Job description and

job specification
BY: NASEER AHMED
UNIVERSITY OF BALOCHISTAN ,QUETTA.

Job Description:

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.

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.

Writing Job Description:

A Job description is a written statement of what the job holder actually does,
how he or she does it, and
under what conditions the job is performed. This information is in turn used to
write a job specification.
This lists the knowledge, abilities, and skills needed to perform the job
satisfactorily. While there is no
standard format you must use in writing a job description, most descriptions
contain at least sections on

Contents of Job Description:

Job Identification: It includes the job title, alterative title, department,

division, and plant and code number of the job. The job title identifies and
designates the job properly, the department, division, etc., indicate the
name of the department where it is situated - whether it is the
maintenance department, mechanical shop etc. Location gives the name
of the place. This portion of job description gives answer to two important
questions: to what higher level job is this job accountable. And who is
supervised directly?

Job Summary: Job summary describes the contents of the jobs in terms
of activities or tasks performed. Job summary should clear the nature of
the job. Primary, secondary and other duties to be performed on the job
should clearly be indicated separately.

Duties and Responsibilities: This is the most important phase of job

description and should be
prepared very carefully. It describes the duties to be performed along with
frequency of each Major duty. Responsibilities concerning custody of
money, supervision and training of staff etc. are also described

Supervision: Under it is given number of persons to be supervised

along with their job titles, and the extent of supervision involved -general,
intermediate or close supervision.

Relation to Other Jobs: It describes the vertical and horizontal

relationships f work flow. It also indicates to whom the jobholder will report
and who will report to him. It gives an idea of channels of promotion.

Working Conditions: The working environment in terms of heat, light,

noise, dust and fumes etc., the job hazards and possibility of their
occurrence and working conditions should also be described. It will be
helpful in job evaluation.

Social Environment: It specifies the social conditions under which

the work will be performed. In this part the size of work group,
interpersonal interactions required to perform the job and development
facilities are mentioned

A Job Specification should

include:

Physical characteristics, which include health, strength, endurance,

age, height, weight, vision, voice, eye, hand and foot co-ordination,
motor co-ordination, and color discrimination.

Psychological and social characteristics such as emotional

stability, flexibility, decision making ability, analytical view, mental
ability, pleasing manners, initiative, conversational ability etc.

Mental Characteristics such as general intelligence, memory,

judgment, ability to concentrate, foresight etc.

(iv)Personal Characteristics such as sex, education, family

background, job experience, hobbies, extracurricular activities etc.

Job Specification:

Job specification is a statement of the minimum acceptable human

qualities necessary to perform a job properly.

The job specification states the minimum acceptable qualifications that the
incumbent must possess to perform the job successfully. Based on the
information acquired through job analysis, the job specification identifies
the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to do the job effectively.
Individuals possessing the personal characteristics identified in the job
specification should perform the job more effectively than individuals
lacking these personal characteristics. The job specification, therefore, is a
important tool in the selection process, for it keeps the selectors attention
on the list of qualifications necessary for an incumbent to perform the job
and assists in determining whether candidates are qualified.

Difference between Job

Description and Job
Specification:

Job description, job specification and job analysis are some of the phrases that confuse
many students of management. These phrases are very important in the subject of
human resource management. It is the job of a personnel manager or HR manager to
see that the right person gets the right job to further the goals of an organization. It is
through job analysis that he gets the tools of job description and job specification to
fulfill his tasks. There is a subtle but very critical difference between these two tools
that look very similar, forcing many make the mistake of using them interchangeably.

Job description and job specification are two integral parts of job analysis. They are the
written documents helps both employer & employee to understand the job
requirement. These documents are very important to find the best fit for the available
job.

Hope these will help you clear the doubt on Job Analysis, job Description & Job
specification.