While carrying out the job analysis, managers must take note of certain strong behavioural responses from the employees. Employees may not always like the idea of someone taking a hard look at their jobs. Let’s examine the reasons behind such negative responses more closely.
- Employee fears:Most employees’ fear that job analysis efforts may put them in a ‘Straight Jacket’, limiting their initiative and inability. Another reason for the negative attitude is the feeling that” as long as someone does not know precisely what I am supposed to be doing, then I am safe”. A searching examination of jobs may uncover employee faults, which might have escaped the employer’s attention so far.
- Resistance to change:When jobs change in tune with changes in technology, there is an urgent need to revise job descriptions and job specifications -to make them more meaningful. This would have a significant impact on the safe and secure job worlds, employees used to live comfortably. Employees resist such changes because when jobs are redefined, they may have to handle difficult tasks and shoulder painful responsibilities. To ward off such threats, managers must involve employees in the revision process, stating the reasons for incorporating latest changes clearly.
- Overemphasis on current employees:Job analysis efforts should not place heavy emphasis on what the employees are currently doing. Some employees may be gifted with unique capabilities and given a chance they may expand the scope of the job and assume more responsibilities. The company may have difficulty in finding someone like that person if he or she were to leave the company. Therefore, “the job description and job specifications should not be merely a description of what the person currently filling the job does”
- Management’ Straight Jacket: Job analysis efforts may put managers in a ‘ straight jacket’, limiting their freedom to adapt to changing needs from time to time. To avoid this, they may even refuse to appropriately describe what an employee is supposed to do in the company – creating, of course, further confusion in the minds of employees.