Various definitions of job analysis 1) Job analysis is the process of determining by observation, study and reporting pertinent information

relating to the nature of a specific job. 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. Contents of job analysis Job identification its title, including its code number Significant characteristic of a job its location, physical setting, supervision, union jurisdiction, hazards and discomforts. Materials and equipments metals, plastics, grains, yarns milling machines, punch presses and micrometers. Job performance- lifting, handling, cleaning, washing, feeding, removing, drilling, driving, setting up and many others. Required personnel attributes experience required, opportunities for advancement, patterns of promotion, essential cooperation, direction or leadership from and for a job. Job analysis Job description A statement containing items such as 1) Job title 2) Location 3) Job summary 4) Duties 5) Machines, tools and equipments 6) Materials and forms used 7) Supervision given or received 8) Working conditions 9) Hazards job specification a statement of human qualifications Necessary to do the job. Usually Contains items such as 1) education 2) experience 3) training 4) judgment 5) initiative 6) physical effort 7) physical skills 8) responsibilities 9) communication skills 10) Emotional characteristics 11) Unusual sensory demands such as sight, smell, hearing.

Process of job analysis:Job analysis is a sequential process and involves the following steps:1) Selection of specific job for analysis 2) Collection of information (data) relating to the job. 3) Processing of information collected for drawing conclusions on the specific job selected for analysis.

4) Preparation of job description, i.e., a statement showing various details of the job. 5) Preparation of job specification, i.e., a statement showing the qualities required for performing the job. 6) Getting final approval. Uses (purposes) 1) Man power planning Determines as to how many and what type of personnel will be needed in the near future. The number and the type of personnel are determined by the jobs which need to be staffed. Job related information is, therefore, necessary for human resource planning. 2) recruitment and selection Recruitment needs to be preceded by job analysis. Job analysis helps the HR manager to locate places to obtain employees for openings anticipated in the future. An understanding of the types of the skills needed and a type of job that may open in the future enables managers to have a better continuity and planning in staffing their organization. Similarly, selecting a qualified person to fill a job requires knowing clearly the work to be done and the qualifications needed for someone to perform the work satisfactorily. Without a clear and precise understanding of what a job entails, the HR manager cannot effectively select someone to do the job. The objective of employee hiring is to match the right people with the right jobs. The objective is too difficult to achieve without having adequate job information. 3) Remuneration Job evaluation helps determine wage and salary grades for all jobs. Employees need to be compensated depending on the grades of jobs which they occupy. Remuneration also involves fringe benefits, bonus and other benefits. Clearly, remuneration must be based on the relative worth each job. Ignoring this basic principle results in inequitable compensations. A perception of inequity is a sure way of demotivating an employee. 4) Training and development Job analysis is useful for an HRD manager as it helps him/her know what a given job demands from the incumbent in terms of knowledge and skills. Training and development programmes can be designed depending on the job requirements. Selection of trainees is also facilitated by job analysis. 5) Performance appraisal Performance appraisal involves assessment of the actual performance of an employee against what is expected of him/her. Such assessment is the basis for awarding promotions, effecting transfers, or assessing training needs. Job analysis facilitates performance appraisal as it helps fix standards for performance in relation to which actual performance of an employee is compared and assessed.

6) Safety and health The process of conducting a detailed job analysis provides an excellent opportunity to uncover and identify hazardous conditions and unhealthy environmental factors (such as heat, noise, fumes and dust), so that corrective measures can be taken to minimize and avoid the possibility of human injury. Job design Job design is defined as the pocess of deciding on the content of a job in terms of its duties and responsibilities, techniques and procedures and on the relationship that should exist between job holder and his superiors. And to achieve two goals: To meet organizational requirements To satisfy need of industrial employees. Techniques / Approaches of job design 1) Work simplification In this technique, the job is simplified or specialized. A given job is broken down into small sub-parts (making a car, for example) and each part is assigned to one individual. To be more specific, work simplification involves (I) mechanical pacing of work (ii) Repetitive work processes, such as those on an assembly line, (iii) Working on only one part of a product, (IV) predetermining tools and techniques, (v) restricted interaction among employees, and (VI) few skill requirements. Work simplification is done so that the less trained and less paid employees can do these jobs. Work simplification is adopted when job designers feel that jobs are not specialized enough. The technique is defective in the sense that over specialization results in boredom which in turn can lead to errors and resignations. 2) job rotation The solution to the problem of boredom is job rotation which implies movement of employees from job to job. Jobs remain unchanged, but incumbents shift. With job rotation, a given employee performs different jobs, but, more or less, jobs of the same nature. On the positive side, it may be said that job rotation is likely to increase intrinsic reward potential of a job because of different skills and abilities needed to perform it. The organization stands to benefit because workers become competent in several jobs rather than only one. Knowing a variety of jobs improves the workers self-image, provides personal growth, and makes the worker more valuable to the organization. Periodic job changing can also improve interdepartmental co-operation; employees become more understanding of each others problems. On the negative side, it may be stated that job rotation may not have much impact on employee enthusiasm and efficiency. According to Hertzberg,

job rotation is merely substituting one zero from another zero. Besides, jobs do not improve the relationships among tasks, while activities and objectives remain unencouraged. The employee may feel alienated when he/she is rotated from job to job.

3) Job enlargement Job enlargement involves expanding the number of tasks or duties assigned to a given job. Job enlargement is naturally opposite to work simplification. Adding more tasks or duties to a job does not mean that new skills and abilities are needed to perform it. Job enlargement is simply adding zero to zero, meaning that one set of boring tasks (zero) is simply added to another set of boring tasks (zero). Job enlargement is usually resisted by employees. 4) Job enrichment Job enrichment seeks to improve both task efficiency and human satisfaction by building into peoples jobs, quite specifically, greater scope for personal achievement and recognition, more challenging and responsible work, and more opportunity for individual advancement and growth. On the positive side, job rotation increases motivation, reduces absenteeism, psychological needs of employees are met. Brings about empowered teams. On the negative side, people may not like to accept new responsibilities. Union resistance adds to the problem. Job enrichment, if not accompanied by other job inputs, will fail in its goal. CONCEPT QUESTIONS 1) JOB ANALYSIS Job analysis enables manager to understand jobs and job structures to improve the work flow or develop techniques to improve productivity. Job analysis results in two sets of data: Job description Job specification It is a procedure by which information is obtained about a job, i.e. , it is a detailed and systematic study of information relating to operations and responsibilities of a specific job. JOB DESCRIPTION Job description is a written record of duties, responsibilities and requirements of a particular job. It is a statement describing the job in terms of its title, location, duties, working conditions and hazards.

JOB SPECIFICATION Job specification is a written record of the requirements sought in an individual worker for a given job. It refers to a summary of a personal characteristics required for a job. JOB DESIGN Job design is emerged as an important application area for work motivation and the study of organizational behaviour. It is the division of the total task to be performed into manageable and efficient units and to provide for their proper integration. The main goal is to maximize human efficiency in job. Methods of collecting job data:The methods of collecting job related data are- i) observational method ii) interview iii) questionnaire iv) checklists v) technical conferences and vi) diary. A combination of all these approaches may be used depending upon the situation and the organization. 1) Observation : In this method , the job analysts carefully observes upon the situation and the organization records what he or she does , and how much time is needed for completion of a given task. 2) Interview: In this, analyst interviews the job holder and his/her supervisor to elicit information about the job. Usually a structured interview form is used to record the information about the job. During the interview, the analyst must make judgments about the information to be included and its degree of importance. 3) Questionnaire: job holders fill in the given structured questionnaires which are then approved by their supervisors. The filled-in questionnaires offered enough data or jobs. Standard or prepared questionnaires are available or they may be prepared for the purpose by the analyst. Standard or prepared questionnaire should contain following basic information The job title of the job holder The job title of the job holders manager/supervisor The job titles and numbers of the staff reporting to the job holder A brief description of the overall role or purpose of the job and A list of many task or duties that the job holder has to carry out; as appropriate, these should specify the resources controlled , the equipment used , the contracts made and the frequency with which tasks are carried out. 4) Check lists: A checklist is similar to a questionnaire but the response sheet contains fewer subjective judgments and tends to be either yes or no variety. Checklists can cover as a many as 100 activities and job holders tick only those tasks that are included in their jobs. He/ she may also be asked to write any additional tasks he/she performs which is

not stated in the checklist. The checklist thus answered will be the basis for tabulating job related data. 5) Technical conference method: in this method services of supervisors who possess extensive knowledge about the job are used. It is from these experts that details about the job are obtained here, a conference of supervisors is used. The analyst initiates discussion which provides details about jobs. 6) Diary method: this method requires job holders to record in detail their activity each day. If done faithfully, this technique is accurate and eliminates errors caused memory lapses the job holder makes while answering questionnaires and checklists. CONCLUSION: the methods described above are not be viewed as mutually exclusive. None of them is superior. The best results can be obtained by a combination of these methods.

Job analysis