Job Analysis And Interdependencies In IT Companies Essay.

Importance of Job Analysis in IT Companies

This assessment will assess the students understanding of the theoretical learning to practical, real world situations. This is a great opportunity for the students to develop a proposal to demonstrate their awareness of:  

• the complexity of the managerial role;
• the reliance of a manager on other people, both inside and outside the organization, and
• The necessary interaction of both informal/interpersonal factors and formal/organizational factors in fulfilling organizational purposes.

Instructions “The manager’s job in context” is an individual assignment. You are to propose your own job analysis based on the following:  

• Undertake an analysis of your own job and its context.
• If you do not have managerial (or similar) experience, or if for some other reason it is not appropriate to analyze your own job, you may choose instead the job of another individual who agrees to be the focus of this assignment (current job). Your lecturer must approve your choice.  
• Alternatively, you may discuss with your lecturer/tutor the possibility of analyzing a position you have held in the past.
• You may change (or withhold) the names of people or organizations, if you believe anonymity is required.

1. Briefly describe the actual requirements of the job. Include formal requirements (such as those that may be detailed in a position/job description), and less formal requirements (for example, particular personality characteristics you think are important).

2. Identify (list) other individuals or groups from inside and/or outside the organization with whom you interact who are important to your job. These could include your staff (perhaps of various categories), your supervisor, peers, clients/customers, suppliers, regulators and so on. Specify THE PEOPLE, not just the organization or department, for example, ‘Sonia Mirza, Finance Manager’, ‘Type-setters in the Printing Department’ or ‘Receptionists, Department of Foreign Affairs’ (not just ‘Printing Department’ or ‘Department of Foreign Affairs’).

3. Describe the principle characteristics of these individuals or groups, particularly those characteristics that impact on their interaction with you. If your list is lengthy, select those five or six individuals or groups who are the most important, who are critical to your ability to fulfill the requirements of your job (this description should include such things as formal organizational position, demographics such as age or gender, personality, or pattern of interaction with you).If you have only identified people inside your own organization, you should briefly explain why people outside your organization have not been considered.

4. Describe the nature of the interdependency that exists between you and these critical groups or individuals. That is: in what way do you rely on each other? What do you expect from these groups and individuals? What do they expect from you? You may wish to include formal concepts of interdependence (e.g. pooled/sequential/reciprocal) in your analysis, but only do so if it enhances your analysis.

5. Include a diagrammatic representation of these interdependencies. Note this should not be presented as an organizational chart. A typical format for this diagram would consist of you as the focus or centre with the groups and individuals with whom you interact arranged around you. You are welcome to supply an organizational chart in addition as an attachment.

6. Evaluate the interdependent group (that is, the virtual network your diagram represents: yourself and the groups or individuals with whom you must interact) in terms of its effectiveness and efficiency and the satisfaction of those concerned.

7. Make recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction of the interdependent group. These recommendations could include such things as the redesign of the structure and work routines of your department or organization, or preferred changes in the external environment, such as government regulation or changes in other organizations. Please note: you are not being asked to simply evaluate your managerial style or the effectiveness of your department or organization.

In any organization or company especially related to IT, understanding of job description plays a vital role. For instance, it enables a company to meet its objectives. Apart from job description, understanding of interdependencies existing is also vital as it is used to enhance co-ordination between different groups and individuals. It also enhances smooth flow of activities. Moreover, understanding of Information Systems (IS) used in a company is equally important. Decision support is one of the examples of information systems. Therefore, I’ve discussed my job experience in Dreamland IT company, working as an assistant ICT manager. Besides, I’ve described ERP, IS and SCM as used in Dreamland company; including some of their salient characteristics and challenges involved in their implementation.   

A job requirement is associated with a general description of a certain job; including necessary skills required. It includes the following; responsibilities, skills required and working conditions (Blaskovics, 2016). It is much significant as it helps employees in understanding their duties. It can be divided into two categories; formal and less formal requirements. Formal requirement is made up of a job description, while less formal consists of personal traits. Regarding my job as an assistant ICT manager, formal requirements consist of the following:

• Perform duties as directed by top management such as ICT manager.
• Monitoring functionality of information systems, hence ensuring that all systems are running correctly (Calitz, Greyling & Cullen, 2011).
• Assisting in documenting requirements of new software required by the company.
• Assisting in configuring IT devices, therefore, ensuring that all devices have been configured correctly.
• Deploying security mechanisms in all systems, thus ensuring that all systems are protected against external attacks.
• Assisting ICT manager in determining best vendors such as Amazon and IBM for implementation of IT solutions (Blaskovics, 2016).

Less formal requirements include the following:

• Ability to work under minimum supervision, thus working under directives given.
• Leadership skills, thus ensuring that employees are working without conflicts.
• Being responsible, thus understanding organizational processes.
• A good decision maker, hence solving emerging problems and situations (Calitz et al., 2011).

Co-ordination between different departments and people within the company is a necessity for any company to meet its objectives because it enhances smooth running of business activities (Chiu et al., 2017). The following is a group of individuals that I interact with daily.

• ICT manager in IT department.
• ICT managers of other companies.
• IT personnel in IT department.
• System analyst in IT department.
• Computer engineers in maintenance department (Chiu et al., 2017).
• Database administrator in IT department.
• Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company.
• ERP manager in IT department.
• Accounting officer in finance department (Kristensen, Penner, Nguyen, Moy & Lam, 2017).

All the activities related to above groups and individuals are interconnected using an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) information system (Morris & Venkatesh, 2010). An ERP system is a software that is used to integrate different processes such as sales and product planning, therefore, enhancing central management of processes. Its impacts include the following; automation of operations and proper management of all resources within the company. An ERP system is made up of different modules, for example, Human Resource management (HRM). However, we’ve encountered some challenges in implementing an ERP such as customization, flexibility, ERP integration, choosing best ERP vendors and implementation cost (Morris & Venkatesh, 2010). Its maintenance costs are also high; therefore, financial constraint is also one of the major problems encountered.      

The following are principle characteristics of groups that are critical to my job.

ICT manager:

• Good communication skills, thus communicating clearly tasks that I should perform.
• Respect other employees, thus fostering understanding.
• A male or female gender (Siau, Tan & Sheng, 2010).

System analyst:

• Good decision making, therefore, making useful decisions in solving system problem.
• Highly experienced, thus understanding functionality of different systems.
• Technical skills, hence, providing correct technical analysis of systems to me (Siau et al., 2010).

Computer engineers:

• Math skills, thus analyzing software mathematical calculations especially accounting.
• Mechanical skills, therefore, maintaining systems (Siau et al., 2010).

ERP manager:

• Flexibility, therefore, making decisions fast.
• Calm, hence dealing with matters related to financial constraints and other problems (Al-Lawati & Al-Badi, 2016).

Database administrator:

• Knowledge in disaster recovery, thus retrieving corrupted data.
• Communication skills, thus able to give a clear explanation incase a database has developed some issues (Al-Lawati & Al-Badi, 2016).

I depend upon other groups as I carries on with my daily duties. First and foremost, I interact mostly with an ICT manager. There are a couple of activities that we assist each other, for instance, I occasionally represent an ICT manager in formal meetings incase he’s not around or incapable of attending (Baker, 2012). Moreover, I also help in deployment of new technologies and configuration of devices such as computers and ethernet cables. Furthermore, we help each other in administrative roles, therefore, coordinating all IT related activities within the company. Apart from an ICT manager, I also rely on system analyst. The roles played by a system analyst is related to assessing effectiveness of existing systems and analyzing new emerging technologies that can replace legacy systems. I often issue directives to system analyst to assess existing systems and identify some defects, thus ensuring smooth running of business operations (Baker, 2012).      

Formal and Less Formal Job Requirements

Besides, maintenance department consisting of computer engineers is also a critical in my roles. For instance, one of my responsibilities is ensuring that data is protected against external and internal attacks (Baker, 2012). Therefore, I usually discuss with computer engineers in matters relating to maintenance and evolution. On the other hand, computer engineers have also a responsibility of reporting to me all issues such as defects detected with existing systems (Baker, 2012). Other than computer engineers, an ERP manager is also vital. For instance, she has a responsibility of ensuring that all activities within a company have been integrated, therefore, enhancing automation. She must also report to me regarding interdependencies between several departments existing in the company. Furthermore, I often rely on database administrator, for instance, in case any data is corrupted, he must retrieve original data from existing backups and data recovery methods. Therefore, interdependencies are important, thus determining level of success of a company, which can be measured by goals and objectives (Burt, Sparks & Teller, 2010).

The following context diagram illustrates above nature of interdependencies

                           

                           

Figure 2. Showing diagrammatic representation of interdependencies using a use case diagram (Dennis, Wixom & Tegarden, 2015).

The above diagrammatic representation; both context and use case diagrams have shown interdependences existing in the company; explaining how we depend on each other, thus enhancing business operations. I’m the focus in both diagrams as an ICT manager. A virtual network enables two or more individuals to share data and information within a company (Mehraghdam, Keller & Karl, 2014). Therefore, there are virtual machines that enables me to communicate with other groups or individuals as shown in above diagrams. Also, it facilitates sharing of resources. Besides, the interdependency existing has facilitated interactions, therefore, enhancing efficiency. The information system supported with an ERP system is much effective therefore; enhancing satisfaction among employees of the company (Morris & Venkatesh, 2010).

An information system is made up of different components both software and hardware aiming at enhancing communication ranging from different departments within the company to its customers and shareholders (Watson, Boudreau & Chen, 2010). Different types of information systems include decision support and database management systems. Salient characteristics of information systems include relevance, usefulness, timeliness and accuracy. Apart from information systems, our company has also incorporated a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) since it deals with selling of electronic devices such as computer accessories. CRM consists of technologies that are used to interact with both existing and potential customers (Lin, Chen & Chiu, 2010).

CRM has different components such as marketing and workflow automation. It plays vital roles as it helps our company to maintain customers. Its salient characteristics includes the following easy integration and reporting (Lin et al., 2010). Besides, our company has also Supply Chain Management (SCM), which manages entire processes involved in production such as movement of products from one location to the other (Christopher, 2016). Salient characteristics of SCM includes the following; flexibility, customization and sustainability. In our company, both SCM and CRM are integrated with each other as well as other information systems, thus enhancing information and work flows. The main challenge that we’ve encountered as top managers is choosing the best information system and technologies from existing technologies (Marchewka, 2014). Therefore, I’ve put in place certain factors that should be considered before choosing an information system, for example, functionality and costs.  

Characteristics of Different Groups Critical to an ICT Manager's Role

Even though Dreamland company has incorporated different information systems into its day to day business operations, I recommend for some changes in organizational structure and incorporation of more technologies, thus enhancing smooth running of operations (Watson, 2010). I’ve felt the company has focused much on incorporating information systems and technologies rather than data security mechanisms. Therefore, Dreamland company should incorporate recent technologies in security such as Virtual Private Network (VPN). Apart from VPN, the company also should establish security department in addition to maintenance department as a change in its organizational structure, therefore, protecting its infrastructures against attacks. Moreover, I also recommend the company to incorporate networking technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), therefore, enhancing connection between different departments (Watson, 2010).  

Conclusion:

In concluding, any job has its own distinct requirements, for instance, an ICT assistant manager is required to be equipped with knowledge in configuring devices as I’ve described throughout the paper. Apart from job requirements, there must be co-ordination among different departments and individuals, for instance, I interact with different groups such as IT personnel in and system analyst in IT department. To perform my job effectively, there are different principles associated with different groups that I interact with, for instance, communication skills is one of principles of an ICT manager. However, Dreamland company should incorporate recent technologies such as IoT thus enhancing efficiency of the independent group.

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