WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

Human Resource Management

Module 3: Job Analysis and Job Design
Learning Objectives:

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Define job analysis.
• Understand the basic steps in a Job analysis.
• Identify the major methods of collecting Job analysis data.
• Recognize the major elements of job descriptions
• Explain how to prepare job descriptions and job specification and their use.
• Point out and explain job design and its various methods
• Distinguish between job enlargement and job enrichment.

Activity 1.

1. What is your dream job?

_______________________________________________________________

2. What are your expectations and aspirations with regards to your dream job?

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Introduction

Manpower planning is concerned with determination of quantitative and qualitative

requirements of manpower for the organization. Determination of manpower requirements is one of
the most important problems in manpower planning. Job analysis and job design, provide this
knowledge. Before going through the mechanism of job analysis and job design, it is relevant to
understand the terms which are used in job analysis and job design.

Job: A job may be defined as a “collection or aggregation of tasks, duties and responsibilities
which as a whole, are regarded as a regular assignment to individual employees,” and which is
different from other assignments. In other words, when the total work to be done is divided and
grouped into packages, we call it a “job.” Each job has a definite title based upon standardized trade
specifications within a job; two or more grades may be identified, where the work assignment may be
graded according to skill, the difficulty of doing them, or the quality of workmanship. Thus, it may be
noted that a position is a “collection of tasks and responsibilities regularly assigned to one person;”
while a job is a “group of position, which involve essentially the same duties, responsibilities, skill and
knowledge.” A position consists of a particular set of duties assigned to an individual.

Decenzo and P. Robbins define other terms as follows:

Task: It is a distinct work activity carried out for a distinct purpose.
Duty: It is a number of tasks.
Position: It refers to one or more duties performed by one person in an organization. There
are at least as many positions as there are workers in the organization; vacancies
may create more positions than employees.
Job: It is a type of position within the organization.
Job Family: It is group of two or more jobs that either call for similar worker characteristics
or contain parallel work tasks as determined by job analysis.
Occupation: It is a group of similar jobs found across organizations.
Career: It represents a sequence of positions, jobs, or occupations that a person has over his
working life.
| Human Resource Management
1
WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

Job Analysis Defined

Developing an organizational structure, results in jobs which have to be staffed. Job analysis is
the procedure through which you determine the duties and nature of the jobs and the kinds of people
(in terms of skills and experience) who should be hired for them.’ It provides you with data on job
requirements, which are then used for developing job descriptions (what the job entails) and job
specifications (what kind of people to hire for the job).
Some of the definitions of job analysis ate given as follows, to understand the meaning of the
term more clearly:
According to Michael L. Jucius, “Job analysis refers to the process of studying the
operations, duties and organizational aspects of jobs in order to derive specifications or as they called
by some, job descriptions.”
According to DeCenzo and P. Robbins, “A job analysis is a systematic exploration of the
activities within a job. It is a basic technical procedure, one that is used to define the duties,
responsibilities, and accountabilities of a job.”

According to Herbert G Herman “A job is a collection of tasks that can be performed by a

single employee to contribute to the production of some product or service provided by the
organization. Each job has certain ability requirements (as well as certain rewards) associated with it.
Job analysis process used to identify these requirements.”

Flippo has offered a more comprehensive definition of job analysis as, “Job analysis
is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations and responsibilities of
a specific job. The immediate products of the analysis are job descriptions and job specifications”
Thus, job analysis involves the process of identifying the nature of a job (job description) and
the qualities of the likely job holder (job specification).

Uses of Job Analysis

1. Achievement of Goals: Weather and Davis have stated, “Jobs are at the core of every
organization’s productivity, if they are designed well and done right, the organization makes progress
towards its objectives. Otherwise, productivity suffers, profits fall, and the organization is less able to
meet the demands of society, customer, employees, and other with a stake in its success.”
2. Organizational Design: Job analysis will be useful in classifying the jobs and the
interrelationships among the jobs. On the basis of information obtained through job analysis, sound
decisions regarding hierarchical positions and functional differentiation can be taken and this will
improve operational efficiency.
3. Organization and Manpower Planning: It is helpful in organization planning, for it
defines labor in concrete terms and co-ordinates the activities of the work force, and clearly divides
duties and responsibilities.
4. Recruitment and Selection: Job analysis provides you with information on what the job
entails and what human requirements are required to carry out these activities. This information is
the basis on which you decide what sort of people to recruit and hire.
5. Placement and Orientation: Job analysis helps in matching the job requirements with
the abilities, interests, and aptitudes of people. Jobs will be assigned to persons on the basis of
suitability for the job. The orientation program will help the employee in learning the activities and
understanding duties that are required to perform a given job more effectively.
6. Employee Training and Management Development: Job analysis provides the
necessary information to the management of training and development programs. It helps in to
determine the content and subject matter of in training courses. It also helps in checking application
information, interviewing test results and in checking references.
7. Job Evaluation and Compensation: Job evaluation is the process of determining the
relative worth of different jobs in an organization with a view to link compensation, both basic and
supplementary, with the worth of the jobs. The worth of a job is determined on the basis of job
characteristics and job holder characteristics. Job analysis provides both in the forms of job
description and job specification.
8. Performance Appraisal: Performance appraisal involves comparing each employee’s
actual performance with his or her desired performance. Through job analysis industrial engineers
and other experts determine standards to be achieved and specific activities to be performed.

| Human Resource Management

2
WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

9. Health and Safety: It provides an opportunity for identifying hazardous conditions and
unhealthy environmental factors so that corrective measures may be taken to minimize and avoid the
possibility of accidents.
10. Employee Counselling: Job analysis provides information about career choices and
personal limitation. Such information is helpful in vocational guidance and rehabilitation counselling.
Employees who are unable to cope with the hazards and demands of given jobs may be advised to opt
for subsidiary jobs or to seek premature retirement.

Job Analysis Process

1. Determine the Use of the Job Analysis Information: Start by identifying the use to which the
information will be put, since this will determine the type of data you collect and the technique you
use to collect them.
2. Collection of Background Information: According to Terry, “The make-up of a job, its
relation to other jobs, and its requirements for competent performance are essential information
needed for a job evaluation. This information can be had by reviewing available background
information such as organization charts (which show how the job in question relates to other jobs and
where they fit into the overall organization); class specifications (which describe the general
requirements of the class of job to which the job under analysis belongs); and the existing job
descriptions which provide a starting point from which to build the revised job description”.

3. Selection of Jobs for Analysis: To do job analysis is a costly and time-consuming

process. It is, hence, necessary to select a representative sample of jobs for purposes of analysis.
Priorities of various jobs can also be determined. A job may be selected because it has undergone
undocumented changes in job content. The request for analysis of a job may originate with the
employee, supervisor, or a manager.
When the employee requests an analysis, it is usually because new job demands have not been
reflected in changes in wages. Employee’s salaries are, in part, based upon the nature of the work that
they perform. Some organizations establish a time cycle for the analysis of each job. For example: A
job analysis may be required for all jobs every three years. New jobs must also be subjected to
analysis.

4. Collection of Job Analysis Data: Job data on features of the job, requited employee
qualification and requirements, should be collected either form the employees who actually perform a
job; or from other employees (such as foremen or supervisors) who watch the workers doing a job and
there by acquire knowledge about it; or from the outside persons, known as the trade job analysis who
are appointed to watch employees performing a job. The duties of such a trade job analyst are (i) to
outline the complete scope of a job and to consider all the physical and mental activities involved in
determining what the worker does.; (ii) find out why a worker does a job; and for this purpose he
studies why each task is essential for the overall result; and (iii) the skill factor which may be needed
in the worker to differentiate between jobs and establish the extent of the difficulty of any job.

5. Processing the Information: Once job analysis information has been collected, the next
step is to place it in a form that will make it useful to those charged with the various personnel
functions. Several issues arise with respect to this. First, how much detail is needed? Second, can the
job analysis information be expressed in quantitative terms? These must be considered properly.

6. Preparing Job Descriptions and Job Classifications: Job information which has
been collected must be processed to prepare the job description form. It is a statement showing full
details of the activities of the job. Separate job description forms may be used for various activities in
the job and may be compiled later on. The job analysis is made with the help of these description
forms. These forms may be used as reference for the future.

7. Developing Job Specifications: Job specifications are also prepared on the basis of
information collected. It is a statement of minimum acceptable qualities of the person to be placed on
the job. It specifies the standard by which the qualities of the person are measured. Job analyst
prepares such statement taking into consideration the skills required in performing the job properly.
Such statement is used in selecting a person matching with the job.

| Human Resource Management

3
WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

Methods for Collecting Job Analysis Data Information is to be collected for job analysis.
Such information may be collected by the trained job analysis, superiors concerned and job holders
themselves.

Job information is collected through the following methods:

1. Participant Diary/Logs: Workers can be to keep participant diary/long or lists of things

they do during the day. For every activity he or she engages in, the employee records the activity
(along with the time) in a log. This can provide you with a very comprehensive picture of the job,
especially when it’s supplemented with subsequent interviews with the worker and his or her
supervisor. This method provides more accurate information if done faithfully. However, it is quite
time consuming. Further, each job holder may maintain records according to his own way which
presents problems in analysis at later stage. Therefore, it has limited application.

2. Interview: There are three types of interviews you can use to collect job analysis data:
individual interviews with each employee; group interviews with groups of employees having the
same job; and supervisor interviews with one or more supervisors who are thoroughly knowledgeable
about the job being analyzed. The group interview is used when a large number of employees are
performing similar or identical work, since this can be a quick and inexpensive way of learning about
the job. As a rule, the worker’s immediate supervisor would attend the group session; if not, you
should interview the supervisor separately to get that person’s perspective on the duties and
responsibilities of the job.

3. Critical Incidents: In this method, job holders are asked to describe incidents concerning
the job on the basis of their past experience. The incidents so collected are analyzed and classified
according to the job areas they describe .A fairly picture of actual job requirements can be obtained by
distinguishing between effective and ineffective behaviors of workers on the job. However, this
method is time consuming. The analyst requires a high degree of skill to analyze the contents of
descriptions given by workers.

4. Technical Conference Method: This method utilizes supervisors with extensive

knowledge of the job. Here, specific characteristics of a job are obtained from the “experts.” Although
it is a good data gathering method, it often overlooks the incumbent worker’s perception about what
they do on their job.

5. Job Performance: Under this method, the job analyst actually performs the job under
study to get first-hand experience of the actual tasks, and physical and social demands of the job. This
method can be used only for jobs where skill requirements are low and can be learnt quickly and
easily. This is a time-consuming method and is not appropriate for jobs requiring extensive training.

6. Functional Job Analysis: Functional job analysis (FJA) is employee- oriented analytical
approach of job analysis. This approach attempts to describe the whole person on the job.
The main features of FJA include the following:
• The extent to which specific instruction are necessary to perform the task
• The extent to which reasoning, and judgment are required to perform the task
• The mathematical ability required to perform the task and
• The verbal and language facilities required to perform the task.

7. Observation Method: Using this method, a job analyst watches employees directly on the
job. Observations are made on various tasks, activities, the pace at which tasks are carried out, and
the way different activities are performed. This method is suitable for jobs that involve manual,
standardized, and short job cycle activities. This method also requires that the entire range of
activities be observable, possible with some jobs.

8. Questionnaires: The method is usually employed by engineering consultants. Properly

drafted questionnaires are sent out to jobholders for completion and are returned to supervisors.
However, the information received is often unorganized and incoherent. The idea in issuing

| Human Resource Management

4
WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

questionnaire is to elicit the necessary information from jobholders so that any error may first be
discussed with the employee and, after corrections, may be submitted to the job analyst.
This technique is time consuming and generally does not yield satisfactory results because
many employees do not complete the questionnaire or furnish incorrect information because of their
own limitations. The use of questionnaire is recommended only in case of those technical jobs where
the job contents are not completely known to the supervisor, or the operation is too complex to
observe.

Job Description

Job description is the immediate product of job analysis process; the data collected through job
analysis provides a basis for job description and job specification.

Job Description: is a written record of the duties, responsibilities, and requirements of a

particular job. It is concerned with the job itself and not with the job holders. It is a statement
describing the job in such terms as its title, location, duties, working conditions and hazards.

Flippo has Defined Job Description as, “A job description is an organized, factual
statement of duties and responsibilities of a specific job. In brief, it should tell what is to be done.
How it is done why. It is a standard of function, in that defines the appropriate and authorized
content of a job.

According to Pigors and Myres, “Job description is a pertinent picture (in writing) of the
organizational relationships, responsibilities and specific duties that constitutes a given job or
position. It defines a scope of responsibility and continuing work assignments that are sufficiently
different form that of other jobs to warrant a specific title.”

“Job description” is different from “performance assessment.” The former concerns

such functions as planning, co-ordination, and assigning responsibility, while the latter concerns the
quality of performance itself. Though job description is not assessment, it provides an important basis
establishing assessment standards and objectives.

Writing Job Description

A Job description is a written statement of what the job holder actually does, how he or she
does it, and under what conditions the job is performed. This information is in turn used to write a job
specification. This lists the knowledge, abilities, and skills needed to perform the job satisfactorily.
While there is no standard format you must use in writing a job description, most descriptions
contain at least sections on:
1. Job Identification: It includes the job title, alterative title, department, division, and plant
and code number of the job. The job title identifies and designates the job properly, the department,
division, etc., indicate the name of the department where it is situated – whether it is the maintenance
department, mechanical shop etc. Location gives the name of the place. This portion of job
description gives answer to two important questions: to what higher level job is this job accountable.
And who is supervised directly?
2. Job Summary: Job summary describes the contents of the jobs in terms of activities or
tasks performed. Job summary should clear the nature of the job. Primary, secondary, and other
duties to be performed on the job should clearly be indicated separately.
3. Duties and Responsibilities: This is the most important phase of job description and
should be prepared very carefully. It describes the duties to be performed along with frequency of
each major duty. Responsibilities concerning custody of money, supervision and training of staff etc.
are also described in this part.
4. Supervision: Under it is given number of persons to be supervised along with their job
titles, and the extent of supervision involved –general, intermediate, or close supervision.
5. Relation to Other Jobs: It describes the vertical and horizontal relationships of workflow.
It also indicates to whom the jobholder will report and who will report to him. It gives an idea of
channels of promotion.

| Human Resource Management

5
WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

6. Machine, tools and equipment define each major type or trade name of the machines
and tools and the raw materials used.
7. Working Conditions: The working environment in terms of heat, light, noise, dust, and
fumes etc, the job hazards and possibility of their occurrence and working conditions should also be
described. It will be helpful in job evaluation.
8. Social Environment: It specifies the social conditions under which the work will be
performed. In this part the size of work group, interpersonal interactions required to perform the job
and development facilities are mentioned.

Job Specification

The job specification states the minimum acceptable qualifications that the incumbent must
possess to perform the job successfully. Based on the information acquired through job analysis, the
job specification identifies the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to do the job effectively.
Individuals possessing the personal characteristics identified in the job specification should perform
the job more effectively than individuals lacking these personal characteristics. The job specification,
therefore, is an important tool in the selection process, for it keeps the selector’s attention on the list
of qualifications necessary for an incumbent to perform the job and assists in determining whether
candidates are qualified.

According to Dale Yoder, “The job specification, as such a summary properly described is
thus a specialized job description, emphasizing personnel requirement and designed specially to
facilitate selection and placement.”

Flippo has defined job specification as, “Job specification is a statement of the minimum
acceptable human qualities necessary to perform a job properly …………. It is a standard of personnel
and designates the qualities required for acceptable performance.”
It is clear from the above definitions that job specification is a statement of summary of
personnel requirements for a job. It may also be called “standard of personal for the selection”

A Job Specification should include:

(i) Physical characteristics, which include health, strength, endurance, age, height, weight,
vision, voice, eye, hand and foot co-ordination, motor co-ordination, and color discrimination.
(ii) Psychological and social characteristics such as emotional stability, flexibility, decision
making ability, analytical view, mental ability, pleasing manners, initiative, conversational ability etc.
(iii) Mental Characteristics such as general intelligence, memory, judgement, ability to
concentrate, foresight etc.
(iv) Personal Characteristics such as sex, education, family background, job experience,
hobbies, extracurricular activities etc.

All these characteristics must be classified into three categories:

• Essential attributes which a person must possess.
• Desirable attributes which a person ought to possess.
• Contra indicators which will become a handicap to successful job performance.

Job Design

Job design is of comparatively recent origin. The human resource managers have realized
that the design of a job has considerable influence on the productivity and job satisfaction; poorly
designed jobs often result in boredom to the employees, increased turnover, job dissatisfaction, low
productivity, and an increase in overall costs of the organization. All these negative consequences can
be avoided with the help of proper job design.

According to Jon Werner and DeSimone, “Job design is the development and alteration
of the components of a job (such as the tasks one performs, and the scope of one’s responsibilities) to
improve productivity and the quality of the employees’ work life.”

| Human Resource Management

6
WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

Job design has been defined by Davis (1966) as: “The 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.”

Milkovich and Boudreau defined job design as, “Job design integrates work content
(tasks, functions, and relationships), the rewards (extrinsic and intrinsic) and the qualifications
required (skills, knowledge, abilities) for each job in a way that meets the needs of employees and the
organization.”

Michael Armstrong has defined job design as “the process of deciding on the content of
a job in terms of its duties and responsibilities, on the methods to be used in carrying out the job, in
terms of techniques, systems and procedures, and on the relationships that should exist between the
job holder and his superiors, subordinates and colleagues.”
Job design is an attempt to create a match between job requirements and human attributes.
It involves organizing the components of the job and the interaction patterns among the members of a
work group. It helps in developing appropriate design of job to improve efficiency and satisfaction.

Principles of Job Design:

Principles are the bases of the approach used in job design. Robertson and Smith (1985) have
suggested the following five principles of job design:
• To influence skill variety, provide opportunities for people to do several tasks and combine
tasks.
• To influence task identity, combine tasks and from natural work units.
• To influence task significance, form natural work units and inform people of the importance
of their work.
• To influence autonomy, give people responsibility for determining their own working
systems.
• To influence feedback; establish good relationship and open feedback channels. 3.10

Methods of Job Design

The various techniques of job design and redesign are discussed below:
1. Job Simplification: In job simplification, the complete job is broken down into small
subparts; this is done so that employee can do these jobs without much specialized training.
Moreover, small operations of the job can also be performed simultaneously so that the complete
operation can be done more quickly. For job simplification, generally time and motion studies are
used.
2. Job Rotation: Another technique designed to enhance employee motivation is job
rotation, or periodically assigning employees to alternating jobs or tasks. For example, an employee
may spend two weeks attaching 41 bumpers to vehicles and the following two weeks making final
checks of the chassis. During the next month, the same employee may be assigned to two different
jobs. Therefore, the employee would be rotated among four jobs. The advantage of job rotation is that
employees do not have the same routine job day after day. Job rotation only addresses the problem of
assigning employees to jobs of limited scope; the depth of the job does not change. The job cycle of the
actual daily work performed has not been lengthened or changed. Instead, employees are simply
assigned to different jobs with different cycles.

Because job rotation does not change the basic nature of jobs, it is criticized as nothing more
than having an employee perform several boring and monotonous jobs rather than one. Some
employees dislike job rotation more than being assigned to one boring job because when they are
assigned to one job they know exactly where to report and what work to expect each day. Workers
quickly realize that job rotation does not increase their interest in their work.

Although it seldom addresses the lack of employee motivation, it gives manages a means of
coping with frequent absenteeism and high turnover. Thus, when absenteeism or turnover occurs in

| Human Resource Management

7
WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

the work force, managers can quickly fill the vacated position because each employee can perform
several jobs.
Job rotation is often effectively used as a training technique for new, inexperienced employees.
At higher organizational levels, rotation also helps to develop managerial generalists because it
exposes them to several different operations.

Advantage of Job Rotation Technique:

• The employee experiences variety of work, workplace, and peer group.
• Job rotation helps to broaden the knowledge and skills of an employee.
• The main advantage of job rotation is that it relieves the employee from the boredom and
monotony of doing the same job.
• With the help of this method, people become more flexible. They are prepared to assume
responsibility especially at other positions.
• Job rotation broadens the work experience of employees and turns specialists into
generalists.
• It is beneficial for the management also as the management gets employees who can perform
a variety of tasks to meet the contingencies.
• This method improves the self-image and personal worth of the employee.

Disadvantage of Job Rotation Technique:

• Job rotation also creates disruptions. Members of the work group have to adjust to the new
employee.
• Productivity is reduced by moving a worker into new position just when his efficiency at the
prior job was creating organizational economies.
• Training costs are increased.
• The supervisor may also have to spend more time answering question and monitoring the
work of the recently rotated employee.
• It can demotivate intelligent and ambitious trainees who seek specific responsibilities in their
chosen specialty.

3. Job Enlargement: Another means of increasing employee’s satisfaction with routine jobs
is job enlargement, or increasing the number of tasks performed (i.e., increasing the scope of the job).

Job enlargement, like job rotation, tries to eliminate short job cycles that create boredom.
Unlike job rotation, job enlargement actually increases the job cycle. When a job is enlarged, either
the tasks being performed are enlarged or several short tasks are given to one worker. Thus, the scope
of the job is increased because there are many tasks to be performed by the same worker. Job
enlargement programs change many methods of operation- in contrast to job rotation, in which the
same work procedures are used by workers who rotate through workstations. Although job
enlargement actually changes the pace of the work and the operation by reallocating tasks and
responsibilities, it does not increase the depth of a job.
The focus of designing work for job enlargement is the exact opposite of that for job
specialization. Instead of designing jobs to be divided up into the fewest of tasks per employee, a job is
designed to have many tasks for the employee to perform. An enlarged job requires a longer training
period because there are more tasks to be learned. Worker satisfaction should increase because is
reduced as the job scope is expanded. However, job enlargement programs are successful with jobs
what have increased scope; such workers are less prone to resort to absenteeism, grievances,
slowdowns, and other means of displaying job dissatisfaction.
Enlargement is done only on the horizontal level. Thus, the job remains the same, but becomes
of a larger scale than before. In the words of Geroge Strauss and L.R. Sayles “Job enlargement implies
that instead of assigning one man to each job, a group of men can be assigned to a group of jobs and
then allowed to decide for themselves how to organize the work. Such changes permit more social
contacts and control over the work process.”

Job enlargement has the following advantages:

• Increase in diversity of jobs
• Job satisfaction
| Human Resource Management
8
WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

• Provides wholeness and identity with the task and increases the knowledge necessary to
perform it.
• Provides variety of skills.
• Reduces tension and boredom.
• Trains and develops more versatile employees.

Despite these advantages this is not a completely satisfactory method of job design as it does
not increase the depth of a job. Enlarged jobs require longer training period as there are more tasks to
be learned.

4. Job Enrichment: The concept of job enrichment has been derived from Herzberg’s two-
factor theory of motivation in which he has suggested that job content is one of the basic factors of
motivation. If the job is designed in such a manner that it becomes more interesting and challenging
to the job performer and provides him opportunities for achievement, recognition, responsibility,
advancement and growth, the job itself becomes a source of motivation to the individual.

According to Richard W. Beatty and Graig Eric. Schneider, “Job enrichment is a

motivational technique which emphasizes the need for challenging and interesting work. It suggests
that jobs be redesigned so that intrinsic satisfaction is derived from doing the job. In its best
applications it leads to a vertically enhanced job by adding function from other organizational levels,
making it contain more variety and challenge and offer autonomy and pride to the employee.”
According to P. Robbins, “Job enrichment refers to the vertical expansion of the jobs. It
increases the degree to which the worker controls the planning, execution and evaluation of his work.”

In the words of Robert Albanese, “Job enrichment sometimes called. “Vertical job leading’
is a job redesign strategy that focuses on job depth.”

According to Mondy. Holmes, and Flippo, “Job enrichment refers to basic changes in the
content and level of responsibility of a job so to provide for the satisfaction of the motivation needs of
personnel.

Rebert Ford, who was associated with designing of jobs to make them more enriched, has
provided some bases (though not exhaustive) for job enrichment as shown in Table 3.3. 43 Table 3.2 :

Job Enrichment Bases Techniques of Job Enrichment:

In order to enrich the jobs. The management should adopt the following measures:
• Freedom in decisions
• Assign a natural work unit to an employee.
• Encouraging participation
• Allow the employee to set his own standards of performance.
• Minimize the controls to provide freedom to the employees
• Make an employee directly responsible for his performance.
• Encourage participation of employees in deciding organizational goals and policies.
• Expand job vertically
• Introducing new, difficult, and creative tasks to the employees.
• Sense of achievement.

Advantages of Job Enrichment: The advantages of job enrichment are as follows:

• It enriches the role.
• Job enrichment is the most widely used of job design as it provides a meaningful
learning to employees.
• It makes the work interesting, and employee get motivated.
• It helps in reducing the rate of labor turnover and absenteeism.
• It increases skills of the employees.
• It increases morale and performance.
• Reduce Boredom and dissatisfaction.
• Increase in output both qualitative and quantitative.
| Human Resource Management
9
WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

Disadvantages of Job Enrichment:

Dunham and Newstrom state, “Even the strongest supporters of job enrichment readily
admit that there are limitations in its application.” Newstrom and Keith Davis also write,
“Employees are the final judges of what enriches their jobs. All that management can do is to
gather information about what tends to enrich jobs, try these changes in the job system, and
then determine whether employees feel that enrichment has occurred.” A few limitations of or
problems with job enrichment are as follows:
• Increase cost
• Need more employee counseling, training, and guidance.
• Not applicable to all jobs.
• Negative impact on personnel.
• Imposed on people.
• Objected by unions
• Pay dissatisfaction

JOB ENLARGEMENT vs. JOB ENRICHMENT Job enlargement and job enrichment are both
important forms of job design in order to enhance productivity and satisfaction of the employees.

They differ from each other in the following respects:

1. Nature of Job: The major difference between job enrichment and enlargement lies in the
nature of additions to the job. Enlargement involves a horizontal loading or expansion, or addition of
tasks of the same nature. Enrichment involves vertical loading of tasks and responsibility of the job
holder; it improves the quality of the job in terms of its intrinsic worth.
2. Purpose: The purpose of job enlargement is to reduce the monotony in performing
repetitive jobs by lengthening the cycle of operation. On the other hand, the purpose of job
enrichment is making the job lively, challenging and satisfying. It satisfies the higher-level needs such
as ego satisfaction, self-expression, sense of achievement and advancement of Job holders.
3. Skill Requirement: Job enlargement may not necessarily require the use of additional
skills which the job holder was using in performing the job before the enlargement. This is due to
similarity of additional tasks. Enrichment calls for development and utilization of higher skills,
initiative, and innovation on the part of the job holder in performing the job.
4. Direction and Control: Job enlargement requires direction and control from external
sources, say supervisor. In fact, the job holder may require more direction and control because of
enlargement of his responsibility. Enrichment does not require external direction and control as these
come from the job holder himself. He requires only feedback from his supervisor.

Summary
• The purpose of an organization is to give each person a separate distinct job and to ensure
that these jobs are coordinated in such a way that the organization accomplishes its goals.
• Developing an organization structure results in jobs that have to be staffed.

Job analysis is the procedure through which you find out (1) what the job entails, and (2) what
kinds of people should be hired for the job. It involves six steps:
(1) determine the use of the job analysis information;
(2) collection of background information;
(3) selection of jobs for analysis;
(4) collection of job analysis data;
(5) processing the information;
(6) preparing job descriptions and job classifications; and
(7) developing job specifications.

• Techniques of job analysis are – observation method, questionnaires, participant diary/logs,

interview, critical incidents, technical conference method, and job performance.
• Job description and job specification are products of job analysis. Job description should
indicate duties to be performed by the job holder and the manner he should complete the tasks. Job
specification: answer the question “what human traits and experience are necessary to do the job. It
portrays what kind of person to recruit and for what qualities that person should be tested”.

| Human Resource Management

10
WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

• Job design is an attempt to create a match between job requirements and job attribute. Job
rotation implies transfer to a job of same level and status. Job simplification enables the employees to
do the without much specialized training
• Job enlargement is the process of increasing the scope of job of a particular by adding more
tasks to it. And job enrichment implies increasing the contents of a job or the deliberate upgrading of
responsibility scope and challenge in work.
• Job enlargement and job enrichment are both important forms of job design in order to
enhance the productivity and satisfaction of the job holders.

*******************************************************************************

Activity 2: Answer the following questions wittingly.

1. What do you understand by job analysis?

______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

2. What is job description? What should be included in writing job description?

______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

3. Define job specification? How is it different from job description?

______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

Assessment:

1. Clearly define and discuss the relationship among job analysis, job description and job
specification.

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

2. Differentiate Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment.

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Well done! You are now ready for your next module…

“You fail only when you give up.”

Source: https://www.studocu.com-human-resource-mangement Apple O’Bryan

| Human Resource Management

11