With the ever-changing business environment, human resource management is increasingly becoming a central tenet in organizations. This paper assesses weekly topics covered in management with the objective of explaining the functions of a job description. It includes the topics I feel comfortable with, those I struggled with, and how they relate to application in my field.
The topics I feel comfortable with include human resource management in action, business strategies as foundations for all organizational decisions, relationships of the human resource strategy to the business strategy, end of the job, and from strategic analysis to strategic workforce planning. Human resource management in action and the relationship of the human resource strategy to the business strategy were important topics in my field as I gained knowledge in human resource planning and development.
These topics also helped me understand and develop objective job analyses as tools in producing effective job descriptions. In addition, these topics made me understand that job analyses make job descriptions to communicate reasons for the existence of jobs and help organizations to plan their workforce strategically.
This was significant to my field as I learned the importance of effective job analysis in making the job description depict an accurate description of major duties, responsibilities, and minimum competencies required for successful performance. In addition, I learned that job analyses and job descriptions are important tools in strategic human resource planning and act as a basis for organizational decisions on human resources (Heinemann & Judge, 2009; Dessler, 2008).
Weekly topics e.g. relationships of the human resource strategy to the business strategy, the end of the job, and from strategic analysis to strategic workforce planning were important sources of knowledge to my field. This is because they helped me understand the importance of human resource planning to the business strategy. For instance, in these topics, I learned that objective job analyses help in creating job descriptions through the use of position summaries /job analysis tools that help in compiling information and creating accurate and succinct job description in line with the business strategy.
Thus job analyses are crucial in my field as they help create an organized workforce by determining the order in which job duties and other essential functions are presented in the job description. In addition, they serve as a starting point for listing duties in job descriptions in line with organizational goals and objectives since facts indicated in job-analysis-forms are used to prepare job descriptions. Therefore, the topics above were important to my field as they act as a source of knowledge for effective human resource planning, an important step towards organizational success (Al-Marwai &Subramanian, 2009; O’Neil & Riemann, 2010; Dessler, 2008).
Though I feel comfortable with the above topics, I particularly struggled with others such as talent inventory, workforce forecasts, and control and evaluation of SWP systems. Talent inventory and control and evaluation of SWP systems appeared complex while workforce forecast was confusing as I was unable to pick out how job descriptions act as workforce forecasting tools and how this impacts the effective management of organizational risks.
Despite struggling with the above topics, the knowledge on the functions of job description was significant. This is due to the importance of job descriptions in risk management, workforce planning, succession planning, workforce forecasts, recruitment, remuneration, training and development, performance appraisal and establishing expected employee performance in line with strategic objectives. In conclusion, all the above topics were important in performance management as they involve integrated strategies to ensure employee performance is supportive of strategic aims of the organization. This is because they consolidate different approaches into a common system (O’Neil & Riemann, 2010).
References
Al-Marwai, S. & Subramanian, D. (2009). A Review of the Need for Writing & Updating Job Descriptions for 21st Century Organizations. European Journal of Social Sciences, 12( 2 ), 240-255.
Dessler, G. (2008). Human Resource Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heinemann, H. & Judge, T. (2009). Staffing Organizations. Middleton, WI: McGraw Hill.
O’Neil, M. & Riemann, S. (2010). Managing Human Resources. Web.