Script for Chapter 04 –

Developing Job-Descriptions,
Job Specifications – I
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

Chapter 04 - Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

Hi! Welcome to the fourth session in the course HRM for Non-HR Managers.

Today we are going to discuss Job Design leading to Job Analysis, understand the
development of Job Descriptions and Job Specifications derived from job analysis, and
will integrate all the concepts learned so far in a practical illustration.

As part of discussion on Job Analysis, we will include the factors affecting job analysis,
contemporary issues in Job Analysis and how these will affect the functioning of non HR
managers.

Managers routinely hire, train, and pay the employees. But, what if they do not have an
insight in systematically deciding what each employee is expected to do? It is possible
that the contribution of an employee and compensation to the employee may not be in
balance in that case. For large organization with hundreds of employees working, there
would be serious consequences of imbalance between employee contribution and
employee compensation. Systematic designing of jobs is one approach that can help
managers achieve that balance across the organization.

Next, we discuss the meaning of job design. Not all the jobs in an organization can be
an equal source of motivation. Sometimes that cannot be helped, but with job design, it
is possible to balance different aspects of a job so that it can offer maximum possible
motivation to its incumbent. One of the most widely accepted way of job designing is by
paying attention to the job characteristics. Two researchers, Richard Hackman, and
Greg Oldham theorised that the jobs can be a source of motivation through five
characteristics: first, the variety of skills it requires, second, the identity of the task, third,
the significance of the task, fourth, the autonomy that the incumbent can exercise, and
finally, the fifth, feedback available to the incumbent of the job. The argument Hackman
and Oldham used was that each of these five characteristics creates a psychological
state for the employee performing that job, which influences their motivation, job
performance, satisfaction, and intentions to leave.
HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 2
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

For example, if the job of a receptionist is to answer phone calls, it becomes a

monotonous and boring job. In terms of job characteristics, transferring and dialling tens
or hundreds of calls every day forever can cause irritation, fatigue, and a strong feeling
that the task at hand is meaningless. In a relatively small organization, this job often
involves periods of no activity, leading other people to perceive that the clerk ‘does
nothing’ or is ‘free all the time’. Dhiren Kamania, the promoter of a submersible pumps
manufacturing company said that they redesigned that job to include several other
components for the receptionist clerk. The incumbent was assigned the tasks of
managing the phone desk and receiving the guests and in addition, the incumbent also
managed the correspondence of specific departments, and acted as a point of contact
for the couriers for the entire organization. To some, what may seem like a burdensome
workload, the redesigned job engaged a wide variety of the employee skills. It also
presented visible identity to the tasks performed, and the timeliness and accuracy
presented the job with greater significance. Autonomy in the job was perceived through
the relatively flexible order of the tasks for the day while remaining responsible for the
desired outcomes. Through the persons requesting the services, the receptionists could
clearly understand if their job was done effectively or not. After the change, the
employer and employee both are satisfied and the employee has shown inclination to
get involved in the company’s continuous improvement program.

Not all organizations can redesign all the jobs. Some organizations rotate their
employees periodically among jobs which have similar demands of skills at the same
level in the organization. Automobile manufacturing industry widely uses job rotation for
its employees.

It is also possible to enrich some jobs with motivating elements. Enriched jobs involve
combining fragmented tasks together and forming natural work-units of related tasks to
form a meaningful whole, putting the employee in direct relationship with the clients,
allowing employee to share in the control and responsibility which was reserved for the
senior managers, and finally, letting them know how they are performing. The example
of receptionist at the pump manufacturing company comes much close to job
enrichment.
HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 3
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

Managers have an opportunity to review if the newly opened positions have a potential
to be intrinsically motivating because of their characteristics.

On conceptual level, managers think about the motivational characteristics of the job,
while at an applied level, they need to think of what the job would entail and what kind of
people to hire for the job.

A crucial link between the two is provided by Job Analysis. Dessler and Varkkey list the
following six dimensions of information segregated by Job analysis. We will understand
each of them using the example of a janitor’s job.

The first element is work activities performed as part of the job. In case of the janitor,
the list could include dusting, sweeping, wet-wiping surfaces and floors, removing
cobwebs, emptying, cleaning and re-positioning dustbins, placing waste at appropriate
place for collection, notifying office about replenishing cleaning supplies at appropriate
time, keeping cleaning tools clean and stowing them appropriately after use, storing
cleaning supplies at designated place, and responding to additional cleaning requests
and needs as appropriate.

The second element of job analysis is listing human behaviors associated with
performance of the job. For the job of a janitor, examples of human behaviors could be
moving in steps, climbing, walking, crouching, and lifting weight.

The third element of job analysis is list of machines, tools, equipment, and work aids.
Don’t forget to include your favorite brand of broom in this category!

The fourth element of job analysis is performance standards, which can be quantitative
and qualitative. For the job of a janitor, the example of quantitative standard may
include the frequency of cleaning the premises - for example, minimum two times a day
for the floors. Qualitative standard may require mirrors to be spotless.

The fifth element provides the job context and relates to physical working conditions,
work schedule, and the organizational and social context. For a janitor, the example of
work setting or physical working conditions could refer to dealing with acids,
disinfectants and detergents (to which some people may be allergic), or dust and odor.
HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 4
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

Schedule could entail completion of cleaning work before 7am. The organizational and
social context may provide information on who the incumbent will interact with - for
example, the office clerk.

Lastly, the sixth element of human requirement would compile information on job related
knowledge or skills, or required personal attributes. Try to guess what would these be
for the job of a janitor. If it helps, and if you are interested, you can read more about Job
Analysis and its detailed steps in the online content area.

You may be thinking that this is a lot of work for the job of a janitor. I don’t blame you!
But think of other jobs with more direct consequences for the organization’s
performance and its outcomes. What if these elements were unclear, ill-defined, and
ambiguous? Or worse, simply left unstated?

If you are wondering where the information compiled through job analysis is used, I
would say you could go back to the first session and cover almost all of the functions
within HRM and general management: Recruitment and selection, compensation,
performance appraisal, training, legal compliance, and assessing the tasks and duties
which have remained unassigned.

Typically, managers in small, informal, and flexible organizations argue that they do not
perform job analysis. That also implies that the job descriptions and job specifications
may not be developed.

One can understand their concerns that they do not have staff with specialized skills to
perform job analysis and develop job descriptions (JD) and Job Specifications (JS). In a
small but rapidly growing, busy businesses, people may not have time to work on these.
Some managers may be genuinely concerned that job analysis leading to JD and JS
would instil rigidity in the workplace and people would then refuse work in other roles
involving other responsibilities.

There is a point in these issues. However, the issues are not beyond solutions.
Sometimes the benefits of job analysis and development of JDs and JSs would
outweigh the costs, so to say.

HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 5
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

For example, shortage of time can be managed by taking the development of job
analysis, JDs and JSs gradually, one by one. If the organization is small and informal
and has no HR specialist or access to consultants, the managers can start with draft
descriptions and then improve them over time using observation or help from current
employees’ logs. If the job roles are required to be flexible, multiple jobs may be
assigned to one person and there may be discussions, negotiations, and reassignments
of responsibilities based on the prevailing circumstances. If all of the HR processes
cannot be based on job analysis, some of them could, for example, promotions or
training and development.

The fact is that as the organization grows along its life cycle, the way to leverage its
creativity and vision is through establishing systems, of which job analysis is a part.
Without it, what seems like flexibility may in effect breed adhocism and confusion.

Consider the figure below, depicting the organizational life cycle with various challenges
and remedies for each of its phase. The figure is based on the frameworks given by
Greiner in 1972 and Quinn and Camaron in 1983.

The figure suggests that Leadership shows the way to creativity, and the organization
moves from launch phase to the growth phase. But without effective delegation and
control, the organization might decline. Establishing systems helps delegate
responsibilities effectively and exercising effective control over operations. If the job
analysis has helped develop effective job descriptions and job specifications, then the
organization may sustain the growth.

So, we move to development of job descriptions and job specifications. We would like to
point out that not all organizations may have the same content or length of descriptions
and specifications for a given job, for example that of a quality inspector, or office clerk.
In fact, the job descriptions and job specifications may change within the same
organization as it evolves over time.

As I said before, you can read more about Job Analysis and its steps in the online
content area. We now move on to Job Descriptions.

HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 6
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

A job description is a written statement of what the worker or employee does, how he or
she is expected to do it, and what the job’s working conditions are. You are right, this is
derived directly from the job analysis.

This information is used to develop job specification. A Job Specification lists the
knowledge, abilities, and skills required to perform the described job satisfactorily. There
is no standard format for writing a job description. However, most descriptions contain
the following:

1. Job identification
2. Job summary

HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 7
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

3. Responsibilities and duties

4. Authority of incumbent
5. Standards of performance
6. Working conditions
7. Job specification

Job identification, the first section (on top) contains the job title, which specifies the
name of the job, such as supervisor of data processing operations, or inventory control
clerk.

Job summary, the second section mentions its significant functions or activities. A
mailroom supervisor receives, sorts, and delivers all incoming mail accurately, and he or
she handles all outgoing mail including the accurate and timely posting of such mail.
Often it also includes general statements like performs other assignments as required
with care. Some experts believe that statements like that leave the nature of the job
open. As we have mentioned before, it would be better to develop two separate job
descriptions and assign them to one person.

Finally, the summary should make it clear that the employer expects the employee to
carry out his or her duties efficiently, attentively, and conscientiously.

The section of Relationships is a statement that shows the job holders relationships with
others inside and outside the organisation. For a human resource manager, such a
statement might look like this:
● Reports to: Vice president of employee relations.
● Supervises: Human resource clerk, test administrator, labour relations director,
and one secretary.
● Works with: All department managers and executive management.
o Outside the company: Employment agencies, executive recruiting firms,
union representatives, state and federal employment offices, and various
vendors.
HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 8
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

Then, the Responsibilities and Duties section is the heart of the job description. It
should list significant responsibilities and duties of the job. Again, job analysis is the
source of this information.

The standards of performance and working conditions follow next. Defining standards of
performance may be difficult to spell out, but the effort is worth all of the effort and
perhaps more. The standards may be defined in terms of accuracy, schedules, or
timeliness. Telephone receptionists, for example, may be expected to answer the call
within the first three rings. A work group may be expected to produce a predetermined
number of acceptable units in a shift.

Finally, we move to writing Job Specifications.

The job specification takes the job description as a basis and helps determine the
human qualities and experience required to do a given job effectively. It shows what
kind of person to recruit and for what qualities you should test that person. It may be a
section of the job description or a separate document.

Job specifications for standard jobs performed by trained persons might be

straightforward and focus mostly on characteristics like the desired experience, quality
of relevant training, and previous job performance. The challenge may be to develop job
specification for a non-standard job, or for the profiles which are uncommon.

You can read more about job descriptions and job specifications in the online content
area of this course.

One major problem related with development of detailed job description and job
specification is that once shared with the employee, the content of the job, and the tasks
become narrowly and rigidly understood as ‘my job’, and hinders flexibility and change.

HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 9
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

‘This is not my job’ - as my employees resist doing anything other than what was the
given job description at the time of employment.

Many organizations are, therefore shifting their focus from tasks to the competencies
that describe the job.

Dessler defined competencies as demonstrable characteristics of a person that enable

the job performance. That means that these competencies are observable, measurable
behaviors which comprise parts of a job.

By way of an example, Dessler presented example of one of the technical

competencies of a systems engineer as “Prepare comprehensive and complete
documentation including specification, flow diagrams, process patrols, and budgets.”
Apart from technical competencies required for a job, there may be general
competencies, leadership competencies, and such.

For now, it is time to consolidate the learning so far with the help of one example which
integrates trends in the external environment with the strategy of the organization, its
projections about the productivity, estimation about positions, and the plans for hiring
linked with Job analysis.

We take the example of a luxury hotel in the hotel industry1.

Located within the service sector of the economy, hospitality goes together with tourism
as people need hospitality when they travel. By way of hospitality, hotels cater to a
range of services including rooms, travel support, and food and beverages, restaurants
and catering, recreation (such as theme parks), and events (such as weddings). Hotels
in India are categorized into star rated (5-star deluxe and 5-star; 3--star and 4-star; and
1-star and 2--star) hotels, heritage hotels (Grand, Classic, and Basic), budget hotels,
resorts (including timeshare), licensed units (service apartments and other licensed

1
Source: compiled by principal investigator from secondary sources.
HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 10
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

units), and unclassified hotels. There are other ways of classifying hotels, for example
whether they are domestic or international, a single – ‘independent’ – property or a
chain of ‘brand’ hotels, and so on.

A hotel, depending on the range of services it offers, has two parts: the direct operations
such as serving and housekeeping which brings the staff into contact with customers,
and back-end operations such as facility maintenance and kitchen operations. Major
source of revenue for a regular hotel is from the rooms, followed by the sale of food and
beverages and banquets, along with some other miscellaneous sources. In this
example, we consider a full-service luxury hotel. Anyone who is interested in HR
Planning may closely follow the trends in the industry, and how they would shape the
demand for the rooms. Consider the following figure.

In the example we present, the scenario is that the Area General Manager has left the
hotel for better job prospects. Hence, the General Manager has been promoted as the
new Area General Manager, and the Assistant General Manager is also promoted as
the General Manager. New Assistant General Manager is to be recruited. As decided by
the senior management, this post will be open for external recruitment.

Consider the Job description given below, retrieved from https://www.utc.edu/university-

career-services//pdfs/asstmgr.pdf

HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 11
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

Global hotel industry in 2017 was estimated

to have a stock of 17.2 million rooms worldwide

53% of which was within the branded segment, Presents

approximately 9 million rooms
global
context of
Five major players have 24% of global room the business
supply, approximately 2 million rooms
and
organization
Hotel group X has 798,075 rooms across its 13
different products, 11% of which are in Asia,
Middle East and Africa

Ahmedabad ranks 9th in the country in terms of

room-Inventory of 3,154 at the end of 2015-16,
but at 12.4% rate of 5-year combined annual Brings in the
growth it is second fastest. local
context of
Future growth estimated for Ahmedabad is the business
39%, resulting in room inventory of 4,329.
and the
CAGR for upscale hotels is 33%
organization
Future growth estimated for Ahmedabad is
39%, resulting in room inventory of 4,392. CAGR
for upscale hotels is 33%

The addition of 1238 rooms is expected by Establishes

2021. The average ratio of employees to rooms productivity
is 2.01. The use of technology is causing the
ratio which
ratio to be smaller. Also, general environment
being favorable to the Industry may not require can be used
marketing push. The differentiating factor to estimate
By this Hotel Group X has been identified as workload
quality of customer service.

HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 12
 Developing Job-Descriptions, Job Specifications – I

If so much information if given to you, can you draft the Job Specification for the job of
Assistant General Manager of a hotel? Discuss with us at the discussion forum! In this
session we discussed Job Analysis, Job Description, and Job Specification in detail,
some of them with examples. We will see you soon in the next session. Thank you.

HRM For Non-HR Managers /MOOC-2020 /B K School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat
University 13