Job Analysis and Design

A job analysis has three components namely job description, person specification and job context. Based on the job analysis, job designing is conducted through the four main approaches of job specialization, job enlargement, job rotation and job enrichment. Once the jobs are designed, people can be recruited either internally or externally. Recruitment can be conducted through a variety of methods such as reviewing of resumes, job interviews and job assessments. However, such a selection is a process of measurement, decision making and evaluation, in which organizations must use reliable and valid measures of job applicant characteristics. Job analysis is the term used to describe the process of analyzing a job or occupation into its various components, that is, organizational structure, work activities, and informational content. The process results in a relevant, timely and tailored database of job-related information that can be used in a variety of ways: to develop conventional, individualized, computer-based and/or critical incident, education and training programs and materials; to create and classify job titles; to write job descriptions; to prepare organization charts; to conduct time and motion studies; to determine quality assurance standards; and to write both knowledge-and performance-related employee evaluation measures. Two terms often used interchangeably with job analysis are occupational analysis and task analysis.

Job design refers to the two ways in which work is organized. It is the process of putting together various elements to form a job, bearing in mind organizational and individual worker requirements, as well as considerations of health, safety, and ergonomics. Job design establishes the role of a worker in a production system. An outcome of the combination of job content and work methods is job design. Job content describes what it is that must be accomplished, while work methods specify how a work should perform the tasks required in the performance of the job.