Introduction

Job analysis helps to recognize and verify the requirements of a job and delineate the duties and
obligations of the job. In job, evaluations done on the information collected about the job, the
significance should always be given on the job and never on the worker or the individual. The
basic notion of job analysis is that the evaluations and judgments are done depending on the job
and not on the person. It is done through cross-examinations and surveys according to the
necessities of the occupation and the analysis provides a specific explanation and requirements
of the job (Al-Marwai & Subramaniam , 2009 p.6, Bodner, 1999 p. 12).

The aims of Job analysis is to always ascertain and record the job-related information of the
employment measures like training, selection, payment and performance assessment. Job
Analysis is used for classifying both training and requirement evaluations which consist of the
training matter, evaluation exams to understand the usefulness of training, devices used for
training and also the techniques of training (Armstrong, 2012 p.67-71, McCormick, 1979 p.22).

Reasons why Organizations have over the years thrived overtime in memorial without
conducting Job Analysis

Tiresome and lengthy:

The drawback which discourages most people from doing a job analysis is the lengthy procedure
and unnecessary time-consumption and time-wastage during the interviews or observations. The
biggest disadvantage of Job Analysis process is that it is very time-consuming. It is a major
limitation especially when jobs change frequently (Lawal, A. 1993 p.42, Robbins, 1996 p.56).

The prolonged time required for completing a job analysis is a major drawback and becomes
more of a hindrance as the employee can change the job before the manager or supervisor has
completed the job analysis.

Involves Personal Biases:

If the observer or job analyst is an employee of the same organization, the process may involve
his or her personal likes and dislikes. This is a major hindrance to collecting genuine and
accurate data (Jenkins & Griffith, 2004 p.3, Armstrong, 2009 p.49.50).

1
Though job analysis is a very efficient method of understanding the job requirements when done
properly; but most often the analysis is distorted by personal likes and dislikes. If the manager
likes one worker more than the other his personal opinions will influence the job analysis and it
will not be a genuine analysis (Weihrich, 2005 p.71).

Source of Data is extremely small:

The size and source of the data is mostly insignificant and small as the sample size is small. This
makes the source of data small and only the information collected from a few workers who may
even be influenced by their own personal opinions is recorded and analyzed. Then this
information of job analysis is portrayed as significant and consistent. Because of small sample
size, the source of collecting data is extremely small. Therefore, information collected from few
individuals needs to be standardized (Inyang & Akpama, 2002 p.28).

Need immense amounts of hard work and dedication:

The methods for job analysis require immense dedication and hard work for the proper
completion of the analysis. The process involves lots of human efforts. As every job carries
different information and there is no set pattern, customized information is to be collected for
different jobs. So the same method of job analysis and the same questions and evaluation
systems will not suffice for the different jobs; tailor-made questions are required for the different
jobs for their proper job analysis (Hartzell, 2006 p.41).

Job Analyst May Not Possess Appropriate Skills:

If job analyst is not aware of the objective of job analysis process or does not possess appropriate
skills to conduct the process, it is a sheer wastage of company’s resources. Often it occurs that
the analyst himself is not worthy of doing the analysis work; with an unworthy analyst, a proper
job analysis is impossible to do (Guest, 2002 p.5).

He may be unaware of the goals and aims of the job on which the job evaluation is being done. If
this is the case then the job analysis is nonsense and misuse of time, effort, and money. It will
never be any good for the organization or the workers (Singh, 2010 p.43).

2
Mental Abilities cannot be directly observed:

The last drawback seen in job analysis is that the mental aptitudes like intelligence, sentiments,
knowledge, and wisdom, propensity, patience, and stamina are never to be seen as these are
intangible characteristics of each individual. People act differently in different situations.
Therefore, general standards cannot be set for mental abilities (Gan & Kleiner, 2005 p.7).

Though job analysis also has disadvantages, the advantages prove to be superior to the
advantages. It is also a fact that job analysis is beneficial to the success of an organization.

Despite the fact that organizations do not do job analysis, it still remains very important
because of the following;

Job analysis helps in analyzing the resources and establishing the strategies to accomplish the
business goals and strategic objectives. Effectively developed, employee job descriptions are
communication tools that are significant in an organization's success (Fakhrzad, 2012 p.13).

The main purpose of conducting job analysis is to prepare job description and job
specification which would help to hire skilled workforce. Job description is a statement of
information about duties and responsibilities of a particular job. whereas job specifications is a
statement of information about qualifications, special qualities, skills and knowledge required for
an employee to fit for a job. Therefore job analysis enables recruiter/employer to have a deep
insight of a job, with that; recruiter can easily track candidates who have required qualifications
and qualities to perform a job (Ele, 2012 p.19).

Job Analysis can be used to identify areas where an employee needs training, since job analysis
make it clear to understand about core duties and responsibilities of a job. Besides, it provides
information to develop suitable training material for a job to be performed by an employee after
completion of his training (Cucina et al, 2005 p. 4).

Compensation management/salary administration is one of core  HR functions. salary for a job is

decided on  skill level required, duties and responsibilities, qualification and experience
level/seniority, altogether, called as compensable factors, which could be known by job analysis
only. But there is a separate method to determine value of job that is called as job evaluation
which is part of job analysis.  Job evaluation is process of valuing or determining how much is to

3
be paid for a job. Job evaluation is mainly used when a specific job or a single job is to be
evaluated or when there are different jobs in same Cader, or when there jobs based on projects or
piecework. However job analysis has its own importance in concluding
compensation/remuneration/ salary of an employee (Carless, 2007 p.8).

No organisation exists without goals and objectives to achieve, performance standards to be

maintained by every employee and reviewing performance of employees. These could be cross
checked with outcome of job analysis of a job, whether outcome of job analysis of a job is in
tune with goals and objectives of an organisation or not, performance standards are being
maintained or not and reviewing employee performance based on performance standards or not
(Boxall & Purcell, 2000 p.11).

Job Analysis can be used in performance review to identify or develop goals and objectives,
performance standards, evaluation criteria, length of probationary periods, and duties to be
evaluated (Borman et al, 1999 p. 15).

Conclusion

Job analysis is a procedure through which you determine the duties and responsibilities, nature of
the jobs and finally to decide qualifications, skills and knowledge to be required for an employee
to perform particular job. Job analysis helps to understand what tasks are important and how they
are carried on. Job analysis forms basis for later HR activities such as developing effective
training program, selection of employees, setting up of performance standards and assessment of
employees ( performance appraisal)and employee remuneration system or compensation plan.

4
References:

Al-Marwai, S. A. & Subramaniam. I. D. (2009). A review of the need for writing & updating job
descriptions for 21st century organizations. European Journal of Social Sciences, 12(2),
241-251.

Amos, T., Ristow, A. & Ristow, L. (2004). Human resource management (2nd ed). Lansdowne:
Juta Publisher.

Armstrong, M. (2009). Handbook of human resource management practice (11thed). India:

Replika Press Pvt Limited.

Armstrong, M. (2012). Handbook of human resource management practice (12thed). United

Kingdom: Ashford Colour Press.

Bodner, S. L. (1999). The evolution of job analysis: Competency assessment comes of age.
International Journal of Career Management, 7(6), 3-9.

Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A. & Hedge, J. W. (1997). Personnel selection. Annual Review of
Psychology, 48(3), 299-337.

Boxall, P. & Purcell, J. (2000). Strategic human resource management: Where have we come
from and where should we be going? International Journal of Management Review,
42(2), 183-203.

Carless, S. A. (2007). Graduate recruitment and selection in Austria. International Journal of

Selection and Assessment, 15(2), 153- 166.

Cucina, J. M., Vasilopoulos, N. L. & Sehgal, N. G. (2005). Personality-based job and the self-
serving bias. Journal of Business and Psychology, 20(2), 275-290.

Ele, A. A. (2012). Impact of organizational development on the corporate performance: A case

study of the University of Calabar. Unpublished M.Sc seminar paper presented in the
Department of Business Management, University of Calabar.

5
Fakhrzad, M. B. (2012). Career road strategy model, complementary of competency models and
strategic job analysis. International Transaction Journal of Engineering, Management, &
Applied Sciences & Technologies, 3(2), 125-143.

Gan, M. & Kleiner, B. (2005). How to write job descriptions effectively. Journal of
Management Research News, 28(8), 48-54. [13]. Grobler, P., Warnich, S., Carrell, M.
R., Elbert, N.F. & Hatfield, R. D. (2006). Human resource management in South Africa
(3rd ed). London: Thomson-Rd.

Guest, D. (2002). Human resource management, corporate performance and employee

wellbeing: Building the worker in human resource management. The Journal of
Industrial Relations, 44(3), 335-358.

Hartzell, D. (2006). Dictionary of management (1st ed). New Delhi: Academic India Publishers.

Inyang, B. J. & Akpama, A. M. (2002). Personnel management practice in Nigeria. Calabar:

Merb Business Publisher.

Jenkins, M., & Griffith, R. (2004). Using personality constructs to predicts performance: Narrow
or broad bandwidth. Journal of Business and Psychology, 19(2), 255-269.

Lawal, A. A. (1993). Management in focus (3rd ed). Lagos: NAS Printing Company.

McCormick, E. J. (1979). Job analysis: Methods and applications. New York: Amacom.

Robbins, S. P. (1996). Organization behaviour: Concepts, controversies, applications (7ed).

Englewood Cliffs-New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Singh, P. S. (2010). Human resource management (1st ed). India: Virender Kumar Arya
Publisher.

Weihrich, H. & Koontz, H. (2005). Management: A global perspective (11th Ed). New Delhi:
Tata McGraw –Hill Publishing Company.