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McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Job Analysis and Job Design
Chapter 4
Chapter Overview
• Basic Terminology
• Job Analysis
• Job Design
• Summary of Learning Objectives
4-3
Basic Terminology
• Micromotions – Simplest unit of work; involves very elementary movement, such as reaching, grasping, positioning, or releasing an object
• Elements – An aggregation of two or more micromotions; usually thought of as a complete entity, such as picking up or transporting an object
• Tasks – Consists of one or more elements; one of the distinct activities that constitute logical and necessary steps in the performance of work by an employee
• A task is performed whenever human effort, physical or mental, is exerted for a specific purpose
4-4
Basic Terminology
• Duties – One or more tasks performed in carrying out a job responsibility
• Responsibilities – Obligations to perform certain tasks and assume certain duties
• Positions – Collection of tasks and responsibilities constituting the total work assignment of a single employee
• Jobs – Group of positions that are identical with respect to their major or significant tasks and responsibilities and sufficiently alike to justify their being covered by a single analysis
• One or many persons may be employed in the same job
• Occupations – A grouping of similar jobs or job classes
4-5
Relationship among Different Job Components
4-6
Job Analysis
• Process of determining and reporting pertinent information relating to the nature of a specific job • Involves determining the tasks that comprise the job and
the skills, knowledge, abilities, and responsibilities required of the holder for successful job performance
• End product of a job analysis is a written description of actual requirements of job
• When performing a job analysis, the job and its requirements (as opposed to characteristics of person currently holding the job) are studied
• It is the beginning point of many human resource functions • Specifically, data obtained from job analysis form the basis for a
variety of human resource activities
4-7
Job Analysis Influencing Human Resource Activities
• Job definition – Job analysis results in a description of duties and responsibilities of job
• Job redesign – Job analysis often indicates when a job needs to be redesigned
• Recruitment – Process of seeking and attracting a pool of people from which qualified candidates for job vacancies can be chosen
• Job analysis not only identifies job requirements but also outlines skills needed to perform job
• Selection and placement – Process of choosing from those available the individuals who are most likely to perform successfully in a job
• Job analysis determines importance of different skills and abilities
4-8
Job Analysis Influencing Human Resource Activities
• Orientation – Introduction of new employees to the organization, work unit, and job
• Effective job orientation cannot be accomplished without clear understanding of job requirements
• Training – Learning process that involves acquisition of skills, concepts, rules, or attitudes to increase employee performance
• Job analysis helps in determining training requirements, establishing training objectives, and helps determine the reason of problem occurrence
• Career counseling – Job analysis provides clarity on variety of jobs in the organization and clarifies exact job requirements
4-9
Job Analysis Influencing Human Resource Activities
• Employee safety – Often uncovers unsafe practices and/or environmental conditions associated with a job
• Performance appraisal – The objective of performance appraisal is to evaluate an individual employee’s performance on a job
• Job analysis helps in understanding exactly what an employee is supposed to do
• Compensation – Job analysis helps ensure that employees receive fair compensation for their jobs
• Once worth of a job has been established relative to other jobs, the employer can determine an equitable wage or salary schedule
4-10
Information Provided by a Job Analysis
4-11
Products of Job Analysis
• Job description – Written synopsis of nature and requirements of a job
• Concentrates on describing the job as it is currently being performed
• Explains, in written form, what the job is called, what it requires to be done, where it is to be done, and how it is to be done
• Job specification – Description of competency, educational, and experience qualifications the incumbent must possess to perform the job
• Knowledge – Identifiable factual information necessary to perform job
• Skills – Specific proficiencies necessary for performing tasks that make up the job
• Abilities – General and enduring capabilities for doing the job
• Other characteristics – Include any other pertinent characteristics not covered under knowledge, skills, and abilities
4-12
Contents of a Job Description
4-13
Job Description
• A potential problem with all job descriptions is that they may become outdated
• Often, it is not periodically updated to reflect any changes that have occurred in the job
• Jobholder and his or her supervisor should review the most current job description annually and determine whether description needs updating
• If updating is required, jobholder should play a central role in revising it
• In the initial development of a job description, jobholder should be involved
4-14
Job Analysis Methods – Observation
• Relatively simple and straightforward method of analyzing jobs; can be used independently or in conjunction with other methods
• Motion study (methods study)
• Determining motions and movements necessary for performing a task or job and designing most efficient methods for putting them together
• Time study
• Determines elements of work required to perform job, order in which those elements occur, and time required to perform them effectively
• Work sampling
• Based on taking statistical samples of job actions throughout the workday and then drawing inferences about requirements and demands of the job
4-15
Drawbacks of the Observation Method
• Observer must be carefully trained to know what to look for and what to record
• Helpful to use a form with standard categories of information to be filled in as job is observed to ensure basic information is not omitted
• Its application is somewhat limited to jobs involving short and repetitive cycles
• Complicated jobs and jobs that do not have repetitive cycles require such lengthy observation periods that it becomes impractical
• Direct observation, can be used to get a feel for a particular job and then combined with other methods to thoroughly analyze
4-16
Job Analysis Methods – Interviews
• Requires that person conducting job analysis meet with and interview jobholder
• Unstructured interviews – Have no definite checklist or preplanned format; format develops as interview unfolds
• Structured interview – Follows a predesigned format
• Ensures that all pertinent aspects of job are covered
• Easier to compare information obtained from different people holding the same job
• Major drawback
• Can be extremely time-consuming; compounded when several people are interviewed about the same job
4-17
Job Analysis Methods – Questionnaires
• Typically three to five pages long and contain both objective and open-ended questions
• For existing jobs – Incumbent completes questionnaire, has it checked by immediate manager, and returns it to job analyst
• For new jobs – Questionnaire is normally sent to manager supervising the employee in the new job
• Job being analyzed is vacant but is duplicated in another part of the organization – Questionnaire is completed by incumbent in the duplicate job
• Information can be obtained from large number of employees in a relatively short time period
• Used when large input is needed and time and cost are limiting factors
4-18
Job Analysis Methods – Questionnaires
• Major Disadvantages of Questionnaire Method
• Misinterpretation of information by respondent or analyst
• Time-consuming and expensive to develop
• A popular variation is to have incumbent write an actual description of the job, subject to approval of immediate supervisor
• Advantage
• Incumbent is often the person most knowledgeable about the job
• Helps to identify any differences in incumbent’s and manager’s perceptions about job
4-19
Job Analysis Methods – Questionnaires
• Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) – Highly specialized instrument for analyzing any job in terms of employee activities
• Uses six major categories of employee activities
• Total of 194 descriptors, called job elements, describe the six categories in detail
• Using a five-point scale, one can analyze each description for the degree to which it applies to the job
• Primary advantage
• Can be used to analyze almost any type of job
• It is relatively easy to use
• Major disadvantage
• The sheer length of questionnaire
4-20
Employee Activity Categories Used in the PAQ
4-21
Sample Page from the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)
4-22
Job Analysis Methods – Questionnaires
• Management Position Description Questionnaire (MPDQ) – Highly structured questionnaire designed specifically for analyzing managerial jobs
• Contains 208 items relating to managerial responsibilities, restrictions, demands, and other miscellaneous position characteristics
• These items are grouped under the 13 categories
• Requires analyst to check whether each item is appropriate to job being analyzed
4-23
Management Position Description Questionnaire Categories
4-24
Job Analysis Methods – Functional Job Analysis
• Developed by Employment and Training Administration of Department of Labor
• Uses standardized statements and terminology to describe content of jobs
• Collects detailed task statements and rates them according to function level or function orientation
• Function level – Describes how an employee interacts with data, people, and things
• Function orientation – Describes amount of time (in percentages) employees spends on tasks of each functional level
• Each task statement is analyzed and rated to determine skills needed to perform task it describes
• Results in position-specific information about work being performed and standardized information about both work and person performing the work
4-25
Occupational Information Network (O*NET)
• Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), that described over 12,000 jobs became obsolete and inefficient in early 1990s
• Provided very job specific and dated information in many cases
• Did not provide for any type of cross-job comparisons for job similarities and differences
• Did not directly identify what characteristics employees needed to perform the job or under what conditions job was performed
• To overcome these problems, the U.S. Department of Labor developed a new system called the occupational information network (O*NET)
• United States’ primary source of occupational information
4-26
Occupational Information Network (O*NET)
• O*NET database – Comprehensive online database of employee attributes and job characteristics
• Provides definitions and concepts for describing employee attributes and workplace requirements that can be broadly understood
• Using comprehensive terms to describe KSAs, it can accommodate rapidly changing job requirements
• Continually updated by surveying a broad range of employees from each occupation – Done every five years
• Content model – Encapsulates key features of an occupation into a standardized, measurable set of variables called “descriptors”
• O*NET-SOC taxonomy – Identifies existing work occupations
• Includes 949 occupational titles, 812 of which have data collected from job incumbents or occupation experts
4-27
The Content Model Forming the Foundation of O*NET
4-28
The ADA and Job Analysis
• “Qualified individuals with disabilities” – Persons who have a disability and meet the skill, education, experience, and other job-related requirements of position held or desired and can perform essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation
• Requires identification of essential functions of each job and a reasonable accommodation to disabilities of qualified individual
• Essential job function – One that is fundamental to successful performance of the job
• Marginal job functions may be performed at certain times but are incidental to main purpose of the job
• A job function is considered marginal if its performance is a matter of convenience and not a necessity
4-29
The ADA and Job Analysis
• Reasonable accommodation means the employer may be required to alter conditions of a particular job so as to enable the candidate to perform all essential functions
• An employer cannot be required to make an accommodation that causes undue hardship for the employer
• Undue hardship refers to any accommodation that
• Would be unduly costly, substantial or disruptive
• Would fundamentally alter the nature or operation of business
4-30
Questions to Be Addressed to Determine Essential Functions
4-31
Potential Problems with Job Analysis
• Top management support is missing
• Only a single means and source are used for gathering data
• Supervisor and jobholder do not participate in design of job analysis procedure
• No training or motivation exists for jobholders
• Employees are not allowed sufficient time to complete the analysis
• Activities may be distorted
• Participants fail to critique the job
4-32
Job Design
• Process of structuring work and designating specific work activities of an individual or group of individuals to achieve certain organizational objectives
• Job design process are divided into these phases
• Specification of individual tasks – What different tasks must be performed?
• Specification of the method of performing each task – Specifically, how will each task be performed?
• Combination of individual tasks into specific jobs to be assigned to individuals – How will the different tasks be grouped to form jobs?
• Phases 1, 3 determine content of job
• Phase 2 indicates precisely how job is to be performed
4-33
Job Design
• Goal of job design – Develop work assignments
that meet requirements of the organization and
technology, and that satisfy personal and
individual requirements of jobholder
• Key to successful job design is to balance requirements
of organization and jobholder
• Prevailing practice in designing jobs was to focus
almost entirely on simplifying tasks to be
undertaken
• Usually resulted in making jobs as specialized as
possible
• Job specialization has its advantages, but can result in
boredom and even degradation of jobholder
4-34
Advantages of Job Specialization
4-35
Job Scope and Job Depth
• Job scope – Number and variety of tasks performed by jobholder
• In a job with narrow scope, jobholder performs a few different task and repeats them frequently
• Can result in more errors and lower quality
• Job depth – Freedom of jobholders to plan and organize their own work, work at their own pace, and move around and communicate
• Its lack can create job dissatisfaction, tardiness, absenteeism, and even sabotage
• A job can be high in job scope and low in job depth, or vice versa
4-36
Sociotechnical Approach to Job Design
• Its thrust is that both the technical system and the accompanying social system should be considered when designing jobs
• Jobs need to be designed by taking a holistic, or systems, view of the entire job situation, including its physical and social environment
• The approach is situational
• Requires job designer to consider role of employees in the sociotechnical system, nature of tasks performed, and autonomy of work group
• Has been applied in many countries under headings such as “autonomous work groups,” “Japanese-style work groups,” or employee involvement (EI) teams
4-37
Using Sociotechnical Approach to Create Guidelines to Designing Jobs • Job needs to be reasonably demanding for the individual in
terms other than sheer endurance, yet provide some variety (not necessarily novelty)
• Employees need to be able to learn on the job and to continue learning
• Employees need some minimum area of decision making that they can call their own
• Employees need some minimal degree of social support and recognition in the workplace
• Employees need to be able to relate what they do and what they produce to their social lives
• Employees need to believe that the job leads to some sort of desirable future
4-38
The Physical Work Environment • The physical work environment should allow for normal
lighting, temperature, ventilation, and humidity
• Baffles acoustical wall materials, sound absorbers, soothing colors, limiting exposure to less-than-ideal physical conditions to short periods are measures employers can take
• Mental and psychological impacts of work environment to be considered when designing jobs
• Implementation of Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970 magnified safety concerns
• Specifies federal safety guidelines that all organizations in United States must follow
4-39
Flextime • Allows employees to choose, within certain limits, when
they start and end their workday
• Organization defines a core period
• Some allow varied hours worked each day, as long as a specified weekly total is met
• Advantages
• Allows employees to accommodate different lifestyles and schedules
• Allows employees to avoid rush hours, having less absenteeism and tardiness
• Allows employers an edge in recruiting new employees and in retaining hard-to-find qualified employees
• May result in an increase in productivity
• Disadvantages
• Can create communication and coordination problems for supervisors and managers
4-40
Telecommuting • The practice of working at home or while traveling and being able
to interact with the office
• Information technology has aided its spurt
• Advantages
• Less travel time and travel expenses, avoiding rush hour
• Avoiding distractions at office
• Being able to work flexible hours
• Disadvantages
• Insurance concerns relating to health and safety of employees working at home
• Lack of professional and social environment of workplace
• Some state and local laws restrict just what work can be done at home
• Recent evidence shows that when given a choice, employees prefer a mix of working part-time from home and part-time in office
4-41
Job Sharing
• Two or more part-time individuals perform a job that would normally be held by one full-time person
• Can be in the form of equally shared responsibilities, split duties, or a combination of both
• Especially attractive to people who want to work, but not full-time
• From organization’s viewpoint, job sharing aids in retention of valuable employees
• A critical factor is how benefits are handled – Often benefits are prorated between part-time employees
• Some organizations allow job-sharing employees to purchase full health insurance by paying the difference between their prorated benefit and the premium for a full-time employee
4-42
Condensed Workweek
• Number of hours worked per day is increased and number of days in the workweek is decreased
• Typically done by having employees work 10 hours per day for four days per week (known as 4/40)
• Other variations include reducing total hours worked to 36 or 38 hours
• Advantages
• Lower absenteeism and tardiness
• Less start-up time
• More time available for employees to take care of personal business
• Disadvantages
• Fatigue that often accompanies longer hours
4-43
Contingent Workers • The U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics
separates contingent workers into
• Independent contractors and on-call workers, who are called to work only when needed
• Temporary or short-term workers
• Reasons that organizations use contingent workers include
• Seasonal fluctuations, and project-based work
• Desire to acquire skill sets not available in the normal employee
• Population, hiring freezes, and rapid growth
• Advantages
• Flexibility for dealing with fluctuating product or service demand
• Increasing workplace diversity
• Determining potential as a future full-time employee
• Providing skills organization doesn’t have in-house
4-44
Contingent Workers – Challenges
• Management issues
• Who manages different contingent workers and what role does HR play?
• Tracking and reporting
• How do contingents fit into different HR system such as payroll?
• Compensation
• How are contingents compensated compared to other employees?
• Retention
• Since most contingents don’t receive benefits they can be hard to retain
• Attitude and work quality
• Most contingents do not share same degree of commitment as other employees
4-45
Contingent Workers – Challenges
• Orientation and training
• Orientation and training can be difficult to schedule because of scheduling conflicts with other jobs
• Legal issues
• Contingent workers must meet legal definition of “independent contractor” under IRS rules
• Use or company resources
• Can include everything from company discounts to participation in company educational programs
• Physical security
• Do contingent workers have same access to company facilities as other employees?
4-46
Summary of Learning Objectives
• Define job analysis and job design
• Distinguish among a position, a job, and an occupation
• Describe several common uses of a job analysis
• Define job description and job specification
• Identify four frequently used methods of job analysis
• Discuss why O*NET was developed and summarize what it is
• Define essential functions and reasonable accommodation as interpreted under the Americans with Disabilities Act
4-47
Summary of Learning Objectives
• Identify several problems frequently
associated with job analysis
• Define job scope and job depth and
explain their relationship to job design
• Explain the sociotechnical approach to
job design
• Distinguish among the following types
of alternative work schedules: flextime,
telecommuting, job sharing, and
condensed workweek
• Define the term contingent worker
4-48