Some Recent Trends in Writing Job Description for the Purpose of Job Evaluation: A Reflective View

In order for the organizations to have a fair, acceptable and reliable job evaluation, the need for having a professionally completed job description is inevitable, particularly when the organization concerned is NOT small in size. This paper focuses on job description for the purpose of holding job evaluation. Though management exercises and the literature show that job description has many usages such as recruitment and selection, training and development needs, performance appraisal and other organizational goals and activities, nonetheless these are NOT the areas or scope of this paper and thus they are not addressed here. Instead, this paper focuses mainly upon the job description, for job evaluation purposes, in the light of different approaches and views used in performing job description - from the traditional or standard methods to more recent ones where job definition, as a result of changes and technological progress, have to be frequently modified to prevent both it, and the job itself, from becoming outdated. In any event, job descriptions, generally, need to be regularly checked and reviewed in the light of on-going developments and the related concepts that affect the job content, job demands and job requirements. This is necessary in order to re-determine the rating of the job worth (job relativities).It is important to recognise that in this paper we describe the work itself, not the worker. We look at the work and its content (based upon accurate job description) regardless of such factors as gender, age, ethnicity, creed or levels of health. Otherwise, it means we yield to the unacceptable (and largely unlawful) doctrine that jobs should be systematically discriminatory.