Compensation 11th Edition Milkovich Solutions Manual 1

Chapter 04 – Job Analysis
Compensation 11th Edition Milkovich
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CHAPTER 4
JOB ANALYSIS
Overview
This chapter describes a key component of the pay model—job analysis. Job analysis is a
systematic method that focuses on describing the differences and similarities among jobs within
an organization. An equitable internal pay structure has two hallmarks: to encourage employee
behaviors to help achieve an organization’s objectives and to foster a sense of fairness among
employees. One of the first strategic pay decisions is how much to align a pay structure
internally compared to aligning it with external market forces. This is not an either/or issue—not
achieving internal alignment versus alignment with external market forces. Rather, the strategic
decision focuses on sustaining the optimal balance of internally aligned and externally
responsive pay structure that helps the organization achieve its mission. Pay system design
involves determining how much to emphasize a pay structure that is internally aligned with the
work performed, the organization’s structure, and its strategies.
The next decision focuses on whether job and/or individual employee characteristics will be the
basic unit of analysis supporting the pay structure. This is followed by deciding what job
information will be collected, what method(s) will be used to collect the information, and who
should be involved in the data collection process. A discussion of the approach to summarize job
data via a job description and job specifications is provided. The issues of the susceptibility of
various jobs to offshoring and comparability across nations in relation to job analysis are
discussed.
The chapter concludes by discussing the controversy surrounding the relevance of the traditional
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approach to job analysis in the current environment. Several criteria—reliability, validity,

acceptability, and usefulness—are provided to assess the viability of job analysis.
Lecture Outline: Overview of Major Topics
I. Structures Based on Jobs, People, or Both

II. Job-based Approach: Most Common
III. Job Analysis Procedures
IV. What Information Should Be Collected?
V. How Can the Information Be Collected?
VI. Job Descriptions Summarize the Data
VII. Job Analysis: Bedrock or Bureaucracy?
VIII. Job Analysis and Globalization
IX. Judging Job Analysis
X. Your Turn: The Consumer-Service Agent
Lecture Outline: Summary of Key Chapter Points
If pay is to be based on work performed, some way is needed to discover and describe the
differences and similarities among jobs—observation alone is not enough. Job analysis is that
systematic method. Two products result from a job analysis:
• A job description is the list of tasks, duties, and responsibilities that make up a job. These
are observable actions.
• A job specification is the list of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that
are necessary for an individual to have to perform the job.
I. Structures Based on Jobs, People, or Both

• Exhibit 4.1 outlines the process for constructing a work-related internal structure. No
matter the approach, the process begins by looking at people at work.
• Job-based structures look at what people are doing and the expected outcomes; skill-
and competency-based structures look at the person.
• The underlying purpose of each phase of the process remains the same for both job- and
person-based structures:
o Collect and summarize work content information that identifies similarities and
differences
o Determine what to value
o Assess the relative value
o Translate the relative value into an internal structure
II. Job Based Approach: Most Common
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• Exhibit 4.3 shows how job analysis and the resulting job description fit into the process
of creating an internal structure.
• Job analysis provides the underlying information. It identifies the content of the job.
This content serves as input for describing and valuing work.
Definition: Job analysis is the systematic process of collecting information that

identifies similarities and differences in the work.
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• Exhibit 4.3 also lists the major decisions in designing a job analysis:
o Why are we performing job analysis?
o What information do we need?
o How should we collect it?
o Who should be involved?
o How useful are the results?
A. Why perform job analysis?

• Potential uses for job analysis have been suggested for every major personnel
human resource function. Often the type of job analysis data needed varies by
function.
• An internal structure based on job-related information provides both managers
and employees a work-related rationale for pay differences.
• Employees who understand this rationale can see where their work fits into the
bigger picture and can direct their behavior toward organization objectives.
• Job analysis data also help managers defend their decisions when challenged.
• In compensation, job analysis has two critical uses:
o It establishes similarities and differences in the work contents of the jobs.
o It helps establish an internally fair and aligned job structure.
• The key issue for compensation decision makers is to ensure that the data
collected are useful and acceptable to the employees and managers involved.
III. Job Analysis Procedures

• Exhibit 4.4 summarizes some job analysis terms and their relationship to each other.
• Job analysis usually collects information about specific tasks or behaviors.
• A group of tasks performed by one person makes up a position. Identical positions make
up a job, and broadly similar jobs combine into a job family.
• The U.S. federal government has developed a step-by-step approach to conducting
conventional job analysis. The government’s procedures, shown in Exhibit 4.5,
include:
o Developing preliminary information
o Interviewing jobholders and supervisors
o Using the information to create and verify job descriptions
• The federal Department of Labor’s description of conventional job analysis provides a
useful “how-to” guide.
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IV. What Information Should Be Collected?

• A typical job analysis starts with a review of information already collected in order to
develop a framework for further analysis. Job titles, major duties, task dimensions, and
work flow information may already exist. However, it may no longer be accurate. So
the analyst must clarify existing information, too.
• Generally, a good job analysis collects sufficient information to adequately identify,
define, and describe a job. Exhibit 4.6 lists some of the information that is usually
collected. The information is categorized as:
o Related to the job.
o Related to the employee
A. Job Data: Identification

• Job titles, departments, the number of people who hold the job, and whether it
is exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act are all examples of information
that identifies a job.
• While a job title may seem pretty straightforward, it may not be.
B. Job Data: Content

• This is the heart of job analysis. Job content data involve the elemental tasks or
units of work, with emphasis on the purpose of each task.
• In addition to emphasis on the task, the other distinguishing characteristic is the
emphasis on the objective of the task.
• Task data reveal the actual work performed and its purpose or outcome.
C. Employee Data
• We can look at the kinds of behaviors that will result in the outcomes.
• Exhibit 4.6 categorizes employee data as employee characteristics, internal
relationships, and external relationships.
• The excerpt in Exhibit 4.8 is from the Position Analysis Questionnaire
(PAQ), which groups work information into seven basic factors:
o Information input
o Mental processes
o Work output
o Relationships with other persons
o Job context
o Other job characteristics
o General dimensions
• The entire PAQ consists of 194 items.
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• A more nuanced view of “communication” focuses on the nature of the

interactions required plus knowledge underlying them.
• Interactions are defined as the knowledge and behaviors involved in searching,
monitoring, and coordinating required to do the work. Some interactions are
transactional—routine and some are tacit—complex and ambiguous.
• Work content that involves more tacit interactions is believed to add greater
value than more transactional tasks.
• However appealing it may be to rationalize job analysis as the foundation of all
HR decisions, collecting all of the information for many different purposes is
very expensive. In addition, the resulting information may be too generalized
for any single purpose, including compensation.
D. “Essential Elements” and the Americans with Disabilities Act

• In addition to the job description having sections that identify, describe, and
define the job, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that
essential elements of a job—those that cannot be reassigned to other
workers—must be specified for jobs covered by the legislation.
• If a job applicant can perform the essential elements, it is assumed the
applicant can perform the job. After that, reasonable accommodations must be
made to enable an otherwise qualified handicapped person to perform those
elements.
• ADA regulations state that “essential functions refer to the fundamental job
duties of the employment position the individual with a disability holds or
desires.”
• The difficulty of specifying essential elements varies with the discretion in the
job and with stability of the jobs.
• The law does not make any allowances for special pay rates or special benefits
for people with disabilities.
• While the law does not require any particular kind of analysis, many employers
have modified the format of their job descriptions to specifically call out the
essential elements.
• A lack of compliance places an organization at risk and ignores one of the
objectives of the pay model.
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E. Level of Analysis
• The level at which analysis of a job begins influences whether the work is
similar or different. For example, at the job-family level several jobs may
appear to be similar, yet at the job level they are very different.
• If job data suggest that jobs are similar, the jobs must be paid equally; if jobs
are different, they can be paid differently.
V. How Can the Information Be Collected?
A. Conventional Methods
• The most common way to collect job information is to ask the people who are
doing a job to fill out a questionnaire. Sometimes an analyst will interview the
jobholders and their supervisors to be sure they understand the questions and
that the information is correct. Or the analyst may observe the person at work
and take notes on what is being done.
• The advantage of conventional questionnaires and interviews is that the
involvement of employees increases their understanding of the process.
• However, the results are only as good as the people involved. If important
aspects of a job are omitted, or if the jobholders themselves either do not
realize or are unable to express the importance of certain aspects, the resulting
job descriptions will be faulty.
• Different people have different perceptions, which may result in differences in
interpretation or emphasis. The whole process is open to bias and favoritism.
• As a result of this potential subjectivity, as well as the huge amount of time the
process takes, conventional methods have given way to more quantitative (and
systematic) data collection
B. Quantitative Methods
• Increasingly, employees are directed to a website where they complete a
questionnaire online. Such an approach is characterized as quantitative job
analysis (QJA), since statistical analysis of the results is possible. In addition
to facilitating statistical analysis of the results, quantitative data collection
allows more data to be collected faster.
• A questionnaire typically asks jobholders to assess each item in terms of
whether or not that particular item is part of their job. If it is, they are asked to
rate how important it is and the amount of job time spent on it.
• The responses can be machine-scored, similar to the process for a multiple-
choice test (only there are no wrong answers), and the results can be used to
develop a profile of the job. Questions are grouped around five compensable
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factors:
o Knowledge
o Accountability
o Reasoning
o Communication
o Working conditions.
• Knowledge is further subcategorized as:
o Range of depth
o Qualifications
o Experience
o Occupational skills
o Management skills
o Learning time
• Assistance is given in the form of prompting questions and a list of jobs whose
holders have answered each question in a similar way. Results can be used to
prepare a job profile based on the compensable factors.
• If more than one person is doing a particular job, results of several people in
the job can be compared or averaged to develop the profile. Profiles can be
compared across jobholders in both the same and different jobs.
• Some consulting firms have developed quantitative inventories that can be
tailored to the needs of a specific organization or to a specific family of jobs.
Many organizations find it practical and cost-effective to modify these existing
inventories rather than to develop their own analysis from scratch.
• If important aspects of a job are omitted or if the jobholders themselves do not
realize the importance of certain aspects, the resulting job descriptions will be
faulty. The implication is that any analysis needs to include good performers to
ensure that the work is usefully analyzed.
C. Who Collects the Information?

• In the past, organizations often assigned the task to a new employee, saying it
would help the new employee become familiar with the jobs of the company.
Today, if job analysis is performed at all, human resource generalists and
supervisors do it.
• The analysis is best done by someone thoroughly familiar with the organization
and its jobs and trained in how to do the analysis properly.
D. Who Provides the Information?

• The decision on the source of the data (jobholders, supervisors, and/or analysts)
hinges on how to ensure consistent, accurate, useful, and acceptable data.
o Expertise about the work resides with the jobholders and supervisors;
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hence, they are the principal sources.

o For key managerial/professional jobs, supervisors “two levels above”
have been suggested as valuable sources since they have a more strategic
view of how jobs fit in the overall organization.
o In some instances, subordinates and employees in other jobs that
interface with the job under study are also involved.
• The number of incumbents per job from which to collect data probably varies
with the stability of the job, as well as the ease of collecting the information.
• Whether through a conventional analysis or a quantitative approach,
completing a questionnaire requires considerable involvement by employees
and supervisors. Involvement can increase their understanding of the process,
thereby increasing the likelihood that the results of the analysis will be
acceptable. But it also is expensive.
E. What about Discrepancies?

• Differences in job data may arise among the jobholders. Some may see the job
one way, some another.
• If the employees and their supervisors do not agree on what is part of the job,
the manager should collect more data. Enough data are required to ensure
consistent, accurate, useful, and acceptable results.
• Holding a meeting of multiple jobholders and supervisors in a focus group to
discuss discrepancies and then asking both employees and supervisors to sign
off on the revised results helps ensure agreement on, or at least understanding
of, the results.
• Disagreements can be an opportunity to clarify expectations, learn about better
ways to do the job, and document how the job is actually performed.
• Discrepancies among employees may even reveal that more than one job has
been lumped under the same job title.
• In addition to involvement by analysts, jobholders, and their supervisors,
support of top management is absolutely essential. Support of union officials in
a unionized workforce is as well.
o They know (hopefully) what is strategically relevant.
o They must be alerted to the cost of a thorough job analysis, its time-
consuming nature, and the fact that changes will be involved.
o If top managers (and unions) are not willing to seriously consider any
changes suggested by job analysis, the process is probably not worth the
bother and expense.
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VI. Job Descriptions Summarize the Data

• The job information collected should be organized, summarized, and documented in a
format useful for HR decisions, including job evaluation. The summary of the job is the
job description.
o The job description provides a ‘word picture’ of the job. It contains information
on the tasks, people, and things included.
o The job is identified by its title and its relationships to other jobs in the structure.
A job summary provides an overview of the job.
o The section on essential responsibilities elaborates on the summary. It includes the
tasks.
o Related tasks may be grouped into task dimensions.
o A final section lists the qualifications necessary in order to be hired for the job.
These are the job specifications that can be used as a basis for hiring—the
knowledge, skills, and abilities required to adequately perform the tasks.
o The summary needs to be relevant for pay decisions and thus must focus on
similarities and differences in content.
A. Using Generic Job Descriptions

• To avoid starting from scratch (if writing a job description for the first time) or
as a way to cross-check externally, it can be useful to refer to generic job
descriptions that have not yet been tailored to a specific organization.
• One readily accessible source is the Occupational Information Network, or
O*NET (www.onetcenter.org).
B. Describing Managerial/Professional Jobs

• Descriptions of managerial/professional jobs often include more-detailed
information on the nature of the job, its scope, and accountability.
• One challenge is that an individual manager will influence the job content.
• Professional/managerial job descriptions must capture the relationship between
the job, the person performing it, and the organization objectives—how the job
fits into the organization, the results expected, and what the person performing
it brings to the job.
C. Verify the Description

• The final step in the job analysis process is to verify the accuracy of the
resulting job descriptions (step 6 in Exhibit 4.5).
• Verification often involves the jobholders as well as their supervisors to
determine whether the proposed job description is accurate and complete.
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• The description is discussed, line by line, with the analyst, who makes notes of
any omissions, ambiguities, or needed clarifications.
VII. Job Analysis: Bedrock or Bureaucracy?

• HRNet, an Internet discussion group related to HR issues, provoked one of its largest
responses ever with the query, “What good is job analysis?”
o Some felt that managers have no basis for making defensible, work-related
decisions without it.
o Others called the process a bureaucratic boondoggle.
• If job analysis is the cornerstone of human resource decisions, what are such decisions
based on if work information is no longer rigorously collected? This disagreement
centers on the issue of flexibility.
• Many organizations today are using fewer employees to do a wider variety of tasks in
order to increase productivity and reduce costs. Reducing the number of different jobs
and cross-training employees can make work content more fluid and employees more
flexible.
• Generic job descriptions that cover a larger number of related tasks (e.g., “associate”)
can provide flexibility in moving people among tasks without adjusting pay. Employees
may be more easily matched to changes in the work flow; the importance of flexibility
in behavior is made clear to employees.
• Traditional job analysis that makes fine distinctions among levels of jobs has been
accused of reinforcing rigidity in the organization. Employees may refuse to do certain
tasks that are not specifically called out in their job descriptions.
• In some organizations, analyzing work content is now conducted as part of work flow
and supply chain analysis. Supply chain analysis looks at how an organization does its
work: activities pursued to accomplish specific objectives for specific customers.
o A “customer” can be internal or external to the organization.
VIII. Job Analysis and Globalization
A. Job Analysis and Susceptibility to Offshoring

• Offshoring refers to the movement of jobs to locations beyond a country’s
borders.
• Historically, manual, low-skill jobs were most susceptible to offshoring. There
are substantial differences in hourly compensation costs across countries for
manufacturing workers; this has played an important role in companies’
decisions about where to locate production operations.
• Similar differences in cost in other low-skill occupations (e.g., in call centers)
have had similar ramifications. Of course, labor cost is only part of the story.
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o There are productivity differences across countries as well, meaning that

lower labor costs may in some cases be offset by lower productivity.
o Availability of workers with needed education and skills is another
potential constraint.
o Proximity to customers is yet another issue.
• Increasingly, susceptibility to offshoring is no longer limited to low-skill jobs.
White-collar jobs are also increasingly at risk.
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has attempted to systematically measure
which jobs are most susceptible to offshoring. Jobs are most susceptible to
outsourcing when:
o Inputs and outputs can easily be transmitted electronically
o Little interaction with other workers is required
o Little local knowledge is required
o The work can be routinized
o Little education and training is required
• Various managerial positions and also positions where local knowledge is
required or where being “on the ground” is necessary are jobs with low
susceptibility to outsourcing.
• Growth rates (in the United States) for jobs on the highly susceptible list are
generally small or negative, while jobs on the low susceptibility list have
shown strong growth.
B. Job Analysis Information and Comparability across Borders

• As firms spread work across multiple countries, there is an increasing need to
analyze jobs to either maintain consistency in job content or else be able to
measure the ways in which jobs are similar and different.
• One potential challenge is that norms or perceptions regarding what is and
what is not part of a particular job may vary across countries.
IX. Judging Job Analysis
A. Reliability
• Reliability is a measure of the consistency of results among various analysts,
various methods, various sources of data, or over time. Reliability is a
necessary, but not sufficient, condition for validity.
• Using a single rater to conduct a job analysis typically results in very poor
reliability. By using multiple raters and taking their average rating, the
reliability increases.
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• The outcome of a job analysis depends to an important degree on who conducts

it. There is higher reliability between professional job analysts and also when
more specific tasks are rated (as opposed to more general job requirements or
knowledge and skill requirements).
• Research on employee and supervisor agreement on the reliability of job
analysis information is mixed.
o For instance, experience may change an employee’s perceptions about a
job since the employee may have found new ways to do it or added new
tasks to the job. The supervisor may not realize the extent of change. In
such cases, the job the employee is actually doing may not be the same as
the job originally assigned by the supervisor.
o Differences in performance seem to influence reliability.
• Other research finds that reliability is lower for jobs that are more
interdependent with other jobs, and have more autonomy/are less routine.
• To date, no studies have found that gender and race differences affect
reliability.
• The way to increase reliability in a job analysis is to understand and reduce
sources of difference. Quantitative job analysis helps do this. But care should
be taken that the richness of responses are not eliminated while eliminating the
differences.
• Training can also improve reliability.
B. Validity
• It examines the convergence of results among sources of data and methods.
• If several job incumbents, supervisors, and peers respond in similar ways to the
questionnaires, then it is more likely that the information is valid.
• However, a sign-off on the results does not guarantee the information’s
validity.
C. Acceptability
• If job holders and managers are dissatisfied with the initial data collected and
the process, they are not likely to buy into the resulting job structure or the pay
rates attached to that structure.
• An analyst collecting information through one-on-one interviews or
observation is not always accepted because of the potential for subjectivity and
favoritism.
• However, quantitative computer-assisted approaches may also run into the
difficulty, especially if they give in to the temptation to collect too much
information for too many purposes.
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D. Currency
• To be valid, acceptable, and useful, job information must be up to date.
• Most organizations report that they have up-to-date job information, but a
substantial portion report that job information is not up to date.
o This can not only hinder compensation practice and decision-making, but
also employee selection, training, and development.
o Most organizations do not engage in any regular updating of job analysis
information, instead being more likely to update job information when
the significant changes are believed to have occurred or when the job is
being re-evaluated for compensation purposes.
• It may be useful to develop a systematic protocol for evaluating when job
information needs to be updated.
E. Usefulness
• It refers to the practicality of the information collected.
• For pay purposes, job analysis provides work-related information to help
determine how much to pay for a job—it helps determine whether the job is
similar to or different from other jobs. If job analysis does this in a reliable,
valid, and acceptable way and can be used to make pay decisions, then it is
useful.
• Some see job analysis information as useful for multiple purposes, such as
hiring and training. But multiple purposes may require more information than
is required for pay decisions.
F. A Judgment Call
• In the face of all the difficulties, time, expense, and dissatisfaction, managers
bother with job analysis because work-related information is needed to
determine pay, and differences in work determine pay differences.
• If work information is required, then the real issue should be, How much detail
is needed to make these pay decisions? The answer is, Enough to help set
individual employees’ pay, encourage continuous learning, increase the
experience and skill of the work force, and minimize the risk of pay-related
grievances.
o Omitting this detail and contributing to an incorrect and costly decision
by uninformed managers can lead to unhappy employees who drive away
customers with their poor service, file lawsuits, or complain about
management’s inability to justify their decisions.
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o The response to inadequate analysis ought not to be to dump the analysis;

rather, the response should be to obtain a more useful analysis.
Answers to Review Questions
1. Job analysis has been considered the cornerstone of human resource management.
Precisely how does it support managers making pay decisions?
Work-related information is needed to determine pay for each job in an organization based
on the different tasks and responsibilities of each job. There is no satisfactory substitute that
can ensure that the resulting pay structure is work related, and that it will provide reliable,
accurate data to make and explain pay decisions.
One of the most often asked questions by employees is related to pay. For example, why am
I paid “x”? Or, why does that person make more than I do? A well-done job analysis process
will provide a manager with reliable, accurate data to explain why an employee is paid “x”
amount and to discuss the differences in pay rates for different jobs (to respond to “why does
the other person make more than I do?”). Thus, job analysis data help managers to defend
their pay decisions when challenged.
The real issue should be, how much detail is needed to make pay decisions? The answer is
enough information to help set individual employees’ pay, encourage continuous learning,
increase the experience and skill of the work force, and minimize the risk of pay-related
grievances. The risk of omitting this detail is dissatisfied employees who file lawsuits or
complain about management’s inability to justify their decisions. The response to inadequate
analysis should not be to dump the analysis; rather, an approach to obtain more useful
analysis should be implemented.
2. What does job analysis have to do with internal alignment?
It helps ensure that pay decisions are related to identifiable job similarities and differences
within an organization. Recognition of job similarities and differences is an important aspect
of internal alignment. Jobs are more likely to be described, differentiated, and valued fairly
if reliable, accurate information about the jobs are available.
3. Describe the major decisions involved in job analysis.
The decisions include:

• Why perform job analysis?
There are several potential uses of job analysis information including:
o Clarifying hiring and promotion standards
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o Identifying training needs

o Identifying the required behaviors and results expected of a job to facilitate
performance evaluation
o Establishing a job structure for compensation purposes
In compensation, job analysis has two uses:
▪ It establishes similarities and differences in the work content of the jobs.
▪ It helps establish an internally fair and aligned job structure which assists
in ensuring consistent treatment of employees across work units.
• What information is needed?
Analysis should begin with a review of job information already collected. Information
needed falls in two categories:
o Information related to the job (job identification data and job content data)
o Information related to the employee (employee characteristics and internal and
external relationships)
• How to collect information?
The two approaches are:
o Conventional methods which involve an analyst using a questionnaire in
conjunction with structured interviews of job incumbents and supervisors
o Quantitative methods which involve inventories or questionnaires, in which
possible work tasks or worker attributes are listed
Each task may be scaled (assessed) in terms of time spent, importance, and/or
learning time required.
• Who should be involved?
The extent to which the various parties are involved must be decided. An HR
employee (job analyst, human resource generalist, or compensation specialist) or a
supervisor usually collects data. Jobholders and/or supervisors typically provide the
data; sometimes employees above and below the level of the job being analyzed are
included. Top management support of the process is essential.
• How useful are the results?
Results should be judged in terms of its reliability, validity, acceptability, usefulness,
currency, and costs.
4. Distinguish between task data and behavioral data.
Task data emphasizes the actual work performed in a job and the outcome or purpose of
each task. Behavioral data focuses on the kinds of employee behaviors that will result in the
outcomes.
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5. What is the critical advantage of quantitative approaches over conventional

approaches to job analysis?
The quantitative approach, which involves the use of an online questionnaire or an

inventory, lends itself to statistical analysis. This approach allows more data to be collected
faster from more jobholders. Responses can be machine scored, and the results can be used
to develop a profile of the job. If more than one employee is doing a specific job, results of
these employees can be compared or averaged to develop the profile. Another advantage is
that quantitative inventories can be tailored to the unique needs of one organization and/or to
a specific job family, such as information processing jobs. Based on the characteristics of
this approach, the data collected and the results are likely to be more objective. This is an
essential factor in light of the increased importance of supporting all human resource
decisions on a work-relatedness basis. In addition, employee challenges and lawsuits can be
better defended with the use of objective data.
6. How would you decide whether to use job-based or person-based structures?
The decision on which type of pay structure to utilize should be based on which approach is
most appropriate for the organization. The organization’s strategy (mission, vision,
objectives), combined with the product/service offered, the nature of the competitive
environment, and type of technology used, will be key determinants of which structure to
employ. The nature of the work flow and whether individual- or team-based performance is
emphasized are additional factors to consider.
While person-based structures are currently popular, job-based structures are still the most
common as they are appropriate across the widest variety of organizations and employee
groups. It is becoming more common for an organization to employ both types of structures
for different employee groups (managers, professionals, technicians, administrative
employees) due to the differences in work flow.
7. Why do many managers say that job analysis is a colossal waste of their time and the
time of their employees? Are they right?
Sometimes the people advocating the use of job analysis become so enamored with the
technical aspects of the process, the statistics, and the computers, they lose sight of the
objective of the process—obtaining job-related information on which to base pay decisions.
Being focused on the process rather than the practical use of the results may result in a lack
of interest and potential alienation of managers and employees.
In addition, if subsequent pay decisions turn out to have little relationship to job analysis
results, employees and managers will most definitely question why they should spend their
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time being involved in the process, i.e. completing and reviewing questionnaires.
Your Turn: The Customer-Service Agent
Summary of Case
Students are provided with information on a day in the work life of Bill Ryan, a customer-service
agent, who works for Half.com, an online marketplace owned by eBay. Based on this
information, students have an opportunity to gain “hands-on” experience with some of the key
components of job analysis by writing a job description.
Learning Objective
Demonstrate how to apply some of the key techniques of job analysis by analyzing the work
activities of Bill Ryan and translate the analysis into a job description.
Teaching Guidelines
Use this case to help students understand the challenges in writing a job description.
Student answers may vary. Students can consider the following inputs in constructing their
answers.
Discussion of Case Questions
Note: An example of a job description for the job of customer service agent is provided
immediately following the responses to the discussion questions.
Exhibits that are especially useful are: 4.2, 4.6, 4.7, and 4.8.
1. Does the day diary include sufficient information?
While student responses will vary, overall, Mr. Ryan’s day dairy scenario provides adequate
information required to develop the key components of a job description, especially for a
classroom activity.
2. Identify the specific information in the article that you found useful.
Student responses will vary.

Examples of information students are most likely to find useful include:
• The introduction prior to the day dairy that contains information about Half.com, an
4-18
overview of how the company’s business operates, a summary of the job duties of the
customer-service agent (CSA), and a discussion of the importance of the role of the
CSA to the success of the company
• Information in the 8 am entry (describes ambience of work environment and changes
in Mr. Ryan’s work responsibilities over the past year)
• Information in the 8:15 am entry (describes the actual steps Mr. Ryan follows in
responding to user’s e-mail)
• Information in the 9:50 am entry (provides additional information from other
employees related to the CSA job)
3. What additional information do you require? How would that information help you?
Student responses will vary.

Additional data directly related to the completion of a job description that students might
suggest as being useful include:
• Information related to internal relationships
• Information related to the qualifications required for the job
Pick a teammate (or the instructor will assign one) and exchange job descriptions with your
teammate.
1. How similar/different are the two descriptions? You and your teammate started with
exactly the same information. What might explain any differences?
Point out that differences in student perceptions and interpretation of the information
contained in the scenario are likely to contribute to differences in the job descriptions.
2. What process would you go through to understand and minimize the differences?
A suggested process could include the following steps:

• Each student team should compile all the similarities between their job descriptions
into a combined job description.
• The students should be encouraged to discuss the reasons for their differences.
• Ask the students to arrive at an agreement on their points of differences to complete
one job description for each team.
Consider making copies of all the job descriptions so the class can evaluate the variety of
results. Also, the class as a group can then critique the results (with students’ names
removed, of course); this approach would develop their ability to think critically about job
analysis results.
4-19
3. What are some of the relational returns of the job?
Based on Mr. Ryan’s description of his work, these returns are likely to include:
employment security (minimal turnover, doubling of staff during the past year, and company
is currently expanding) and challenging work (customer problems which require research
and deep digging to find the resolution).
Job Description
Job Title
Customer-Service Agent
Job Summary
Accountable for resolving questions (via e-mail and phone calls) regarding sales transactions
between buyers and sellers.
Relationships
Reports to: Customer service manager.

Works with: Other customer service agents and the employees in charge of stock-answer
database and fixing catalog errors.
External relationships: General public, i.e. buyers and sellers of products in an online
marketplace environment.
Qualifications
Education: High school graduate. Prefer completion of some college-level courses.

Work experience: Prior experience in dealing with the public, especially in the area of handling
customer complaints. Requires knowledge of the operation of personal computers and relevant
computer software.
Physical requirements: Ability to sit for extended periods of time in one location. Possess visual
and hearing acuity to perform job-related functions.
4-20
Essential Responsibilities
1. Responds to 60 – 100 routine and non-routine e-mail messages and phone calls regarding
sales transactions between buyers and sellers.
2. Resolves non-routine complaints related to the sales transactions by conducting the
necessary research to adequately resolve these complaints.
3. Performs trust and safety work that involves investigating sales transactions that may be
fraudulent.
4. Interacts with co-workers to exchange and provide information related to handling routine
complaints.
5. Attends required, recommended, or job-related training programs and/or seminars.
6. Responds to refund requests from buyers by verifying details of the transaction and if
valid, provides a refund to the buyer and charges the expense to the seller’s account.
7. Communicates the unavailability of a specific book to the employee in charge of fixing
catalog errors.
4-21

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Chapter 04 – Job Analysis

Compensation 11th Edition Milkovich

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approach to job analysis in the current environment. Several criteria—reliability, validity,

Lecture Outline: Overview of Major Topics

I. Structures Based on Jobs, People, or Both

Lecture Outline: Summary of Key Chapter Points

I. Structures Based on Jobs, People, or Both

II. Job Based Approach: Most Common

Definition: Job analysis is the systematic process of collecting information that

A. Why perform job analysis?

III. Job Analysis Procedures

IV. What Information Should Be Collected?

A. Job Data: Identification

B. Job Data: Content

• A more nuanced view of “communication” focuses on the nature of the

D. “Essential Elements” and the Americans with Disabilities Act

V. How Can the Information Be Collected?

C. Who Collects the Information?

D. Who Provides the Information?

hence, they are the principal sources.

E. What about Discrepancies?

VI. Job Descriptions Summarize the Data

A. Using Generic Job Descriptions

B. Describing Managerial/Professional Jobs

C. Verify the Description

VII. Job Analysis: Bedrock or Bureaucracy?

VIII. Job Analysis and Globalization

A. Job Analysis and Susceptibility to Offshoring

o There are productivity differences across countries as well, meaning that

B. Job Analysis Information and Comparability across Borders

IX. Judging Job Analysis

• The outcome of a job analysis depends to an important degree on who conducts

o The response to inadequate analysis ought not to be to dump the analysis;

Answers to Review Questions

2. What does job analysis have to do with internal alignment?

3. Describe the major decisions involved in job analysis.

The decisions include:

o Identifying training needs

4. Distinguish between task data and behavioral data.

5. What is the critical advantage of quantitative approaches over conventional

The quantitative approach, which involves the use of an online questionnaire or an

6. How would you decide whether to use job-based or person-based structures?

Your Turn: The Customer-Service Agent

Discussion of Case Questions

1. Does the day diary include sufficient information?

Student responses will vary.

Student responses will vary.

A suggested process could include the following steps:

3. What are some of the relational returns of the job?

Reports to: Customer service manager.

Education: High school graduate. Prefer completion of some college-level courses.

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