Job and Role Analysis

The analysis and design of jobs and roles is one of the most
important techniques in HRM. Job or role analysis provides
the information required to produce job descriptions, role
profiles and person and learning specifications. It is of
fundamental importance in organization and job design,
recruitment and selection, performance management,
learning and development, management development,
career management, job evaluation and the design of grade
and pay structures. These constitute most of the key HRM
activities. Job or role design is the means by which jobs can
be made intrinsically motivating.
 The terms ‘job’ and ‘role’ are often used interchangeably, but they
are different, as defined below:

Job
A job is an organizational unit which consists of a group of defined tasks or
activities to be carried out or duties to be performed.
Role
A role is the part played by individuals and the patterns of behaviour
expected of them in fulfilling their work requirements. A role has been
defined by Ivancevich et al (2008) as ‘an organized set of behaviours’. Roles
are about people as distinct from jobs, which are about tasks and duties. It
is recognized more generally that organizations consist of people using
their knowledge and skills to achieve results and working cooperatively
together, rather than impersonal jobs contained in the boxes of an
organization chart. A generic role is a role in which essentially similar
activities are carried out by a number of people, for example a team leader
or a call centre agent. In effect, it covers an occupation rather than a single
role.
 Job and Role Analysis

Job analysis

Job analysis produces the following information about a job:

▪ Overall purpose: why the job exists and, in essence, what

the job holder is expected to contribute.
▪ Organization: to whom the job holder reports and who
reports to the job holder.
▪ Content: the nature and scope of the job in terms of the
tasks and operations to be performed and duties to be
carried out.
If the outcome of the job analysis is to be used for job
evaluation purposes, the job will also be analyzed in terms of
the factors or criteria used in the job evaluation scheme.
The essence of job analysis is the application of systematic
methods to the collection of information about job content.
It is about data collection, and the basic steps are:

• Obtain documents such as existing organization,

procedure or training manuals which give information
about the job.
• Obtain from managers fundamental information
concerning the job.
• Obtain from job holders similar information about their
jobs.

Job analysis is best carried out through interviews but

these can usefully be supplemented by questionnaires.
Role analysis

Role analysis uses the same techniques as job analysis but

the focus is on identifying inputs (knowledge and skill and
competency requirements) and required outcomes (key
result areas or accountabilities) rather than simply listing
the tasks to be carried out.
 Job description

Job analysis provides the information required to

produce a job description, which defines what job
holders are required to do in terms of activities, duties or
tasks. Job descriptions are prescriptive and inflexible,
giving people the opportunity to say ‘It’s not in my job
description’, meaning that they only need to do the tasks
listed there. They are more concerned with tasks than
outcomes, and with the duties to be performed rather
than the competencies required to perform them
(technical competencies covering knowledge and skills,
and behavioural competencies).
 Role profile

A role profile defines outcomes, accountabilities and

competencies for an individual role. It concentrates on
outcomes rather than duties, and therefore provides better
guidance than a job description on expectations, and does
not constrain people to carrying out a prescribed set of tasks.
Outcomes may be expressed as key result areas – elements of
the role for which clear outputs and standards can be
defined, each of which makes a significant contribution to
achieving its overall purpose. Alternatively, they may be
termed accountabilities – areas of the role for which role
holders are responsible in the form of being held to account
for what they do and what they achieve
A role profile does not prescribe in detail what has to be
done to achieve the required outcomes. It therefore allows
for greater flexibility than a job description, and is more
easily updated to reflect changing demands. Role profiles
are person-oriented. A role can be described in
behavioural terms – given certain expectations, this is how
the person needs to behave to meet them. Because it
identifies knowledge, skill and competency requirements,
it also provides a better basis for recruitment and
selection, performance management, and learning and
development purposes. Generic roles are defined in a
generic role profile
 Job design

Job design specifies the contents, methods and

relationships of jobs in order to satisfy work
requirements for productivity, efficiency and quality,
meet the personal needs of the job holder and thus
increase levels of employee engagement. The process of
job design starts with an analysis of the way in which
work needs to be organized and what work therefore
needs to be done – the tasks that have to be carried out if
the purpose of the organization or an organizational unit
is to be achieved.
 The job characteristics model

A useful perspective on the factors affecting job design and

motivation is provided by Hackman and Oldham’s (1974) job
characteristics model. They suggest that the ‘critical
psychological states’ of ‘experienced meaningfulness of work,
experienced responsibility for outcomes of work and
knowledge of the actual outcomes of work’ strongly influence
motivation, job satisfaction and performance. They identified
the following characteristics of jobs that need to be taken into
account in job design:
• variety;
• autonomy;
• required interaction;
• optional interaction;
• knowledge and skill required;
• responsibility
 Approaches to job design

Job design starts with an analysis of task requirements.

These requirements will be a function of the purpose of
the organization, its technology and its structure. The
analysis has also to take into account the decision-
making process – where and how decisions are made
and the extent to which responsibility is devolved to
individuals and work teams. These approaches are used
as the basis for the methods of job design described
below.
 Approaches to job design

• Influence skill variety by providing opportunities

for people to do several tasks and by combining
tasks.
• Influence task identity by combining tasks and
forming natural work units.
• Influence task significance by forming natural work
units and informing people of the importance of
their work.
• Influence autonomy by giving people responsibility
for determining their own working systems.
• Influence feedback by establishing good
relationships and opening feedback channels.

Source: Robertson and Smith (1985)

Job rotation

This is the movement of employees from one task to another

to reduce monotony by increasing variety.

Job enlargement

This means combining previously fragmented tasks into one

job, again to increase the variety and meaning of repetitive
work.
Job enrichment

This goes beyond job enlargement to add greater

autonomy and responsibility to a job, and is based on the
job characteristics approach. Job enrichment aims to
maximize the interest and challenge of work by providing
the employee with a job that has these characteristics:

• It is a complete piece of work in the sense that the

worker can identify a series of tasks or activities that end
in a recognizable and definable product.
• It affords the employee as much variety, decision-
making responsibility and control as possible in carrying
out the work.
• It provides direct feedback through the work itself on
how well the employee is doing his or her job.
Role development

Role development is the continuous process through which roles are

defined or modified as work proceeds and evolves. Job design as
described above takes place when a new job is created or an existing
job is substantially changed, often following a reorganization. But the
part people play in carrying out their roles can evolve over time as
people grow into them and grow with them, and as incremental
changes take place in the scope of the work and the degree to which
individuals have freedom to act (their autonomy). Roles are developed
as people develop in them – responding to opportunities and changing
demands, acquiring new skills and developing competencies. Role
development is a continuous process which takes place in the context
of day-to-day work, and is therefore a matter between managers and
the members of their teams. It involves agreeing definitions of
accountabilities, objectives and competency requirements as they
evolve. When these change – as they probably will in all except the
most routine jobs – it is desirable to achieve mutual understanding of
new expectations.
 Job and role analysis: key learning points

Job

A job is an organizational unit which consists of a group

of defined tasks or activities to be carried out or duties to
be performed.

Role

A role is the part played by individuals and the patterns

of behaviour expected of them in fulfilling their work
requirements.
Job analysis methodology and techniques

The essence of job analysis is the application of systematic

methods to the collection of information about job content. It
is essentially about data collection, and the basic steps are:

• obtain documents such as existing organization, procedure

or training manuals which give information about the job;
• obtain from managers fundamental information
concerning the job;
• obtain from job holders similar information about their
jobs.
Job descriptions

Job descriptions should be based on the job analysis and should

be as brief and factual as possible. The headings should be: job
title, reporting to, reporting to job holder, main purpose of job,
main activities, tasks or duties.

Role profile

A role profile defines outcomes, accountabilities and

competencies for an individual role.

Role analysis methodology

Role analysis uses the same techniques as job analysis but the
focus is on identifying inputs (knowledge and skill and
competency requirements) and required outcomes (key result
areas) rather than simply listing the tasks to be carried out.
Job design

Job design specifies the contents, methods and

relationships of jobs in order to satisfy work
requirements for productivity, efficiency and quality,
meet the personal needs of the job holder and thus
increase levels of employee engagement.

The process of job design is based on an analysis of the

way in which work needs to be organized and what work
therefore needs to be done – the tasks that have to be
carried out if the purpose of the organization or an
organizational unit is to be achieved.