JOB ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

Concept and need for job analysis.

Job analysis refers to the systematic investigation of a job’s content, that is to say, the physical circumstances
under which a job is carried out and the attributes needed to competently perform the tasks inherent in a job.
It is the process of collecting information about jobs existing in an organization. In other words, it refers to
the anatomy of a job.

In order to appreciate the concept of job analysis, it is important to first understand the meaning of the term
“job” itself. According to Dale Yodes,1 “A job is a collection or aggregation of tasks, duties and
responsibilities which as a whole is regarded as a regular assignment to individual employees and which is
different from other assignments”. Each job has a definite title based on profession, trade or specialization
associated with a job e.g. Accountant, secretary, legal officer, marketing manager, etc.

Each of these jobs have different duties, responsibilities, knowledge and skills required for their performance.

Definition of Job Analysis

Job analysis has been defined differently by various writers but a common feature running through these
definitions is the central role occupied by job analysis in the performance of all other activities in the HR
function in an organization. . The following are a few of those definitions:

“Job Analysis is the process of collecting, analyzing and setting out information about the content of jobs in
order to provide the basis for a job description and data for recruitment, training, job evaluation and
performance management…”2

“Job Analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations and
responsibilities of a specific job. The immediate products of this analysis are job descriptions and job
specifications”.3

“Job Analysis is the process of getting information about jobs: specially, what the worker does, how he gets it
done, why he does it, skill, education and training required, relationship to other jobs, physical demands;
environmental conditions”.4

1
Dale Yoder: Personnel Management and Industrial Relations, Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, 1975.
2
Michael Armstrong: A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 9th edition pg.174.
3
Edwin B. Flippo. Personnel Management, McGraw-Hill, New York. 1984 p. 114.
4
Jean J. Jones and Thomas Detotris: Job Analysis: Personnel Journal, Oct. 1969 pg. 805.

1
In short, job analysis is the assessment that describes jobs, skills and competencies required to perform them.
Job analysis produces the following information about a job:

Overall Purpose – Why the job exists. What the job holder is expected to contribute to the organization.

Job Content – Nature and scope of the job in terms of tasks and operations to be performed, i.e. process of
converting inputs (knowledge, skills and abilities) into outputs (results).

Key Result Areas: Results or outcomes for which job holder is accountable, e.g. for Accountants one of the
result areas would be preparation and publication of financial statements; company secretary – convening of
board meetings, issues of statutory and regulatory compliances, preparation of minutes, etc.

Technological dimension of jobs: That is physical working conditions, tools, equipments and machines used
in the job. This is aimed at assessing risk factors associated with the job. This dimension also analysis the
physical, mental and emotional demands of a job e.g. unsocial working hours, mobility, health and safety
considerations..

Organizational factors: Reporting relationship of job holder i.e. to whom he or she reports to directly or
indirectly; people reporting directly or indirectly to the job holder and the extent to which the job holder is
involved in team work.

Motivating factors: Particular features of a job that are likely to motivate or demotivate job holders if not
addressed.

Development factors: Promotion and career prospects and the opportunity to acquire new skills and
expertise by employees / job holders.

METHODS OF JOB ANALYSIS

Job analysis is the process of obtaining pertinent information about a job. So the question arises – how is job
related data collected?

2
Traditional method used for job analysis was observation supplemented by interviews but in recent years
several other methods have emerged. The following is a brief description of each method.

Observation
This involves observing employees while at work. The job analyst observes and records what the worker
does how he/she does it and how much time is needed for completion of a task. This method is suitable only
for jobs that consist of primarily visible activities, abilities and whose tasks have short term cycles e.g.
mechanics, secretaries/typists, draughtsman, etc. It is however not suitable for jobs that require mental
synthesis since they are not visible for observation e.g. the process of decision making for judges (or
magistrates). The process is more reliable if done by a fair and impartial observer with expertise in that field.

Questionnaire
This is suitable where the number of people doing the same job is large and to personally interview each
worker is time consuming and impracticable. It is also appropriate where giving employees enough time is
desirable to enable them divulge in detail special aspects of their job. In this method, employees are given a
structured questionnaire to complete which they hand over to their supervisor. The supervisor after correcting
information provided hands over the questionnaires to the job analyst.

Disadvantage: information collected is in most cases inaccurate since employees due to lack of training and
skill do not express job related information in a clear and meaningful fashion. It is also time consuming and
costly.

Interview
This method is suitable for jobs where direct observation is not possible i.e. managerial and professional jobs.
The job analyst directly interviews the hob holder through a structured interview to elicit information about
the job.

Disadvantage: time consuming and costly. Possibility of bias by either respondent or interviewer (depends
on how questions are asked and answered).

Checklists
Checklists are prepared according to job information obtained from various sources e.g. personnel records,
supervisors, etc. It is a form of questionnaire that contains a few subjective questions in form of yes or no.

3
The job holder is asked to tick the tasks that are related to his job, time spent on each task and type of training
and experience required to do each task.

Method is suitable in large organizations where a number of workers are assigned one job.

Diaries or Log records

In this method the holder is required to maintain a diary recording in detail job related activities each day. It
is meant to overcome memory lapses by job holder.

Critical incidents
This is concerned with unique aspects of the three dimensions of a job i.e. content, context and attributes of
job holder. It is based on job holders past experiences on the job. They are asked to recapture the past critical
incidents of the job. The same are classified into various categories and analyzed.

Conclusion
There is no one method that is more effective than the other or exclusive. The method to be used in each case
depends on the job being analyzed. A combination of several methods is recommended as it is expected to
produce optimum results.

Outcomes of Job Analysis

There are two basic outcomes/results of job analysis. These are
1. Job description
2. Job specification

Job description

A job description is a written summary of the basic tasks associated with a particular job.
It contains the following:
 Job title and identity
 The location
 The responsibilities/result areas (duties to be performed and expected outputs).
 Position relationships – how the job relates with others (reporting relationships).

4
Typical examples of job descriptions and specification are found in newspaper advertisements for positions
vacant in companies engaged in recruitment exercises.
Job specification
This identifies the minimum acceptable qualifications, competences and attributes which a job holder must
have in order to perform a given job effectively with minimum supervision. It specifies characteristics such
as:
 Minimum academic qualifications
 Experience (relevant)
 Age: Is there a relationship between age and ability to do the job?
 Depends on organizations age profile, status of organization – is it undergoing change?
 Age used to measure a person’s resourcefulness e.g. wisdom, experience and time left for
organization to benefit from employee.
 Gender: brought about by concerns of discrimination especially against women. Adverts like
“women are particularly encouraged to apply” shows that gender is a specification for a particular job
 Ethnicity, race, religion- not directly stated but are mostly camouflaged in the description of job
content e.g. by saying “applicant will be required to speak fluently in Gujerati or any ethnic
languages, be practicing Muslim or Christian etc. Common phrase in adverts showing bias towards
ethnicity or race is “We are an equal opportunity employer”.
 Current salary: Question-What’s the rationale for having salary as a factor in job specification?

Uses/Benefits of Job Analysis

Job analysis is useful for overall management of all human resource activities in any organization. The
following are some of the benefits of job analysis:
Human resource planning – information from job analysis is necessary in planning for quantity and quality
of staff required in the future.

Training and development – by providing information on what skills and knowledge is required to perform
a job, job analysis enables management to design training and development programmes to acquire needed
skills.
Recruitment and selection - Job analysis serves as a basis for recruitment and selection of employees. It
precedes recruitment since it is only after analyzing the jobs needed to be filled that recruitment and selection
can follow.
Placement and orientation - As job analysis provides information about qualities and skills needed for a job,
it enables management to place employees on jobs best suited for them.

5
Job evaluation - Provides information from which relative worth of jobs can be evaluated. Job evaluation in
turn helps in designing compensation systems.
Performance appraisal - Involves comparing actual performance and the expected standards. Job analysis
helps in formulating standards to be compared with actual performance.
Health and safety - Job analysis helps in uncovering and identifying hazardous conditions and unhealthy
environmental factors e.g. heat, noise, dust, fumes etc. This enables management to take precautionary
measures to prevent and/or minimize industrial accidents.

JOB DESIGN

Job design has been defined as the process of deciding on the contents of a job in terms of its duties and
responsibilities, on the methods used in carrying out the job, in terms of techniques, systems and procedures
and on the relationship that should exist between the job holder and his/her superiors, subordinates and
colleagues.”5 It is a process of determining how specific tasks are combined to form complete jobs.
Job design has two aims namely:
 To satisfy the requirements of the organization for productivity, operational efficiency and quality of
product or service offered by organization.

 To satisfy the needs of an individual for interest, challenge and accomplishment to ensure job
satisfaction and improve performance and productivity.
The overall objective of job design is to integrate the needs of the individual with those of the organization.
Another aim of job design is to fulfill the social responsibilities of the organization to the people who work in
it by improving the quality of working life.

Principles of Job Design

 To influence skill variety, provide opportunities for people to combine tasks.
 To influence task identity combine tasks and form natural work units.
 To influence autonomy. Give people responsibility for determining their own working systems.
 To influence feedback, establish good relationships and open feedback channels.

Factors Affecting Job Design

Job design is not done in a vacuum. It affects and it is affected by several factors which are classified in three
broad categories:

5
Michael Armstrong: Handbook of Personnel Management, 1988.

6
  Organizational factors
 Environmental factors
 Behavioral factors.

Organizational factors – briefly, these relate to factors unique to an organization e.g. task features, work
flow, work practices (a set way of doing things based on traditions or collective wishes of people and
ergonomics. Ergonomics refers to designing a job in order to strike a fit between the job and jobholders
physical abilities to perform the job effectively.

Environmental factors
These include social and cultural expectations, employee abilities and availability.
Due to increased levels of literacy and awareness, people are no longer ready to do any job under any
conditions. They have expectations for the jobs. Jobs are designed in a certain way e.g. providing for work
hours, rest breaks, vacations (leave), religious beliefs, etc.

Behavioral factors
These are based on the fact that people are influenced to work to satisfy their needs. One’s behavior and
work is governed by the following factors namely:
Autonomy – this is the freedom to control one’s actions/response to the environment. Research has shown
that jobs giving autonomy to workers increase their sense of responsibility, self esteem and commitment to
the job. The converse is true for lack of autonomy. It causes job apathy which in turn results in low or poor
performance.
Use of abilities – workers find interesting challenging jobs that offer them opportunity to utilize their
abilities.
Feedback – job design should be done in a way that facilitates meaningful feedback. Feedback helps workers
improve their performance.
Variety – variety in job diminishes boredom, fatigue and mistakes thus promoting efficiency.

Techniques of Job Design

Some of the popular methods of job design are:
 Work simplification
 Job rotation
 Job enrichment
 Job enlargement

7
Work simplification
This involves simplification of a job by breaking it down into small sub-parts. Each part of the job is then
assigned to one worker who then does the same task over and over again. Though this simplification allows
the worker to gain proficiency in the job and increase productivity hence profits, it also creates boredom and
low morale on workers. Boredom overtime leads to mistakes and accidents which in turn affect the quality
and quantity of output.

Job rotation

Job rotation implies the movement of employees from one job to another without any change in the job. An
employee performs different jobs but of the same nature e.g. clerical officers moving from one section of
department to another. The job title remains that of clerical officer but the employee performs different duties
in different sections (departments). This is one solution to the problem of boredom in job simplification.
This is one solution to the problem of boredom in job simplification. Advantages of job rotation besides
making jobs interesting include broadening employees knowledge and skills. It also makes employees
competent in several jobs rather than one.

Job enlargement

Job enlargement involves expanding a job content horizontally. It adds more tasks to a job giving it more
variety and wider scope. It therefore removes boredom and monotony in jobs thus creating interest in work
and efficiency. It enhances employee motivation at least for a limited time.

Job enrichment
Job enrichment is a vertical expansion of a job giving the holder more responsibility, independence and
greater control over his work. It is a job redesign that it improves job context and content to give the worker
more of a challenge, more authority, responsibility, opportunity for growth and more chance to contribute his
ideas in the management of organization. It increases job depth which refers to the degree of control
employees have over their work. Job enrichment improves the quality of work output, employee motivation
and satisfaction.