Job Description Evaluation - Essay Example

A few years ago I had a job working as an administrative assistant for an accounting department. According to Wooten (1993) the job would be ified as a source job. Despite having a low position in the corporate hierarchy the job I performed was instrumental and of importance to a lot of employees in the company. When I started the job I performed a lot of clerical duties such as filing, making copies, and answering phone calls. My supervisor noticed that I had good people skills and analytical abilities.

After a month on the job my supervisor decided to take advantage of my knowledge, skills, and abilities. She started me on a short training in order to learn how to liquidate trips. I suddenly was responsible for the liquidation of the business trips the managers and scientists took. I was internally recruited to perform a new job function. Training and development was the critical tool that allowed me to become efficient at liquidating trips. My official title stayed as administrative assistant and I did not receive a raise, but the new job tasks were much more intellectually satisfying than filing and copying a bunch of papers.

I was developing my skills and I felt that my job function was important to the company. My supervisor was able to fill a need by using internal manpower. The article, Using knowledge, skill, and ability (KSA) data to identify career pathing opportunities: An application of job analysis to internal manpower planning, was very informative and it provided valuable insight that I could relate to my job as an administrative assistant. I thought that it was interesting that the author mentioned that sixty-eight percent of the KSAs identified as important for performance in the managerial/administrative jobs were also identified as important for the performance in the secretarial/clerical jobs (Wooten, 1993).

I use to think that my job as an administrative assistant was somewhat insignificant, but now I realize that the job required more knowledge than I once thought. “Some researchers have suggested that secretarial positions require many of the same skills required by many entry level management jobs” (Wooten, 1993) The article also mentioned that source jobs are the types of jobs that can change in terms of tasks responsibility through the implementation of training. In my experience the author’s premise totally applied since I was given more responsibility in my job after I successfully completed training.

Job analysis can be defined as the process used to collect information about the duties, responsibilities, necessary skills, outcomes, and work environment of a particular job (Heathfield, 2012). I think that job analysis can be very instrumental in developing a job description for an opening. When people apply for a job they need to know if their skill set matches the requirements for a job. A job opening advertisement that simply mentions the job title is not sufficient. It does not provide the applicant with enough information to determine whether the person is a good match for the job.

Job analysis can also serve as an internal guideline that employees can use to create a path for the future. A person must internally evaluate their skills and abilities to determine how they can improve professionally. For instance an employee can create their own outline of their KSA as a baseline to determine what the person is good at and what the person’s deficiencies are. The best path towards professional improvement is through education. Going back to school is a great way to enhance a person’s KSA.

After reading this article I realize that there is a lot more to human resources than just recruiting personnel. The KSA concept made me realize that the HR profession pays close attention to the knowledge, skills, and abilities of all its employees. As an employee it is my responsibility to seek self improvement because a person that does not seek to improve professionally has a very low chance of moving up the corporate ladder. I was very astonished learning that secretarial jobs have similar skill sets as managerial jobs.

I agree with the author that gender bias is hurting the ability of women of landing managerial jobs. This scenario is often referred to as the glass ceiling concept. In the competitive job marketplace of the 21st century employees have to realize that employers expect their workers to seek improvements in their KSA. Companies have to analyze the performance of their employees on a recurrent basis to determine which employees are worth investing in. Employees that show initiative, motivation, and perseverance have a better chance of landing training and educational opportunities that can help them obtain a better job within the organization.

References Heathfield, S. (2012). Job Analysis. Retrieved January 23, 2012 from http://humanresources.about.com/od/jobdescriptions/g/job_analysis.htm Wooten, W. (1993). Using knowledge, skill, and ability (KSA) data to identify career pathing opportunities: An application of job analysis to internal manpower planning. Public Personnel Management, 22(4). p551. Retrieved January 22, 2012 from EBSCOhost database.