MNG00724 HRM - Strategic Importance and Criticisms of Job Analysis

This essay defines and explains the strategic and operational importance of job analysis, particularly in relation to other Human Resource Management (HRM) functions. It discusses the major criticisms associated with job analysis, including its time-consuming nature, potential for personal bias, reliance on small sample sizes, and the need for skilled analysts. The essay highlights the importance of job analysis in enhancing employee and organizational performance, while also acknowledging its potential drawbacks if not executed effectively. It concludes that while job analysis is a valuable HRM tool, its effectiveness hinges on the competence of the analyst and careful consideration of its limitations.

Running head: JOB ANALYSIS
Job analysis
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

1JOB ANALYSIS
Strategic importance
Strategic importance of job analysis focuses on the specification of the required tasks to be
performed in accordance with the knowledge, skills and abilities or KSA (Morgeson et al. 2016).
It is helpful for the effective performance of a job as predicted to be in future. The application of
different techniques in job analysis makes an assumption about the current job regarding
recruitment, selection, training and appraisal of employees. These are planned keeping in mind
the future objectives of the organization. In a rapidly changing internal and external environment
of the organization, there is a high chance of change in jobs in the future. It can be mentioned
that the implementation of new techniques in the original job procedure might enhance strategic
planning for developing personnel methods such as training and selection of employees. As
human resource management is a critical part of any organization, therefore it handles mostly
complicated problems related to the employees, the operating functions, especially in a highly
competitive and indecisive market (Sanchez and Levine 2012).
Criticism
There are different disadvantages of job analysis along with the significant advantages.
The biggest disadvantage is in the form of time consumption. It becomes a major hurdle during
frequent job shift. Another disadvantage of job analysis is that it involves personal biasness. If
the analyst and employee belong to the same organization then biasness plays a major role. The
analyst might act on his personal likes and dislikes in evaluating the performance of his
acquaintance. It hampers the process of collecting genuine or original data. The data collection
takes place from a small source, which is a caveat in terms of job analysis (Raymond 2015). The
reason behind this is the small size of sample. Hence, it requires standardization of information

2JOB ANALYSIS
collected from few individuals. Moreover, it consists of a lot of human effort because each job
conveys different information and there is no regular pattern for collecting information about
variety of jobs. It needs a separate process for collecting and tracking the data related to job.
Other disadvantages include inappropriate skills possessed by a job analyst. If the analyst is not
aware of the job objectives then or do not possess the requisite skills then the company’s
resources is completely wasted. Proper training is required for the analyst to collect relevant data.
Mental abilities of the employees such as knowledge, aptitude, emotional criteria, endurance and
psyche are the abstract qualities, which are not measured directly. Behavior of an individual
varies from one situation to another, which is incapable to set a standard for mental abilities
(Wanberg 2016).
Conclusion
It can be concluded that job analysis is an effective part of human resources management
in an organization. It plays a major role in increasing the employee and organizational
performance. However, the process of job analysis will be a complete waste if it is not done by
an efficient analyst. The disadvantages of job analysis are listed to highlight the negative impact.

3JOB ANALYSIS
References
Morgeson, F.P., Spitzmuller, M., Garza, A.S. and Campion, M.A., 2016. Pay attention! The
liabilities of respondent experience and carelessness when making job analysis
judgments. Journal of Management, 42(7), pp.1904-1933.
Raymond, M.R., 2015. Job analysis, practice analysis and the content of credentialing
examinations. In Handbook of test development (pp. 160-180). Routledge.
Sanchez, J.I. and Levine, E.L., 2012. The rise and fall of job analysis and the future of work
analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, pp.397-425.
Wanberg, C.R., Kanfer, R., Hamann, D.J. and Zhang, Z., 2016. Age and reemployment success
after job loss: An integrative model and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 142(4), p.400.