HUMAN RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT

(3)
Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
Work Flow In Organizations
Developing a Work Flow Analysis
 Work Flow Design and
Organization’s Structure
• Within an organization, units and individuals must
cooperate to create outputs.
• The organization’s structure brings together the people
who must collaborate to efficiently produce the desired
outputs.
– Centralized (degree to which decision making
authority resides at the top of the organizational
chart)
– Decentralized
– Functional
– Product or Service and Customer
Job Analysis
• The process of
getting detailed
information
about jobs.
 Job Descriptions
• Job Description: a list of tasks, duties,
and responsibilities that a particular job
entails.
• Key components:
– Job Title
– Brief description of the job
– List of the essential duties with detailed
specifications of the tasks involved in carrying
out each duty
Sample Job Description
 Job Specifications
• Job Specification: a list of the knowledge,
skills, abilities, and other characteristics
(KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform
a particular job.
– Knowledge: factual or procedural information
necessary for successfully performing a task.
– Skill: an individual’s level of proficiency at performing
a particular task.
– Ability: a more general enduring capability that an
individual possesses.
– Other Characteristics: job-related licensing,
certifications, or personality traits.
Sample Job Specifications
 Position Analysis Questionnaire
(PAQ)
What is it? Key sections:
• A standardized job 1. Information input
analysis questionnaire 2. Mental processes
containing 194 3. Work output
questions about work
behaviors, work 4. Relationships with
conditions, and job other persons
characteristics that 5. Job context
apply to a wide variety 6. Other characteristics
of jobs.
Fleishman Job Analysis System

What is it? Categories of abilities:

• Job analysis technique • Written
that asks subject- comprehension
matter experts to • Deductive reasoning
evaluate a job in terms • Manual dexterity
of the abilities required
• Stamina
to perform the job.
• Originality
 Importance of Job Analysis
• Almost every HRM program requires some type of
information determined by job analysis:
• Work redesign
• Human resource planning
• Selection
• Training
• Performance appraisal
• Career planning
• Job evaluation
 Trends in Job Analysis

• Organizations are being viewed as a field

of work needing to be done, rather than as
a set series of jobs held by individuals.
• “Dejobbing” – designing work by project
rather than jobs.
 Job Design
• Job Design: the process of defining how
work will be performed and what tasks will
be required in a given job.
• Job Redesign: a similar process that
involves changing an existing job design.
• To design jobs effectively, a person must
thoroughly understand:
– the job itself (through job analysis) and
– its place in the units work flow (work flow
analysis)
Approaches to Job Design
 Designing Efficient Jobs

• Industrial Engineering: the study of jobs

to find the simplest way to structure work
in order to maximize efficiency.
– Reduces the complexity of work.
– Allows almost anyone to be trained quickly
and easily perform the job.
– Used for highly specialized and repetitive
jobs.
Designing Jobs That Motivate: The Job
Characteristics Model

1. Skill variety – the extent to which a job

requires a variety of skills to carry out the
tasks involved.
2. Task identity – the degree to which a job
requires completing a “whole” piece of
work from beginning to end.
3. Task significance – the extent to which
the job has an important impact on the
lives of other people.
Designing Jobs that Motivate: The Job
Characteristics Model (continued)

4. Autonomy – the degree to which the job

allows an individual to make decisions
about the way work will be carried out.
5. Feedback - the extent to which a person
receives clear information about
performance effectiveness from the work
itself.
Characteristics of a Motivating Job
Designing Jobs That Motivate (continued):
Job Enlargement
 Designing Jobs That Motivate (continued)

Self-Managing Work
Job Enrichment Teams
• Empowering workers by • Have authority for an
adding more decision- entire work process or
making authority to jobs. segment:
– schedule work
• Based on Herzberg’s – hire team members
theory of motivation. – resolve team performance
problems
• Individuals are motivated
– perform other duties
more by the intrinsic traditionally handled by
aspects of work. management
• Team members motivated
by autonomy, skill variety,
and task identity.
Designing Jobs That Motivate (continued):
Flexible Work Schedules

Flextime Job Sharing

• A scheduling policy in • A work option in which
which full-time employees two part-time employees
may choose starting and carry out the tasks
ending times within
associated with a single
guidelines specified by
the organization. job.
• A work schedule that • Enables an organization
allows time for community to attract or retain valued
and family interests can employees who want
be extremely motivating. more time to attend
school or take care of
family matters.
Alternatives to the 8-to-5 Job
Designing Jobs That Motivate (continued):
Telework
• Telework – the broad term for doing one’s
work away from a centrally located office.
• Advantages to employers include:
– less need for office space
– greater flexibility to employees with special
needs
• Easiest to implement for managerial,
professional, or sales jobs.
• Difficult to set up for manufacturing
workers.
 Designing Ergonomic Jobs
• Ergonomics – the study of the interface
between individuals’ physiology and the
characteristics of the physical work
environment.
• The goal is to minimize physical strain on the
worker by structuring the physical work
environment around the way the human body
works.
• Redesigning work to make it more worker-
friendly can lead to increased efficiencies.
 Designing Jobs That Meet Mental
Capabilities and Limitations
• Work is designed to reduce the
information- processing requirements of
the job.
• Workers may be less likely to make
mistakes or have accidents.
• Simpler jobs may be less motivating.
• Technology tools may be distracting
employees from their primary task
resulting in increased mistakes and
accidents.
 Ways to Simplify a Job’s Mental
Demands
• Limit the amount of information and
memorization that the job requires.
• Organizations can provide:
– adequate lighting
– easy-to-read gauges and displays
– simple-to-operate equipment
– clear instructions
 Summary
• Work flow analysis identifies: • Job analysis includes preparation
– the amount and quality of a of :
work unit’s outputs – Job descriptions
– the work processes required to – Job specifications
produce these outputs • Information for analyzing an existing
– the inputs used to carry out the job often comes from incumbents
processes and produce the and their supervisors.
outputs
• Within an organization, units
and individuals must cooperate
to create outputs, and the
organization’s structure brings
people together for this
purpose.
• Job analysis is the process of
getting detailed information
about jobs.
 Summary (continued)
• The nature of work and job
design is changing.
– Viewing organizations in terms
of a field of work needing to be
done instead of specific job
descriptions
– Organizations are adopting
project-based structures and
teamwork, which also require
flexibility and the ability to
handle broad responsibilities.
• The basic technique for
designing efficient jobs is
industrial engineering.
• According to the Job
Characteristics Model, jobs are
more motivating if they have
greater skill variety, task
identity, task significance,
autonomy, and feedback.
• Ways to create such jobs
include:
– Job Enlargement
– Job Rotation
– Job Enrichment
– Self-managing work teams offer
greater skill variety and task
identity
– Flexible work schedules and
telework offer greater autonomy
 Summary (continued)
• The goal of ergonomics is to minimize physical
strain on the worker by structuring the physical
work environment around the way the human
body works.
• Employers may seek to reduce the mental as
well as physical strain.
– The job design may limit the amount of information
and memorization involved.
– The goal is to reduce errors and accidents.
– Technology tools may actually cause more
distractions, errors, and accidents.