Managing the Inner Contradictions of Job Descriptions: A Technique for Use in Recruitment

Abstract

Job descriptions are building blocks for internal-oriented talent management processes such as recruitment, succession planning, coaching, training, and compensation. However, job descriptions also have an external audience when used as part of a recruitment program. In the recruitment situation, these multiple constituencies can cause a conflict, resulting in job descriptions that either lack validity or lack critical information necessary for valid hiring decisions. This article explores the inner contradictions of job descriptions and suggests an approach companies can use to make these basic tools more useful in recruitment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks for adjunct professor Michael Brown of the Suffolk University School of Law in Boston for reviewing an earlier draft of this article.