CHAPTER 3 Job Analysis

1. CHAPTER 3 Job Analysis Introduction to Industrial/Organizational Psychology by Ronald Riggio

2. Personnel Psychology • Personnel psychology, a specialty area of I/O psychology, is concerned with the creation, care, and maintenance of a workforce. • I/O psychologists who specialize in personnel psychology are involved in: • Employee recruitment and selection. • Measurement of employee performance and establishment of good performance review procedures. • Development of employee training programs. • Formulation of criteria for promotion, firing, and disciplinary action.

3. Job Analysis • Job analysis is the systematic study of: a job's tasks, duties, and responsibilities, and the knowledge, skills, and abilitiesneeded to perform the job. • Job analysis is the starting point for many important personnel functions. • A job analysis yields several products such as a job description and job specification.

4. Job Analysis Products • Job description • A detailed accounting of job tasks, procedures, responsibilities, and output. • Job specification • Information about the physical, educational, and experiential qualitiesrequired to perform the job.

6. Job Analysis Products • Job evaluation • An assessment of the relative value of jobs for determining compensation. • Performance criteria • Work and performance outcomes required by the job that serve as a basis for appraising successful job performance.

8. Job Analysis Methods • Job analysis methods include observation, theuse of existing data, interviews, surveys, and job diaries. • Each method has strengths and weaknesses. • Inaddition to these general methods for conducting job analysis, there are also a number of specific, standardized techniques.

9. Specific Job Analysis Techniques • Job Elements Method • A broad approach to job analysis that focuses on the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) required to perform a particular job. • Relies on subject matter experts(SMEs)

10. Specific Job Analysis Techniques • Functional job analysis (FJA) is a method that has been used to classify jobs in terms of workers’ interaction with data, people, and things. • Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) • Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)

11. Specific Job Analysis Techniques • The DOT has been replaced by the Occupational Information Network (O*NET; www.onetcenter.org) • Functional job analysis is helpful when the job analyst must create job descriptions for a large number of positions.

12. Specific Job Analysis Techniques • The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) assesses several qualities of jobs: • Information input • Mental processes • Work output • Relationships with other persons • Job context • Other job characteristics

13. Specific Job Analysis Techniques • The Critical incidents technique (CIT) records specific worker behaviors that have led to particularly successful or unsuccessful instances of job performance. • Job incumbentsusually provide examples of critical incidents.

14. Job Analysis and the ADA • Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) • Requires that employers prevent employment discrimination against disabled persons. • Requires employers to understand “essential elements” of a job.

15. Job Evaluation and Comparable Worth • Job analysis yields a job evaluation, or an assessment of the relative value of a job, and is used to determine appropriate compensation. • These evaluations usually examine jobs on dimensions that are called compensable factors (e.g., physical demands of a job, amount of training, working conditions, responsibility).

16. Job Evaluation and Comparable Worth • The Equal Pay Act of 1963 mandates that men and women performing equal work receive equal pay. • However, women continue to make less than men. Women make about 75% of what men make.

17. Job Evaluation and Comparable Worth • Why is there a wage gap between men and women? • Men have greater access to higher paying jobs. • Women are paid less than men for performing equivalent tasks. • Similar jobs may have different titles and different ranks depending on the sex of the worker (e.g., “records manager” vs. “personnel clerk”).

18. Job Evaluation and Comparable Worth • Comparable worth • The idea that jobs that require equivalent knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) should be compensated equally. • Relies on valid and fair job evaluations. • Exceptioning • The practice of ignoring pay discrepancies between particular jobs possessing equivalent duties and responsibilities.