The value of job analysis, job description and performance.

All companies, regardless of size, are faced with the same employment concerns. Efficient personnel management requires the use of three human resource techniques--job analysis, job description and performance appraisal. These techniques and tools are not for large practices only. Small groups can obtain the same benefits by employing these performance control measures. Job analysis allows for the development of a compensation system. Job descriptions summarize the most important duties. Performance appraisals help reward outstanding work.

Nursing administration and personnel administration.

This article proposes that the personnel department could be of far greater assistance to nursing directors and hospital administrators than is commonly perceived. Although many of the nursing directors, hospital administrators, and personnel directors polled by the authors expressed a desire for more support from the personnel department, their priorities concerning the degree of increased involvement differed. Analysis of the respondents' answers to questions regarding specific areas of administrative responsibility are discussed. Managers at all levels will find this article to be a fruitful basis for discussing those areas within which the personnel department could play an expanded role.

The three faces of personnel--or, PAIR department activities as seen by executives, line managers, and personnel directors.

More so than most other departments, the personnel department shares responsibility for its activities--notably with executives and line managers. But the division of responsibility is far from clear-cut, and where to draw the line is subject to controversy, as seen in this discussion of survey results on the viewpoints of 326 PAIR directors, 162 executives, and 217 line managers. The survey was conducted by the authors, all from Arizona State University: George W. Bohlander, associate professor of management; Harold C. White, professor of management; and Michael N. Wolfe, assistant professor. They queried the three groups on four major activities--setting policy, counseling and advising line managers, providing services, and controlling personnel activities in other departments--and 17 duties. The responses are broken down according to degree of unionization in respondent firms. Discrepancies among the viewpoints of the three groups suggest a need for two kinds of programs, say the authors: one to communicate to an organization's line managers and executives the role actually performed by the PAIR department and the other to instruct them on PAIR's potential for greater contribution.