The Uses and Problems of Job Evaluation Techniques in Developing Industrial Nations

Abstract

The objective of the study is to assess the usefulness of job evaluation techniques in the imposition of incomes policy to a developing country, namely Egypt. The concept of job evaluation is examined from the viewpoint of neo-classical economic theory and of social science, as is the notion of incomes policy. Both imply the erection of a hierarchy of tasks evaluated against shared social and technical values within a society. Since such values are rarely shared in the manner implied by the use of the term "consensus", it is unlikely that either job evaluation or incomes policy will result in social or industrial peace. In the context of developing countries job evaluation/incomes policy is seen by the administration to offer a way of distributing rewards according to some agreed standard of production efficiency and some concept of social fairness. In the first instance, technical efficiency, such a distribution would be designed to bring about the best allocation of labour services, According to the second criterion, social justice, it ought to result in the fulfilment of the political ideals of the revolutionary elite. In practice not only do these two standards of performance conflict, but in the assessment of "fairness" the notion of equity is likely to come up against prevailing perceptions of occupational and job status, sanctified as Lady Wootton believes, by time and practice. Faced with the need to attract labour into the most effective uses and by the constraints set by the existing and accepted hierarchy of jobs (and power), equity tends to give way to pragmatism in the eyes of the elite. However the very nature of job evaluation exposes these compromises with the self-set revolutionary principles of the elite and makes for political sensitivity and instability. It therefore becomes important to recognise the moulding effect that job evaluation has on the expectations and aspirations of the active - and inactive - work force and to adopt a flexible but consistent standard of evaluation. This theoretical analysis is set against a historical description and analysis of the Egyptian economy and is illustrated by data taken from an industrial survey of 108 firms carried out by the Ministry for Industry in 1975. The author also presents attitudinal data gathered in 1976 from five companies located in the Mid-Delta and greater Cairo regions of Egypt. This type of study is unique in recent times.