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.”

According to Zerga, who analyzed 401 articles on job description about 30 years ago. A job description helps us in:

(i) Job grading and classification

(ii) Transfers and promotions.

(iii) Adjustments of grievances;

(iv) Defining and outlining promotional steps:

(v) Establishing a common understanding of a job between employers and employees;

(vi) Investigation accidents ;

(vii) Indicating faulty work procedures or duplication of papers;

(viii) Maintaining, operating and adjusting machinery;

(ix) Time and motion studies;

(x) Defining the limits of authority;

(xi) Indicating case of personal merit;

(xii) Studies of health and fatigue;

(xiii) Scientific guidance;

(xiv) Determining jobs suitable for occupational therapy;

(xv) Providing hiring specifications; and

(xvi) Providing performance indicators.

“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.