JOB ANALYSIS © Nancy Brown Johnson 2002

What is a job? Closely related activities carried out for pay

TASK What an individual does –e–e.g., types –d–describes activity with no purpose, skills or knowledge, simply describes what they do –i–identifiable outcome

POSITION one or more duties performed by the same person collection of tasks

Job Analysis Defined Gathering detailed information about jobs

Dynamics of Jobs Time - some change with seasons, farming, retail. Employee - jobs get redefined by people Situation - conflict arises in the organization and a manager’s job may change from supervising to mediating or arbitrating.

Uses of Job Analysis You'll find about everything in HRM will depend upon a good job analysis.

Job Descriptions Job description is the summary of the task, duties and responsibilities found in job analysis Some see job descriptions as the first product of job analysis.

Competency Approach Knowledge & skills needed to perform the job Job Specification: Knowledge, skills, and abilities required to do the job Knowledge: factual information Skill: individual’s proficiency Ability: generally enduring capability Sometimes ambiguous

Training Program Development Good training programs are based on the ability to know what is needed.

Job-related interviews Employment interviewers can do a much better job of matching candidates with jobs. Helps keep employment interviews more job related

Other Uses Performance Appraisal Job Evaluation Legal Job redesign, job enrichment, human resource planning, safety.

Methods of Collecting Job Analysis Data

Conducting JA Gather information about tasks, activities, or duties. importance frequency Critical knowledge, skills, and abilities determined.

Direct Observation apparent end products short cycle time end products do not depend upon cognitive skill. analyst should not intrude

Interview Job Incumbent broad application time consuming & costly. the incumbent reports infrequent & cognitive activities distortion problem

Performing the Job may not be possible (e.g., doctors) or safe better for less skilled positions not good for non-routine tasks good firsthand experience

Questionnaires Checklists of items – rating items in terms of their job relevance – easy to do – inexpensive, wide coverage, quantifiable, can be analyzed by a computer Problems – expensive to develop – ambiguous in meaning – respondent may not be motivated to do well

Diaries Incumbent records activities Written in terms familiar to incumbents Time consuming Possibly biased May miss mental activities

Who Does the Analysis? Job analyst specifically trained Job incumbent knows job best not objective may tend to inflate job 3 incumbents should be sampled Supervisor should have familiarity with job may idealize Devises cameras or physiological devises to measure stress.

Job Design Process of defining how work will be performed Changing the way work will be performed

Design Approaches Motivational Mechanistic from Industrial Engineering – Lean manufacturing based upon employee input Biological - Ergonomics Perceptual Motor

“End of the Job” Contends that jobs are disappearing as basis for organizing work Need new basis for compensation, work organization, staffing & selection, etc. Move to project basis for work organization

“End of the Job” Flatter Organizations Work Teams Future of Job Descriptions – jobs broad & change – project demands spell out duties

Summary Job analysis basic tool for organizations organized around jobs Nature of work is changing, thus the role of jobs might change