A manager has allowed a subordinate employee to have greater control and responsibility over the tasks that he performs This is an example of which of the following?

Job enrichment is a job design technique that involves enhancing a job by adding more meaningful tasks and responsibilities to make the work more rewarding and motivating. This process, often called "vertical loading," focuses on increasing an employee's autonomy, control, and responsibility over their work. The manager's action of allowing a subordinate greater control and responsibility directly aligns with the core principles of job enrichment, which aims to increase intrinsic motivation by improving the quality of the work experience itself.

A. Job enlargement: This involves adding more tasks at the same level of skill and responsibility (horizontal loading), not increasing control or authority.
C. Horizontal loading of the job: This is another term for job enlargement and involves expanding the number of tasks, not the depth of responsibility.
D. Job rotation: This practice involves moving an employee between different jobs to develop a wider range of skills, not changing the responsibilities within a single job. ---

1. Herzberg, F. (1968). One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? Harvard Business Review, 46(1), 53–62. In this foundational article, Herzberg distinguishes "vertical job loading" (enrichment), which includes adding accountability and granting more authority, from "horizontal job loading" (enlargement).

2. Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16(2), 250–279. This paper introduces the Job Characteristics Model, where "autonomy"—the degree to which the job provides freedom, independence, and discretion—is a critical psychological state for motivation. The scenario directly describes an increase in autonomy. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90016-7)

3. MIT OpenCourseWare. (2004). 15.301 Managerial Psychology, Lecture Notes, Lecture 10: Motivation and Job Design. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The lecture notes define job enrichment as "building motivators into the job" by increasing responsibility, autonomy, and control, contrasting it with job enlargement, which only adds more tasks.