JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

DEPARTMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP, TECHNOLOGY, LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT
BACHELOR OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT GROUP G 2.2
JOB DESIGN GROUP ASSINGMENT
PRESENTED BY GROUP 1 MEMBERS
1.Ochieng Victor Okello Hde212-0188/2020
2.Sandra-Hurt Anyango. HDE212-0187/2020
3.David Omondi Omenya HDE212-0170/2020
4.Okongo Augustine Ochieng HDE 212-1409/2020
5. Prudence Bushnell HDE212-1347/2020
6.Mitchelle Macharia-HDE212-1404/2020
7.Diana Moraa HDE212-1345/2020
8. Alex Spencer HDE212-0198/2020
Defining Job, Meaning and Nature, Understanding Work, linking the job with
corporate goals and strategies
A job is a paid position of a regular employment.
A job can also be defined as a task or piece of work especially one that is paid.
Job : A job is a type of position within the organization. For instance; If a large insurance
company employs sixty life insurance actuaries, then there are sixty positions, but just one
life insurance actuary job.
Terms related to a job includes:
 position of employment
 Occupation
 profession
 career
 field of work/line of work/
 means of livelihood.
Position- This refers to one or more duties performed by an individual in an organization.
Occupation- A group of similar jobs that are found across an organization for example: being
an accountant, electrician or engineer.
Career : A career represents a sequence of positions, jobs, or occupations that a person has
over his or her working life.
Job family- A group of two or more jobs that have similar worker characteristics as
determined by job analysis.
Nature of a job: This refers to the type of job one does for instance: a clerical job, managerial
job, teaching job, and the circumstances in the job.
It can also refer to the basic daily tasks carried out as part of a job or other non routine tasks
that might be required.
Job analysis-This describes the process of obtaining information about jobs.
Job analysis has 3 main purposes, namely: job design, job specification and job evaluation .
Job analysis is extensively used in
 Recruitment and selection
 Training and career development
 Strategic planning
 Compensation
Job descriptions refers to the summary of information relating to particular job, listing all
the duties, responsibilities, characteristics, authority and responsibility of the job holder.
Job specifications: This refers to an overall written summary of worker requirements that
need to be met.
It can also be defined as the description of a person's characteristics that one must possess so
as to fulfill job requirements.
Both job description and job specification can be used for designing or redesigning jobs.
Meaning and nature of Job Design
Job design involves specifying the content and methods of the job
It helps answer questions such as:
 what job will be done.
 Who will do the job.
 How will the job be done.
 Where will the job be done.
 Ergonomics
Job design results into job description.
Job design is therefore the process of deciding on the contents of a job in terms of its duties
and responsibilities, on methods to be used in carrying out the job in terms of techniques,
systems and procedures and on relationships that should exist between jobholder, supervisor,
subordinates and colleagues.
i. It has an influence on productivity and satisfaction for example. poorly designed jobs
result in increased turnover, boredom, job dissatisfaction, low productivity, increased
costs.
ii. Therefore job design creates a match between job requirements and the available HR
attributes.
iii. It determines the responsibility of an employee's authority enjoyed at work, scope of
decision making and level of satisfaction and productivity.
iv. Being a complex process, Job design takes into account factors such as employee
aspirations, organizational goals, performance standards and the work environment.
v. It also encompasses a specification of tasks to be performed by employees in the
organization
vi. It also gives information about qualifications required to do a job and the reward for
doing the job.

Need for/purpose of job design

a. Increase employee motivation and productivity.
b. Facilitate the interest of employees towards the job and enhance satisfaction
c. Enhance employee skills by identifying their training needs.
d. Covering the modern needs of employee participation
e. Ensure a safer working environment.
f. Eliminate unnecessary levels of supervision and control.
g. Improve the quality of working life of employees
h. Minimizing costs by reducing wastage.

Meaning and nature of job Evaluation

Job evaluation is the systematic process of determining the relative value/worth of one job in
relation to other jobs in an organization.
It tries to make systematic comparison between jobs so as to assess their worth for purposes
of establishing rational pay structure that is fair, equitable and consistent for everyone.
The basis of job evaluation is to enable efficient pay, minimize inadequacy in remuneration,
designing new jobs and redesigning the pay framework after reorganization in a company
Features of Job evaluation
a) It assesses jobs and not employees.
b) It takes place to maintain high levels of employee satisfaction and productivity.
c) The process does not create a wage structure.
d) The process is not handled by one person.
e) Negotiations for wages is based on based on facts and not assumptions.
f) Job evaluation is the output of job analysis.
g) Elements of a job should be definite and fixed to avoid overlapping.

Need/purpose for job evaluation

 Helps to know worth of each job by setting up standard procedures for
comparisons.
 Facilitate career planning.
 Act as a foundation to fix bonuses and other incentives.
 Helps in proper employee placement.
 Offers consistent and equitable wage structures.
 Ensures equal wage is paid to workers with equal qualification
 Offers a base for wage differentiation about different job positions
 Ensures effective control over labor costs
 Ensures job satisfaction.
 Boosts employee morale.
 Offers information for employee selection and training
 Settling wage disputes.

A Job: A group of homogeneous tasks related by similarity of functions. When performed by

an employee in an exchange for pay, a job consists of duties, responsibilities, and tasks that
are defined and specific, and can be accomplished, quantified, measured, and rated. From a
wider perspective, a job is a role and includes the physical and social aspects of a work
environment. Often, individuals identify themselves with their job or role (foreman,
supervisor, engineer, etc.) and derive motivation from its uniqueness or usefulness.

Understanding work and its role in achieving organizations objectives

Employee job performance improves organizational competitive advantage to promote

responsiveness in enhancing overall organizational performance. Therefore, in order to
perform well an organization has to have highly qualified personnel with a detailed
description of roles to perform in order to achieve organizational goals.
A job analysis is used to make sure the right employees are hired to perform specific jobs
which enable an organization to achieve its objectives.
The set of jobs performed by employees is the cornerstone of an organization. There must be
a systematic way to determine which employees should perform which tasks.
A job analysis helps understand work and how it will help an organization achieve its
objectives.
Job characteristics are the most essential elements in supporting behaviors that may enhance
employee task and high performance. From the job analysis we are able to get job
characteristics that have substantial influence on task performance. This is due to the fact that
most of the outcomes of job characteristics on various organizational constructs, has been
reported to affect various organizational outcomes, at different levels.

However, to perform on par or beyond of what is prescribed in job descriptions it also requires effective
organizational structure. To improve employee job performance, organizations ought to identify whether
or not the existing organizational structure is supportive for them and to refine job characteristics so as to
encourage employees to perform at their best.

Job Analysis
√Job analysis is the process of collecting and analyzing information about the tasks,
responsibility, duties and the contents of the job and the environment in which that particular
job is really occurring.
√Job analysis is determining what each job is and what is required to do it. Job analysis,
contains a simple term called "analysis", which means detailed study or examination of
something (job) in order to understand more about it (job). therefore, job analysis is to
understand more about a specific job in order to optimize it.
√Job analysis is a systematic process of collecting complete information pertaining to a job.
√In details a Job analysis is a procedure through which you determine the duties and
responsibilities, nature of the jobs and finally to decide qualifications, skills and knowledge
to be required for an employee to perform particular job.
√ Job analysis helps to understand what tasks are important and how they are carried on.
√The intention behind job analysis is to answer questions such as:

▪What qualities and qualifications are required to perform the job?

▪What behaviors are needed to perform the job?
How can the information acquired by a job analysis be used in the
development of HRM programs and achievement of organization goals?
▪How can a job be designed or structured so that employee performance can be enhanced
Its objectives include
(a) to determine most effective methods for performing a job.
(b) to increase employee job satisfaction.
(c) to identify core areas for giving training to employees and to find out best methods of
training.
(d) development of performance measurement systems, and
Process of job analysis
1. Organization analysis: Involves Reviewing relevant background information such as
organizational charts and process charts
2. Selection of jobs to be analyzed: Involves selecting representative positions to be
analyzed. There may be too many similar jobs to analyze them all, therefore a sample is
taken.
3. Data collection : Actually, analyze the job by collecting data on job activities, required
employee behaviors, conditions and human traits and abilities needed to perform the job.
4. Verification: Verifying the job analysis information with the worker performing the job
and with his /her immediate supervisor. This is done to make sure that the information
collected is credible.
5. Develop a job description and job specification
√What kind of person, in terms of traits and experience, is best suited for the job.
 √How can the information acquired by a job analysis be used in the development of
HRM programs and achievement of organization goals?
√How can a job be designed or structured so that employee?performance can be
enhanced
Its objectives include
√To determine most effective methods for performing a job.
√To increase employee job satisfaction.
√To identify core areas for giving training to employees and to find out best methods
of training.
 Development of performance measurement systems

Process of job analysis

1. Organization analysis: Involves Reviewing relevant background information such as
organizational charts and process charts
2. Selection of jobs to be analyzed: Involves selecting representative positions to be
analyzed. There may be too many similar jobs to analyze them all, therefore a sample is
taken.
3. Data collection: Actually, analyze the job by collecting data on job activities, required
employee behaviors, conditions and human traits and abilities needed to perform the job
4. Verification: Verifying the job analysis information with the worker performing the job
and with his /her immediate supervisor. This is done to make sure that the information
collected is credible.
5. Develop a job description and job specification: The overall objective/main purpose of
job analysis is to report the information in form of a written job description and specification.
➢ Job Description: Is usually a summary of information relating to a particular job listing
all duties, responsibilities, reporting relationships. Job description also has other features such
as conditions of work and terms of employment.
➢ Job specification: It is a description of person’s characteristics that an individual must
possess to fulfill the requirements of a job.
Includes the knowledge, skills, abilities, traits, and other characteristics.
Benefits of job analysis.
a) Organizational structure and design: Job analysis helps the organization to make
suitable changes in the organizational structure, so that it matches the needs and requirements
of the organization. Duties are either added or deleted from the job. This helps the
organization implement its strategies and achieve its goals.
b) Recruitment and selection: Job analysis provides information about what the job entails
and what human characteristics are required to perform these activities. This information, in
the form of job descriptions and specifications, helps management decide what sort of people
to recruit and hire.
c) Performance appraisal and training/development :Based on the job requirements
identified in the job analysis, the company decides a training program. Training is given in
those areas which will help to improve the performance on the job.
Similarly when appraisal is conducted we check whether the employee is able to work in a
manner in which we require him to do the job.
Job evaluation
Refers to studying in detail the job performance by all individual. The difficulty levels, skills
required and on that basis the salary is fixed. Information regarding qualities required, skilled
levels, difficulty levels are obtained from job analysis, promotions and transfer .
When we give a promotion to an employee we need to promote him on the basis of the skill
and talent required for the future job.
Similarly, when we transfer an employee to another branch the job must be very similar to
what he has done before. To take these decisions we
Organizational structure
Organizational structure is important to provide guidance and clarity on specific human
resource issues, such as managerial authority. Guidance from Organizational Purpose
Organizational structure provides guidance to all employees by laying out the official
reporting relationships that govern the workflow of the company. A formal structure of a
company's structure makes it easier to add new positions in the company, as well, providing a
flexible and ready means for growth.
A formal structure helps understand work in the sense that it outlines the responsibilities that
each and every employee at the hierarchy level performs and who he/ she answers to.
Without a formal organizational structure, employees may find it difficult to know who they
officially report to in different situations, and it may become unclear exactly who has the
final responsibility for what and this may derail performance and missing organizational
goals. Organizational structure improves operational efficiency by providing clarity to
employees at all levels of a company. By paying mind to the organizational structure,
departments can work more like well-oiled machines, focusing time and energy on
productive tasks which will result in achieving the set goals and objectives. A thoroughly
outlined structure can also provide a roadmap for internal promotions, allowing companies to
create solid employee advancement tracks for entry-level workers. There is other
organizational structure such as:
❖ Flat Organizational Structure-There are relatively few layers of management in what is
termed a flat organizational structure. In a flat structure, front-line employees are empowered
to make a range of decisions on their own. Information flows from the top down and from the
bottom up in a flat structure, meaning communication flows from top-level management to
front-line employees and from front-line employees back to top management.
❖ Tall Organizational Structure-There are numerous layers of management in a tall
organizational structure, and often inefficient bureaucracies. In a tall structure, managers
make most operational decisions, and authority must be gained from several layers up before
taking action. Information flows are generally one-way in a tall structure – from the top
down.
References

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Praeger Publishers.
Campion, M. et al (1993). “Relations Between Work Group Characteristics and
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Kelly, J. (1982). Scientific Management, Job Redesign, and Work Performance. New York:
Academic Press, Inc.
Kelly, J. (1992). “Does Job Re-Design Theory Explain Job Re-Design Outcomes?”, Human
Relations, New York: Academic Press, Inc.
Kuzmits, F. (1982). Experiential Exercises in Personnel. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill Publishing
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Nkomo, S. et al (1988). Applications in Personnel/Human Resource Management. Boston:
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