How Are Job Descriptions and Job Specifications Created?
“If basic activities and behavioral pattern expectations are not clearly understood by the employee, one can expect that relationship between the organization, the individual and the job would begin adversely and problems would arise. This situation would be analogous to beginning a marriage when each person was unfamiliar with the background, habits, personality and interests of the other” (Lavery, Heckel, & Johnson, 1965, p. 9).
From the employee perspective: “I don’t know why I put up with letting the boss tell me things to do that are not on my job description,” Ted remarked to Sara, his coworker. “I was hired to do a particular series of tasks, not just anything that Esam wants.”
“Yes, things have changed around here,” Sara said. “I wonder why they never bother to change our job descriptions.”
From the manager perspective: “Why is Ted so unwilling to help out around here when we need something different from him?” Esam wondered. “It seems that he considers the job description to be all that he is supposed to do, but things have changed in the 10 years since we hired him. Can’t he see that?”
Why Do We Need Job Descriptions and Job Specifications?
Job descriptions and specifications are essential to the smooth running of an organization. Job descriptions allow people to understand their role in the organization.1 The purpose of a job description is to group and divide the work, as needed, and to define relationships within the organization—which position does the job holder report to and why.2 Job specifications allow clear identification of the skills, knowledge, and abilities (SKAs) that are required for success in the job, which is particularly useful when filling a vacancy or determining a promotion. A job specification can aid in preventing the Peter Principle from occurring, where people are promoted to their highest level of incompetence.3
As you can see from the research cited in this book, the need for job descriptions and specifications has been around for a while! The U.S. government began working with job analysis and job descriptions in the 1940s.3 So there is a long history of job description development, which has been very valuable to both management and leadership theory as well as its practice.
What Does a Useful Job Description Look Like?
Information from the job analysis and decisions made in job design are used to create a job description.4 The Performance Leadership™ System makes the task easier because the information needed for the job description is available from the job analysis and design step, described in Chapter 3. We do not recommend generic job descriptions, although there are many available from the Occupational Information Network (O*Net)5 and other reputable resources online. Each industry, each organization, and each position differ in many ways, but the O*Net can help managers find words and phrases defining competencies of tasks and duties.
Positions should be both useful and challenging, to engage employee motivation and commitment.6 Job components can cause an employee to be motivated or demotivated, which create a motivational culture within the organization or department. This motivational culture inspires and energizes those within the organization (Mo Amani). Herzberg’s description of motivation is relevant today7:
“. . . I can charge a person’s battery, and then recharge it, and then recharge it again. But it is only when one has a generator of one’s own that we can talk about motivation. One then needs no outside stimulation. One wants to do it.”
Herzberg8 believed that it was critical to consider what generates motivation within employees. Motivation comes from within, and managers cannot motivate employees; they can only provide incentives to engage motivation.
Herzberg8 proposed job enrichment as a method to incentivize employees. Job enrichment is different from job enlargement—enlargement means just adding more of the same tasks, while enrichment is adding more responsibility and higher level tasks. It is, essentially, the difference between quantity and quality. Job enrichment is mentioned here, because it makes jobs more interesting to the job holder and, therefore, matter more to the employee.
Positive job enrichment reinforces employees to feel more engaged and interested in their work.6 It generates motivation through job design and job analysis, reflected in the job description and specification. The manager should design quality tasks in the job to build employee commitment and engage abilities in the job. A certain number of different tasks are, of course, necessary to prevent boredom and achieve departmental and organizational goals within financial constraints, but quality should be the manager’s primary focus. Some ideas suggested by Herzberg8 include the following:
• Delegating more decision-making responsibility and accountability, which increases personal achievement and gives the potential for individual (or team) recognition;
• Increasing the span of the work, that is, giving job holders large or complete sections of the work to complete rather than tiny, repetitive sections of a larger task;
• Recognizing achievement through accurate analysis and design of job tasks;
• Identification of what consists of success in tasks and duties in a particular job;
• Accurate measurement of achievement (or failure) with timely feedback from the job itself or from a manager; and
• Assigning specialized tasks within the job, so employees can be recognized as expert at a particular task or duty.
Hours of work are important, and declaration of a position as exempt can be placed here if appropriate, instead of hours of work. However, legislation in the area of exempt and nonexempt positions changes frequently, so consult the U.S. Department of Labor and the state Department of Labor each time you develop or revise job descriptions.9
It is critical to design a job description that can be clearly shown to address organizational and departmental goals. The contribution of this book is the specific three-step job description, shown in the template titled Exhibit 4.1. The first item is the job title. Overinflated job titles do not help the organization or the job holder. The job title should be brief and reflect the location of the position within the decision-making hierarchy.4 Titles are particularly important if the individual will be involved in correspondence or negotiation with individuals or firms in other countries, as the title is expected to reflect decision-making level.10 Location in the hierarchy is also reflected by this, so identification of the job title that the position reports to is crucial. As discussed, each job should be related to specific organizational and/or departmental goals and objectives. Those objectives should be listed on the job description.
Job Description Template
Job Title: __________________ Job Number: __________________
Department Name: _________________
Reports to (Job Title): _________________
Direction/Supervision of others: _________________
Hours of Work: _________________
Job summary: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Primary function: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Principal duties and responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Organizational objectives pertaining to this position:
1. ______________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________
3. ______________________________________________
Equipment used, if applicable:
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
This three-step job description contains headings of (1) competencies, (2) examples of tasks, and (3) measurement examples. Required competencies should be clearly stated in the first column. To decide the areas of work that should be included, remember to ask questions concerning the position: Why does the job exist in the first place? What specific organizational or departmental goals is the job designed to address? Examples of tasks that address each goal are listed in the second column.
In the third column, measurable outcomes of the goals for the job are specified. These measures are those considered exemplary. In other words, if the job holder achieves these outcomes or goals, then they will achieve a performance rating of 5 on a 5-point scale. The measures must reflect quality, quantity, and time. This will be helpful later, when defining measures that can be useful in the evaluation of the employee. For example, if the employee produces a great deal of work, but it is substandard and/or not on time, then he has failed to achieve the goal. Measures have several characteristics, as described by Aguinis4:
1. They must be related to the main elements of the job, not on person specifications. A job cannot be designed around one person, but it should reflect tasks that need to be accomplished by someone holding the position so that the departmental and organizational goals are achieved.
2. Measures are observable and concrete, but not necessarily numerical, so that there is little dispute over whether they were met and how well. Clear measures reduce uncertainty and increase trust between the manager and the employee. However, sometimes measures, like quality, require some subjective definitions, best decided by both the manager and the employee.
3. Meaningful measures reflect the important features of the job in achieving the departmental and organizational goals; otherwise, they are useless. If managers insist upon only measuring things that are done only once a quarter or once a year, the employee will lose trust in the measures and the manager. However, measuring too many things will drive both the manager and employee crazy. Pick the most important parts of the job and measure those features.
4. The best measures are those that are easily observed or otherwise measured, so they can be designated, by number or quality, as satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily achieved. For example, number of complaints can be a useful measure, since it is easily observed; however, this needs to be in balance with the total number of non-complaining customers and the praise that the employee receives (which are less likely to be put in writing).
A review of the measures must occur regularly, so that the measures do not become out of date—but this is true of the entire job description itself.
This improved job description model has many benefits. The job holder can see very clearly how his job relates to the organization and the department. He can also see how he will be measured in regard to achieving those goals. The manager and the employee can easily determine on a day-to-day basis whether the employee is making strides toward goal achievement. In the final instance, the information from the job description can be used to create a job specification and the evaluation/appraisal tool.
An example of a partial job description for a material manager is shown in Exhibit 4.2. Information for the job description came from a multitude of sources: best practices in material management, job holder knowledge, job market analysis, expectations of university graduate abilities, and organizational and departmental goals. We do not use the fact of a university degree or specific years of experience as requirements for a job, but only guides. Candidates for a position may possess one or both and still not have the skills, knowledge, or ability to achieve the job goals. Please note that at this point, when designing a new job description, goal development/goal setting is essential. In this book, goal setting is discussed in Chapter 5.
Job Description Example
Job Title: Material Manager (partial example)
What Is a Job Specification? What Does a Useful Job Specification Look Like?
The job specification, as shown in the template titled Exhibit 4.3, identifies those skills, knowledge content, abilities, and other criteria necessary for an individual to be successful in the job. Skills and knowledge content generally result from prior experiences in work and/or learning situations. For example, skills and knowledge pertaining to accounting come from education and experience. The amount needed varies, depending on the job requirements.
Job Specification Template
Job Title: _______________________________
Reports to (Job Title): _______________________________
Hours of work: _______________________________
Physical Requirements (taken from the job description)
Note: Adjustments will need to be made in terms of the level of the position within the hierarchy. But U.S. legislation requires these items on the physical environment and tasks to be completed for each position and kept as records.
Using the job description to think through the job specification details will help in choosing the right person for the job or the right training to assist the current employee to be more successful. However, without the job specification, individuals are unclear about the types of skills, knowledge, and abilities to be successful.
Abilities can include the soft skills, or less easily measured skills, such as teamwork, leadership, critical thinking, ethics, and management. Abilities can also include the ability to lift a particular amount of weight or walk a certain distance. There may be other requirements and criteria for successful completion of the tasks for the job. However, those requirements must be necessary for the performance of the job, or they should be listed as “preferred,” not required.
An example of a person specification is shown in Exhibit 4.4, using the job description of material manager (shown in Exhibit 4.2). Note that the requirement for a Bachelor’s degree from a Business College is listed as preferred in this example. There are areas where experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a different major might be considered when the applicant is outstanding, so limitations should be in the area of skills and abilities, and not certification, unless definitely needed for a position (such as a Registered Nurse—RN—or Certified Public Accountant—CPA). If those requirements are specified, they should be for specific reasons. A CPA is not necessarily required for an accounting position in a manufacturing firm, for example, and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) may be better equipped to deal with manufacturing problems.
Job Specification Example
Job Title: Material Manager
Reports to: Chief Financial Officer
Hours of work: Exempt Position
Physical Requirements
Experience should also be listed as “preferred” in most cases, as some candidates will have the required experience without formally gaining skills, knowledge, or abilities that other candidates have acquired in a specific workplace setting. An example here is a mother with children. To be successful, she must have developed time management skills, budgeting abilities, and the ability to calm situations.
A brief note about degree requirements: Without an understanding of theories behind practice and some experience of practice within an institution, certified by qualified instructors, a degree is irrelevant. This example states that a Bachelor’s degree from a Business School accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate School of Businesses (AACSB) is preferred. The level of training and theory that are given within these AACSB Business Schools are required for certification. The AACSB (www.aacsb.edu/) accreditation certifies that only instructors and professors who have both current knowledge and current practice have participated in the student’s/applicant’s education. It also certifies that students understand practice as well as theory, that is, that they understand that one theory does not fit every situation. This is true of other national and international accrediting agencies that are specific to a profession.
Additional notes about selection based on the job specification: Do not automatically rule out examples of military, volunteer, home, or academic examples to illustrate a candidate’s skills, knowledge, and/or abilities. These can be your best hires. Failures in some of the listed areas are acceptable, as long as the applicant can state what they learned from the failure.
Example 4.1
“I don’t understand what I’m really supposed to be doing at work,” Mosha told his friends during a break in the basketball game. “They tell me to do this one day and then something else the next. I don’t want to be in this situation. It is very uncomfortable—I don’t even know who I am supposed to be reporting to for which task! What do you think I should do?”
Among all of his sympathetic friends, only one made a suggestion that Mosha thought he should use. Timothy said, “Why don’t you meet with your supervisors and ask for a job description?”
The next workday, Mosha asked John, one of his supervisors, “Is it possible to get a job description for my position? I’m really unclear about the requirements and what I might be measured on during my 90-day evaluation.”
John smiled and said, “We don’t use job descriptions here, Mosha. Everyone just uses his or her creativity and it all comes out all right. We hired you to use your skill set, and you’ve been doing pretty well. We will let you know how you are doing after the 90 days.”
Mosha slowly walked out of the office. “That didn’t help at all,” he thought. “I still don’t know who I should report to or which tasks I should do. I’m still confused.”
What Is the Problem Here? How Can Performance Leadership Help in this Situation?
This is not a fictional situation but one that we have seen in several companies. Managers view job descriptions and specifications as useless and a waste of time. Even the CEO may not like doing them. Some newer organizations in the high tech sector, such as the one in the example, believe that they are worthless and stifle creativity. However, as seen in this chapter, job descriptions actually help engage employee motivation toward goal achievement. Therefore, goals must be clearly identified, as they are in the job description template and example (Exhibits 4.1 and 4.2). Used correctly, job descriptions enhance creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and ethics.
The goals of the department and organization should be in the employees’ view at all times. Without some idea of the task areas and the measures to be used for evaluations, employees will drift from day to day, unsure whether there is a rationale for their employment. This will create discontent and disharmony, as one person may be doing the same thing as another and neither doing it to achieve organizational goals. Remember, the direction of motivated effort is just as important as the intensity or the motivation itself. A job description helps the manager make sure that all of the employees’ efforts are applied in the correct direction.
Being clear about reporting authority is important, even to creative endeavors. Someone must have the responsibility and authority for particular areas of approval or denial. If Mosha needs a vacation or sick day, he needs to know who will approve or deny it. If funds are needed for a project that Mosha wants to initiate, he needs to know where to apply for the funds. No matter how creative the firm, these sorts of normal workplace requirements must be met to prevent discouraging or demoralizing the employee. It allows managers to know where employees are, both physically and in relation to goal achievement.
Telling an employee that he should wait to know how well he is doing until after the 90-day (or year) evaluation is a sure way to demotivate and demoralize an employee. The term used is gotcha management. In these cases, the manager generally is incompetent and wants to use the threat of a poor evaluation to get work from employees. It creates fear and dread in the employee—good employees will leave and the manager will be left with the ones with no place to go. Mo Amani, one of the reviewers, suggested that fear is the pebble in the shoe that prevents us from climbing Mount Everest.
“When the job description was given to me, I thought I understood what my responsibility and authority would be,” Holly said to Maria, her manager. “In the doing the work, however, the job description isn’t very helpful. What should I do?”
“I don’t know what we can do about it,” Maria said. “It is the job description that I used when I was in your position six years ago. I know that things have changed, but this is the job description that we use for your job.”
What Is the Problem Here? How Can Performance Leadership Help in this Situation?
This is a situation that we often find in well-established companies—the job description is so old that the paper has yellowed! The environment of business keeps constantly changing, requiring more and more flexibility, but that means that the job description cannot be an old one, nor can it be written in the same old ways.
Using the job description and specification outlined in this chapter allows flexibility, but also gives the opportunity for the employee to direct her efforts in the direction that will achieve departmental and organizational goals. Without the flexibility, an employee has a legitimate grievance that must be addressed when job duties change from the ones on the yellowed job description!
Just because the job description has always been this way is not a suitable reason to continue. Otherwise, the manager is practicing chicken management—he is unwilling to change to do the things that comprise true management in the new knowledge and technology society. Job descriptions must be continuously revised, according to goals, objectives, and needs, with the employee’s input.
Example 4.3
Harry and Alec walked to the interview room together. “Well, Alec,” said Harry, “The way interviews are conducted here makes them a joke.”
“Why?” asked Alec. “We seem to have a lot of good candidates.”
“Because we never really know which candidate the personnel department will pick. They have no idea of what we really need on the warehouse floor. The last guy we got couldn’t even read and messed up the orders terribly.”
What Is the Problem Here? How Can Performance Leadership Help in this Situation?
Firms with an appropriate and effective performance management system rarely fall into this scenario. Using the Performance Leadership System, job specification system discussed in this chapter increases the opportunities to choose a new hire out of the pool of applicants that is able to do the work.
In some cases, all of the applicants are fairly equal, but the final determination is whether the person will fit well within the organization. For example, often there is a requirement for a certification, and all of the applicants on the short list have the certification and fairly equal experience and education. At this point, the consideration will be whether or not the applicant will be able to work within the culture that has been established in the workplace. Person–organization fit is discussed Chapter 8.
Notes
1. Lavery, Heckel, & Johnson, 1965.
2. Newman, 1963.
3. Hull & Peter, 1969.
4. Aguinis, 2013.
5. Occupational Information Network—O*Net (http://www.one tonline.org/find/).
6. Hackman & Oldham, 1976; Herzberg, 1968/2003.
7. Herzberg, 2003, p. 55.
8. Herzberg, 1968/2003.
9. US Department of Labor (www.dol.gov) and the state Department of Labor (for example, http://www.labor.ar.gov/ for Arkansas).
10. Deresky, 2014.