As the founder of Hexmos, I’ve taken the initiative to drive our API docs automation tool, LiveAPI. My focus has always been on breaking down silos, reducing team friction, improving collaboration, and fostering cohesion to help Hexmos deliver better products and stay competitive.
In this post, I’d like to present some beliefs that are less understood in entrepreneurship circles.
Write a Specific and Clear Job Description to Attract and Retain Talent
Advice like this is commonplace.
The assumption is simple: a leader should define a clear set of duties and responsibilities, and everything will function as expected.
For example, Indeed.com defines a Job Description as follows:
A job description is a written narrative that explains the duties and responsibilities of an open position. When it includes the right information, it helps job applicants determine whether their skills and qualifications align with the role.
This definition is often followed by a list of supposed benefits of having clear and specific duties:
- Attracting the right talent
- Helping candidates decide whether to apply
- Assisting interviewers in preparing for interviews
- Setting up contracts earlier
- Creating goals for employee onboarding
- Providing benchmarks for performance evaluations
- Supporting training programs and mechanisms
However, there are significant pitfalls associated with specific job descriptions that are often overlooked. In this article, I’ll explore some of these challenges:
- Job Descriptions are static and frozen in time. Businesses, however, evolve, and employees may rigidly identify with their roles, resisting broader participation in the group’s success.
- Job Descriptions can silently prohibit people from using their full talents. They can become so restrictive that employees might leave the company rather than attempt to adapt internally—leading to costly attrition.
The Job Description Works in the Short-Term but Destroys Collaboration in the Long-Term
The problem with a Job Description is that it is frozen in time.
Businesses evolve, and so do the interests and capabilities of people. However, the static nature of a Job Description imposes limitations, discouraging natural adjustments to new needs and realities.
While a Job Description may help with onboarding, over the long term, it can hinder collaboration, stifle talent, and harm the organization’s overall success.
Job Descriptions Lead to Job Identities
At an individual level, a Job Description often becomes more than a list of responsibilities—it turns into an identity.
"I am a frontend developer, working on the React stack."
"I am a businessperson, totally focused on the customer in XYZ market segment."
Such statements reflect narrowly defined roles and a reluctance to engage with issues outside the confines of those roles.
Job Identities Solidify into Fragmentation
At a team or organizational level, these rigid identities lead to fragmentation.
Fragmentation is therefore an attitude of mind which disposes the mind to regard divisions between things as absolute and final, rather than as ways of thinking that have only a relative and limited range of usefulness and validity. It leads therefore to a general tendency to break up things in an irrelevant and inappropriate way according to how we think. And so it is evidently and inherently destructive. For example, though all parts of mankind are fundamentally interdependent and interrelated, the primary and overriding kind of significance given to the distinctions between people, family, profession, nation, race, religion, ideology, and so on, is preventing human beings from working together for the common good, or even for survival.
— Unfolding Meaning: A Weekend of Dialogue with David Bohm, David Bohm
In a business context, fragmentation creates ideological silos. Businesspeople blame engineers for not understanding customer problems. Engineers blame business teams for lacking technical knowledge. These divisions lead to distrust, criticism, and a lack of mutual support.
Fragmentation Leads to Dysfunction
As departmental identities and incentives solidify, collaboration weakens. Teams become inward-looking and avoid making efforts to work together.
The result is an organization with conflicting priorities and a breakdown of unified vision and execution. Psychological safety diminishes as individuals cling to rigid roles and show little interest in their colleagues’ work.
This issue is especially critical for early-stage companies, where human capital is vital. No other resource is as abundant or critical in the early days.
Fighting Against Fragmentation in Organizations
In my earlier blog post, The Newton of Engineering Management, I discussed how Admiral Rickover proposed a pragmatic yet aspirational management framework.
In one of his classic essays, Rickover emphasizes:
- No formal Job Descriptions
- No organizational charts
- Responsibilities defined in a general way to avoid limiting people
One must permit his people the freedom to seek added work and greater responsibility. In my organization, there are no formal job descriptions or organizational charts. Responsibilities are defined in a general way, so that people are not circumscribed. All are permitted to do as they think best and to go to anyone and anywhere for help. Each person then is limited only by his own ability.
— Doing a Job, Admiral Rickover
Rickover’s approach fosters a self-reliant culture where individuals earn respect through their abilities rather than rigidly defined roles.
Conclusion
While Job Descriptions may help attract talent, they often hinder long-term collaboration and growth. To retain employees and encourage innovation, companies should consider moving away from overly specific and restrictive Job Descriptions. Instead, fostering a flexible and inclusive environment may lead to greater success and cohesion.
Top comments (1)
These insights are very wise 🙏