Job Analysis and Job Design

2. Job AnalysisandJob Design Chapter 4

3. Chapter Overview • Basic Terminology • Job Analysis • Job Design • Summary of Learning Objectives 4-3

4. 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

5. 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

6. Relationship among Different Job Components 4-6

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Information Provided by a Job Analysis 4-11

12. 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

13. Contents of a Job Description 4-13

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. Employee Activity Categories Used in the PAQ 4-21

22. Sample Page from the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) 4-22

23. 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

24. Management Position Description Questionnaire Categories 4-24

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. The Content Model Forming the Foundation of O*NET 4-28

29. 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

30. 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

31. Questions to Be Addressed to Determine Essential Functions 4-31

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. Advantages of JobSpecialization 4-35

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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

44. 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

45. 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

46. 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

47. 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

48. 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