermining behaviors i. Thus, self-undermining seems the consequence of high levels of job strain, and is the fuel of a loss cycle of high job demands and job strain see Figure 1. Longitudinal studies carried out in the past decade have also provided convincing evidence for gain cycles of job resources, well-being, and outcomes.

In addition, there was evidence for reversed causal effects. Among others, personal initiative positively influenced work engagement, and work engagement had a positive impact on future job resources, suggesting a gain cycle. In addition, they found that the relationship between work engagement and mental health was reciprocal. Thus, those who felt generally cheerful, active, rested, and interested at time 1 T1 were more likely to be engaged at work at T2, and those who were engaged at work at T1 were more likely to report a better general mental health at T2.

In their longitudinal study among engineers, Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Demerouti and Schaufeli b found that job resources predicted personal resources self-efficacy, optimism, and self-esteem and work engagement. They also found evidence for reversed causal effects from personal resources and work engagement to job resources — suggesting that those who were more self-efficacious, optimistic and enthusiastic at work gained more job resources over time.

Finally, using a sophisticated study design with three waves of data collection, Weigl and his colleagues found that hospital physicians with higher levels of job control and active coping, and better work relationships at T1, felt more engaged at T2 one year later. Work engagement, in turn, was a predictor of job control, active coping and high-quality work relationships at T3 eighteen months later.

Thus, T2 work engagement functioned as a mediator in the longitudinal relationship between T1 and T3 resources, suggesting a gain cycle of job resources. Taken together, these studies suggest that individuals who are engaged in their job are also motivated to stay engaged, and create their own resources e. This idea is again consistent with conservation of resources theory Hobfoll, ; Individuals are motivated to conserve their resources, and will try to expand these resources if possible.

The question is how employees manage to optimize their own work environment. JD-R theory acknowledges employees as active creators by modeling the loss and gain cycles employees initiate at work. We already saw that employees who are too strained by their job demands will become exhausted and initiate a loss cycle.

Their exhaustion increases the likelihood of self-undermining behaviors, which further increase job demands and exhaustion. In contrast, employees who are engaged at work are motivated to stay engaged. We suggest that these employees will proactively search for challenges in their work and for the resources needed to perform well. The latter behavior is called job crafting.

Job crafting. According to Wrzesniewski and Dutton , job crafting refers to the proactive changes employees make in their work tasks and their working relationships e. The authors argue that job crafting may also refer to a cognitive process in which employees try to alter their view of work to make it more meaningful.

More specifically, we propose that employees may increase their challenge job demands, increase their social and structural job resources, and decrease their hindrance job demands. A recent series of studies has indicated that job crafting can indeed lead to more job and personal resources and indirectly contribute to work engagement and job performance see Figure 1; Demerouti, , for an overview.

Proposition 8 in JD-R theory is that employees who are motivated by their work are likely to use job crafting behaviors, which lead to higher levels of job and personal resources, and even higher levels of motivation. Research of the past five years has provided convincing evidence for this process. For example, Tims, Bakker and Derks found that job crafting in the form of seeking challenges and resources predicted an increase in job resources, and indirectly related to increases in work engagement and job satisfaction.

Vogt, Hakanen, Brauchli, Jenny and Bauer showed with a longitudinal study that employees who proactively built a resourceful and challenging work environment for themselves, increased their own psychological capital hope, resilience, self-efficacy, and optimism and work engagement. Demerouti, Bakker, and Gevers showed that job crafting particularly increasing job resources was positively related to supervisor-ratings of contextual performance i.

In addition, job crafting was positively related to supervisor-ratings of creativity through work engagement and flourishing. Moreover, recent studies have shown that job crafting interventions in the form of training and self goal-setting can have favorable effects on employee well-being and job performance Gordon et al.

Unfortunately, however, most research seems to suggest that self-initiated job crafting in the form of reducing job demands is not an effective strategy to stop the loss cycle of high job demands and job strain Demerouti, JD-R theory outlines the processes through which job demands and resources influence occupational health, organizational behavior, and job performance.

Most JD-R research has investigated these processes at the individual, employee level. Thus, employees are asked to report about their own job demands and resources and well-being, and this is then related to self- or other-ratings of individual performance.

A new mandate for operations managers

For some of us, this is not our natural disposition. However, in the workplace, we need to speak up because it is part of all our jobs. Conflict is Needed at Times It is understandable if you want to avoid conflict. Yet, think of all you have accomplished by not speaking up. Management Style and Conflict Resolution Conflict will always be a problem in and outside of the work area, but there are resolutions to solving the conflict.

Employee motivation in logistics

Try out PMC Labs and tell us what you think. Learn More. This study investigated the influences of job characteristics on job satisfaction, stress and depression among South African white collar workers. Participants were managers in full-time employment with large organisations. A regression approach was used to predict job satisfaction, stress and depression from job characteristics. Job characteristics skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback predicted job satisfaction, as well as stress and depression. Job characteristics are weak predictors of perceived stress and depression. Work related factors, such as interpersonal relations and organisational culture, may better predict mental health in work settings.

Job Enrichment Theory

New York: Columbia University Press. When we refer to someone as being motivated, we mean that the person is trying hard to accomplish a certain task. Motivation is clearly important for someone to perform well. However, motivation alone is not sufficient.

Conceptualizing Employee Participation in Organizations

What term is used for the extent to which an individual displays different behaviors in different situations? Which of the following is not a typical option in a flexible benefit program? Individuals most often escalate commitment to a failing course of action when they view themselves as responsible for the failure. The managers perceived as important the aspects of a situation specifically related to their own unit's activities and goals. The child is paying attention, reproducing the behavior, and receiving reinforcement. Which of the following is not a factor in the individual perceiver?

Potential pitfalls in employee participation

This chapter uses the most recent version of Job Demands—Resources JD-R theory to explain how working conditions influence employees, and how employees influence their own working conditions. We show how employee self-undermining activates a loss cycle of job demands, strain, and negative behaviors over time, whereas employee job crafting activates a gain cycle of job resources, work engagement, and positive behaviors. Moreover, we argue that employee well-being and organizational behavior is a function of factors located at different levels i. Although JD-R theory provides answers to many questions regarding employee well-being and performance, we discuss several issues that deserve research attention. The chapter closes with practical implications. We discuss how managers and supervisors can help employees to avoid health problems and flourish at work. Bakker, A. Multiple levels in job demands-resources theory: Implications for employee well-being and performance.

What Are the Dangers of Using Job Enlargement & Enrichment in a Workplace?

Five studies carried out in British companies show how this concept may be applied in furthering the attainment of business aims. This article reports on five of a number of job enrichment studies which were and are still being carried out in Imperial Chemical Industries Limited and other British companies. The purpose of the studies was an attempt to shed light on important job enrichment questions dealing with 1 the generality of the findings, 2 the feasibility of making changes, and 3 the consequences to be expected. Among them, they cover not only widely different business areas and company functions, but also many types and levels of jobs.

Emotions in the workplace

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One of the most important components of human resources management is job design or work design, where the focus is on the specifications of the job that will satisfy requirements of the organization and the person holding the job. It is one core function of human resources management that cannot be overlooked or skipped, considering how it is an essential tool in ensuring high job satisfaction among workers within an organization, and improve productivity and the overall output. In the course of the life of an organization, there are changes that are bound to affect how various aspects of management operate. Human resources management is not immune to these effects and, many times, the HRM of an organization has to adapt to the changes. One form of adaptation is through implementing job or work redesigns.

Job characteristics: their relationship to job satisfaction, stress and depression

The job design approach was conceptualized from Frederick Winslow Taylor's research of time and motion and scientific management. Taylor was a mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency through education and experience in factory work during the post-Industrial Revolution era. This was a time in American history when a significant amount of the workforce consisted of uneducated, English, and illiterate immigrants. Taylor noticed that most jobs of this time were fairly simple, such as assembly line and factory jobs. He noticed several issues with this work setting.

Motivation

These researchers provided empirical evidence that conscious efforts by employers to increase employee discretion and job autonomy resulted in improved job satisfaction for employees and higher levels of organizational performance Appelbaum et al. Workforce involvement in decision-making may also be consistent with job enrichment…. Using Job Enrichment To Motivate Employees n the building service industry, no resource is more important than people. Direct labor typically accounts for more than 50 percent of gross revenue from an account.