AN EVALUATION OF JOB ENRICHMENT IMPLICATION AND APPLICATION A CASE STUDY OF FIRST BANK PLC.

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

To enrich a position, first brainstorm a list of potential changes to the position. Once you have a list of options, Herzberg recommends using the following seven principles to review the options, and shortlist only those that invoke one or more of the following: Removing some controls while retaining accountability ;Increasing the accountability of individuals for own work giving a person a complete, natural unit of work ;Granting additional authority to employees in their activity ;Making periodic reports directly available to the workers themselves rather than to supervisors ;Introducing new and more difficult tasks not previously handled ;Assigning individuals specific or specialized tasks; enabling them to become experts .For example, you might have on your list 'Allow staffer A to present the monthly report directly to senior management.' When you review this option against our list above, you find that it will meet the following goals: ;Increasing the accountability of individuals for own work - by having them present directly to senior staff. ;Granting additional authority to employees in their activity - by trusting them to make a presentation to a second level manager. Advantages;Learn new skills:By having more responsibilities, the employee will have the chance to work on new tasks and therefore learn new skills. Decision making can lead to the employee to think, decide, and try new things. By having to learn new skills, the employee has the opportunity to become proficient at certain tasks and even become experts.Reduceboredom:Job enrichment focuses on giving employees more variety and responsibilities. The target of job enrichment is to reduce the chance of boredom from the repetitive, tedious activities.Creates a better work environment: The net result of job enrichment is an overall more positive environment that promotes maximum productivity. This is simply because employees who are treated better tend to have better attitudes around the work place and tend to spread that positivism around the office.DisadvantagesLack of preparation: Because employees are given more activities and responsibilities in job enrichment, they do not necessarily have the right skills or experience for the job. Because the employee is not prepared or trained enough to do the activity, then they may not be as efficient as someone who is already trained or skilled in that particular activity. As a result, they may have a lower productivity rate.Heavier Workload: Job enrichment increases the employee’s overall workload. This requires skill in reprioritization for the employee. Some employees may not be able to quickly adjust to their new responsibilities. Employees may feel overloaded and tired, so they may have a lower productivity rate.Clash with Non-participants: Understandably, not every employee at a company can participate in job enrichment. Those who cannot join may feel disconnected from the company and not part of the team. The employees who cannot join may even feel jealous towards participants.Poor Performance: As a result of lack of preparation and heavier workload, some employees may not perform as efficient as prior to job enrichment. These employees may actually work better in a non job-enriching environment. By not doing as well as desired, they may feel inept. Their poor performance may lead to demotions, which tends to have a negative impact on the employee’s self –confidence and motivation.Job enrichment, as a managerial activity includes a three steps technique:Turn employees' effort into performance: Ensuring that objectives are well-defined and understood by everyone. The overall corporate mission statement should be communicated to all. Individual's goals should also be clear. Each employee should know exactly how he/she fits into the overall process and be aware of how important their contributions are to the organization and its customers.Providing adequate resources for each employee to perform well. This includes support functions like information technology, communication technology, and personnel training and development.Creating a supportive corporate culture. This includes peer support networks, supportive management, and removing elements that foster mistrust and politicking.Free flow of information. Eliminate secrecy.Provide enough freedom to facilitate job excellence. Encourage and reward employee initiative. Flextime or compressed hours could be offered.Provide adequate recognition, appreciation, and other motivators.Provide skill improvement opportunities. This could include paid education at universities or on the job training.Provide job variety. This can be done by job sharing or job rotation programmes.It may be necessary to re-engineer the job process. This could involve redesigning the physical facility, redesign processes, change technologies, simplification of procedures, elimination of repetitiveness, redesigning authority structures.Link employees performance directly to reward: Clear definition of the reward is a must.Explanation of the link between performance and reward is important.Make sure the employee gets the right reward if performs well.If reward is not given, explanation is needed.Make sure the employee wants the reward. How to find out? .Ask them.Usesurveys( checklist, listing, questions). Once you know what the employees want, give them the tools they need to earn it and follow through on your word..the research therefore seek to evaluate job enrichment ,its implication and application with a case study of first bank plc