Management Myth # 3—The Job Description Helps the Employee Understand Their Organizational Role

Abstract

The longer an employee works in a company, the more likely it is that they assume responsibilities beyond their original job description. What’s more, as the employee climbs through the ranks, chances are that they have job duties that aren’t replicated elsewhere in the company.

Overall, the job description has served industry well; the employee has a clear blueprint to work from and the manager is given a frame-of-reference to manage the performance of the employee. But the transformative changes from industrial to knowledge work has rendered the job description far less useful than it perhaps once was.