Job Analysis

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Chapter 3

• Job Analysis

2
Objectives

• List the uses of job analysis information
• Describe the sources and ways of collecting job
  analysis information
• Discuss the different job analysis methods
• Describe the evidence for reliability and
  validity of job analysis methods
• Explain how job evaluation is used to set salary
  levels for jobs

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What Is Job Analysis? (I)

• Job analysis is the method for describing jobs
  and/ or the human attributes necessary to perform
  them
• The procedure must be systematic
• A job is broken into smaller units
• The analysis results in some written product,
  either electronic or on paper
• Job analysis techniques can be used to collect
  information that job oriented or person oriented,
  depending on the purpose of the job analyst
• The Job-oriented Approach
• Provides information about the nature of tasks
  does on the job
• Describes common features that cut across tasks
  that provide a picture of what people do on a job

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What Is Job Analysis? (II)

• Tasks can be divided into a hierarchy in which
  higher-level descriptions are broken down into
  smaller pieces of the job
• Levine (1983) divides the major functions of job
  into 4 levels of specificity
• 1. Duty 2. Tasks 3. Activity 4. Element
• Duty is a major component of a job
• Accomplished by performing one or more associated
  tasks
• Task is a complete piece of work that
  accomplishes some particular objective
• Task can be divided into activities which are the
  individual parts that make up the task
• To accomplish this activity, a number of very
  specific actions, or elements are involved
• Contain a great deal of very specific information
  about what happens on a particular job
• The level of job actions produces a long and
  detailed report

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What Is Job Analysis? (III)

• The Person-Oriented Approach
• Description of the attributes, characteristics or
  KSAOs necessary for a person to perform a
  particular job successfully
• KSAOs are the knowledge, skills, abilities and
  other personal characteristics necessary for a
  job
• First 3 characteristics mainly on job performance
  itself
• Other relate to job adjustment and satisfaction
• Knowledge is what a person needs to know to do a
  particular job
• Skill is what a person is able to do an the job
• Ability is a persons aptitude or capability to
  do job tasks or learn to do job tasks
• Other personal characteristics relevant to the
  job that is not covered by the other three
• KSAO is an attribute or characteristic that a
  person needs in order to do a particular task or
  tasks

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Purposes of Job Analysis (I)

• Career Development
• Career ladder- a progression of position is
  established for individuals who acquire the
  necessary skills and maintain good job
  performance
• Not everyone climbs to the top of the ladder
• Limited opportunities for promotion and inability
  to achieve the necessary KSAOs
• Job analysis provide a picture of the KSAO
  requirements for jobs at each level of career
  ladder
• Legal Issues
• Laws prohibiting discriminatory employment
  practices, especially in the hiring of employees
• Job analysis provides a list of relevant KSAOs
  that can be used as the basis for hiring in place
  of irrelevant personal characteristics
• Legal concept in US employment is that of
  essential function, which is an action that must
  be done on a job, especially deciding whether to
  hire a person with a disability

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Purposes of Job Analysis (II)

• The nonessntial function ia an action that might
  be done occasionally, but is not important for a
  person in that position to do
• Job analysis is used to identify essential
  functions and KSAOs and thus can help ensure that
  decision affecting people are based on personal
  factors that are job relevant
• When KSAOs are derived from a properly conducted
  job analysis, employer actions based on those
  KSAOs are likely to be legal
• Performance Appraisal
• A well-designed performance appraisal system will
  be used on a job analysis
• Job-oriented analysis provides a list of the
  major components of a job, which can be used as
  dimensions for performance evaluation
• The behavior-focused performance appraisal
  methods are based on a job analysis

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Purposes of Job Analysis (III)

• Critical incidents that represent different
  levels of job performance, from outstanding to
  poor
• The good incident would describe something a
  person did that worked well
• Selection
• Person-oriented job analysis should be the first
  step in the design of an employee-selection
  system
• KSAOs for a job are identified, procedures can be
  chosen to determine how well job applications fit
  the requirements for the job
• A person-oriented job analysis produces a list of
  KSAOs for a particular job
• Expected to have at the time of hiring
• Characteristics that will be developed on the job
  through experience and training
• Training
• KSAOs that applicants do not have when they apply
  for a position are areas for training after they
  are hired

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Purposes of Job Analysis (IV)

• Training program is based on a through analysis
  of the KSAO requirements for a job
• Training efforts might be directed if the
  characteristics can be acquired
• Research
• An additional use of job analysis information is
  in research
• Determine the role of job requirements or task
  characteristics in organizational phenomena
• Ranging from employee motivation and performance
  to health and safety

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Sources of Job Analysis Information (I)

• Who provides the information?
• Job analysis information comes from one of four
  sources
• Job analysts
• Supervisors
• Job incumbents
• Trained observers
• Job analysts and trained observes actually do the
  job or spend time observing employees doing job
  and translate those experiences into a job
  analysis
• Incumbents and supervisors are considered
  subject-matter experts, people with detailed
  knowledge about the content and requirements of
  their own jobs or the jobs that they supervise

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Sources of Job Analysis Information (II)

• How do people provide job analysis information?
• Perform Job
• Benefits
• The job analyst can perform the tasks as an
  employee would or under simulated conditions
• The analyst gains insight into the nature of the
  tasks and how they interrelate
• Provides an apperception for the context in which
  people do their jobs
• Not often used
• Experiencing the job by doing it can be costly
  and time-consuming
• Some jobs are dangerous, particularly for an
  inexperienced person
• Dose not clearly indicate that tasks can differ
  among employees with the same job title
• Observe
• Collect information about a job is to observe
  people doing it
• Observing employees can give insights into the
  context in which job tasks are performed
• It can also be expensive and time-consuming

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Sources of Job Analysis Information (III)

• Interview
• Interviewing subject-matter experts who are
  familiar with the job
• Interviews are carried out by job analysts or
  trained interviewers
• Used to generate listed of all tasks and
  activities done by everyone who has the same job
  title
• Other tasks might be performed by every employee,
  but only on race occasions
• Questionnaire
• Most efficient means of collecting job analysis
  information
• No other technique can provide as much
  information about jobs with as little effort on
  the part of the job analyst
• Multiple methods
• Often used so that the limitations of one are
  offset by the strengths of another

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Methods of Job Analysis (I)

• Job Components Inventory (JCI)
• Allows for the simultaneous assessment of the job
  requirements and persons KSAOs
• The inventory includes KSAOs for both jobs and
  individuals
• 5 components of job features are represented
• Use of tool and equipment
• Perceptual and physical requirements
• Mathematics
• Communication
• Decision making and responsibility
• Functional Job Analysis
• Provides both a description of a job and scores
  in several dimensions for the job and potential
  workers
• Procedure can be used to make comparisons among
  jobs

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Methods of Job Analysis (II)

• Occupational Information Network
• Is a computer-based resource for job-related
  information on approximately 1,100 groups of jobs
  sharing common characteristics
• Occupation characteristics deal with other kinds
  of information are concerned with characteristic
  of job tasks
• Look up a particular job and get a description
  and detailed information about 6 domains
• Position Analysis Questionnaire
• Contains 189 items dealing with the task
  requirements or elements of jobs
• The elements of the PAQ are general and allow
  comparisons of different jobs on a common set of
  dimensions or KSAOs

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Methods of Job Analysis (III)

• Cover a wide variety of task requirements
• The inputting and processing of information
• The use of equipment and tools
• General body movement
• Interpersonal interaction
• Work context
• PAQ generates a standard list of KSAOs, jobs can
  be compared on their KSAO requirements
• Task inventions
• Is a questionnaire that contains a list of
  specific tasks that might be done on the job that
  is being analyzed
• Rating might be made on dimensions
• Amount of time spent doing the task
• Critically of the task for doing a good job
• Difficulty of learning the task
• Important of the task

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Methods of Job Analysis (IV)

• Combination Job Analysis Method (C-JAM)
• Both interviews and questionnaires to collect
  information about KSAOs and tasks
• Produces a detailed picture of the KSAOs for a
  job and the task performed
• Choosing a Job Analysis Method
• Job analysis experts to rate the effectiveness of
  seven job analysis methods for 11 purposes
• Choice of method requires consideration of
  several factors, including cost and purpose

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Reliability and Validity of Job Analysis
Information

• Reliability
• Test-retest reliabilities ranged from 0.68 to
  0.90
• Reasonably consistent in their job analysis
  rating when they repeated them over time
• Correlations among rating of different people
  ranged from 0.46 to 0.79
• Validity
• The best evidence for the validity of job
  analysis comes from studies that compared
  different methods or sources information
• Job analysis ratings might be less valid than I/O
  psychologists usually assume
• Need to improve job analysis procedures, the
  various methods are important tools used by I/O
  psychologists

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Job Evaluation (I)

• Refers to a family of quantitative techniques
  that used to determine the salary levels of jobs
• Job evaluation determines are relative salaries
  for different jobs by mathematically combining
  job information
• Point method
• First, a panel determines the compensable factors
  for the job
• Second, a panel judges the degree to which each
  job has each compensable factor
• Quantitative scale so that each job has each
  compensable factor
• Third, the points for the factors are summed for
  each job
• Fourth and final, the plot the actual salaries
  for each job against the point totals for each
  job
• The point system is just one of many different
  job evaluation methods

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Job Evaluation (II)

• Comparable Worth
• Used to demonstrate pay discrimination against
  women
• Means that different but comparable jobs should
  be paid the same
• Held predominantly by women contribution as much
  to the organization as jobs held primarily by
  men, the salaries for the jobs should be the same
• Using the mathematical procedures to calculate
  how much adjustment each of the underpaid jobs
  should receive
• Might undervalue lower-paid predominantly
  women-held jobs and overvalue the higher-paid,
  predominantly men-held jobs

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Future Issues and Challenges

• Job analysis is one of the most frequently used
  tools of practicing I/O psychologists
• Concerned with developing new methods rather than
  with the validity of old methods
• Rater training is another area of possible
  research
• Better understanding of how people make their
  ratings would suggest useful ways of training
  raters
• Increased call for organizations to keep their
  employee actions, such as promotions and
  selection
• Ensured that decisions about whom to hire or
  promote will be based on the KSAOs for a job
• Electronic tools in conducting job analysis
• More accurate picture of the time spent in
  various activities
• More focus on describing competencies rather than
  on what are often minimum KSAO requirements found
  in a typical job analysis

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Chapter 3

• -THE END-