The Efficiency and Effectiveness of Job Analysis and Job Design

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Introduction

In order to stay competitive an organization needs to improve its efficiency. This essay gives a comprehensive evaluation of job analysis and job design required for maximum organizational efficiency. It also offers the set of parameters that effectively manage the productivity and workforce diversity.

The effectiveness and efficiency refers to the accuracy in the functioning of any organization in a precise way so as to gain utmost productivity. For this purpose the human resource management of an organization has to perform certain job analyses which ultimately help it in job designing. Besides the HR management is also involved in making policies that increase the efficiency and also help in the management of workforce diversity and continuous changes.

Job Analysis

A job analysis is a technical procedure that systematically explores the activities being performed within a certain job. It involves the identification and description of the tasks and the skills, knowledge and conditions required for performing them adequately. This can be achieved in following ways:

Observation method

It is the technique in which the job analysts collect the data by watching the employees work. Although it provides direct information but has some drawbacks like:

The employees don’t work efficiently because of the awareness that they are being watched. This analysis has limited application that is it cannot be performed for many jobs- for example managerial jobs.

Individual interview method

Face-tot-face meeting with an employee is carried out in order to determine the requirements of job. It ensures a high level of accuracy but at the same time it is time consuming and costly.

Group interview method

This technique is similar to individual interview method. But in this meetings are done with a number of employees simultaneously to determine their jobs entail. Although high accuracy is achieved but the diversity in groups hinder its value.

Technical conference method

It involves the panel of experts with extensive knowledge of their job. The panel consists of senior job incumbents and employee’s supervisors which provide input for the analysis. It adds up to the insight and details that analyst might not get from individual interviews.

Structured questionnaire method

In this technique specific questionnaires are designed in order to conduct ratings of the tasks that employees perform on their respective jobs. This approach allows immediate studies of many jobs and at a low cost. Although the accuracy is low because of incomplete responses and there is no opportunity for asking follow-up questions.

Employee log

An employee log or diary is another option in which the workers summarize their tasks and activities in the log.

Applications of Job Analysis Information

Once the data has been collected by the above mentioned techniques, it can be utilized to generate three outcomes:

Job description

It is the written statement explaining the profile of the job that is the duties, working conditions and other aspects of the job.

Job specifications

These are the statements indicating the human characteristics that incumbents must possess to perform the respective job. These requirements include academic qualifications, experiences and other skills.

Job evaluation

It relates to the significance of job in an organization and provides the information that helps in the assessment of jobs.

Job Design

Jobs are the foundation of organizational efficiency as well as employee satisfaction. A well-designed job plays a vital role in both the success and survival of an organization.

Elements of Job Design

There are certain aspects according to which an organization designs its jobs. These elements are as follows:

Organizational elements

This element is concerned with the efficiency. It relates to the concept of specialization which is considered to be the key element in job designing. It is also considered as mechanistic approach.

Mechanistic approach

It involves the identification of all the tasks that a job consists. Once these are identified, these are arranged into a limited number of tasks which is done to minimize the time and effort of workers.

Work flow

In order to work efficiently there should be a sequence and balance between the jobs according to which the job is done.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics is the study of physical relationship of workers with their work. For gaining optimal productivity one has to keep this element in mind while designing a job.

Work practices

Work practices are very important in job designing. These are the collective expectations of the personnel or may be the result of any previous practice.

Environmental elements

This aspect of job designing deals with the potentials of the employees and their socio-cultural expectations. The abilities and availabilities of the potential recruits must be balance so as to gain efficient at its maximal.

Socio-cultural expectations have a profound influence on acceptance of employment especially when one is designing recruitments for international operations. Working hours, vacations, rest breaks, holidays, religious beliefs and all such aspects should be kept in mind while designing a job.

Behavioral elements

In addition to the elements providing work efficiency job researchers should also work on behavioral patterns so a satisfactory working environment can be provided to the personnel. According to a research a functional framework of following dimensions should be given to the employees in order to get their optimal performance. These are: Autonomy- it refers to the sovereignty provided to the recruits in their tasks.

Diversity- an employ should have the opportunity to use different skills and abilities.

Identification and significance of the responsibilities – it refers to the completion of the entire task as well as any particular piece of labor.

Feedback- the employs should be informed regarding their jobs.

Steps Towards the Maximum Efficiency and Effective Mangement of Workforce Diversity

In order to be optimally proficient and manage the ongoing changes effectively an organization must systematize their jobs and information administration in such a way that these help it out to achieve these objectives.

An integrated approach is needed for the management of changes in different aspects such as work, technology and employees. Among these changes the most important one is that of work force. Most of the time this change is most challenging and at the same time ill-managed. The organizations can cope up with the changes they are experiencing by:

Analyzing all the work comprehensively that has been completed till date and critical assessment of the HR strategies. With these analyses they can come up with the further improvements that are supposed to be made. A dynamic planning process is established by the HR management which incorporate all the plans related to changing process

The newly designed or improved plans should be distinct that is functional approach and the organization of the work to achieve the objective. At the same time the current state of the recruits should also be analyzed so as to ensure that they will fulfill the future state requirements.

In the redesigned environment an elaborated structure for an organization is prepared which consists of new job descriptions. It is also possible that this new environment leads to the establishment of new recruitments and the organization has to carry out assessment of employees.

Conclusion

The above discussion gives the idea of how the job analysis should be done and then with the help of the data collected the designing of jobs. For effectiveness and efficiency, an organization should have the recruits having both the technical and interpersonal skills. For total quality management the workforce diversity has to be managed appropriately. For this purpose the organization should alter their existing policies, develop understanding and enthusiasm to maximize the skills of the diverse work force.

Bibliography

Bernadin H., (2002) Human Resource Management: An experimental Approach. University of Michigan. Mc Graw-Hill/Irwin.

Bratton, John; Gold, Jeffery; (2001). Human resource management: Theory and practice. Routledge.

Cushway, Barry. (1999) Organizational behavior and design. Kogan page.

Ramlall J; ( 2003) human resource planning. Measuring human resource management’s effectiveness in improving performance.

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