The Analysis and Design of the Job Description

Author

Nancy Susan Hanks, Fontbonne College

Year of Award

1990

Degree

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

College

College of Business & Professional Studies

Degree Program

Business

Department

Business Administration

Keywords

qualifications, specification, employees, duties, organization

Abstract

The task-specialization process is, "the complex flow of events within each enterprise that determine the nature of each person's job." Some of these events and activities are job design, job analysis, and job descriptions.

What is job design? According to R.W. Woodman and J.J. Sherwood, "Job design means specification of the contents, methods and relationships of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the social and personal.requirements of the job holder." One aspect of job design is the job analysis.

Job analysis is the method by which management systematically investigates the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of an organization's jobs. Job analysis gathers information to be used in other important functions, such as writing job descriptions or deter-' mining job specifications. How the information is collected and utilized is important.

A job description is the summary of the duties and responsibilities of a job. The actual format of the job description is strictly a matter of preference, depending on the size of the organization and what they will use it for. The following are just some of the items that should be included in the document:

Date written

Job status (full or part-time)

Job title

Supervisor

Subordinates (if any)

Overall purpose

Duties and responsibilities

Required education and/or experience

Job descriptions have numerous uses, but that depends on the format of the job description used by the organization. Some general examples are as follows: they can be used to design employment applications; too determine promotions; pay scales, and benefits, even to discipline or terminate.

Along with all the uses that job descriptions provide they also have problems. The job descriptions may be out-of-date, improperly prepared, unclearly written, and/or lack detail. Most of the job description problems can be easily solved.

Essentially then, the job description is a multipurpose tool for effective management.

Document Type

Restricted Thesis

Recommended Citation

Hanks, Nancy Susan, "The Analysis and Design of the Job Description" (1990). All Theses, Dissertations, and Capstone Projects. 445.
https://griffinshare.fontbonne.edu/all-etds/445