Job Analysis

Module 3: Job Analysis: Fundamental

2
Properties & Practices
 Job analysis
 Process that determines the important tasks of a job and the
human attributes necessary to successfully perform those
tasks
 Job Analysis is a process to identify and determine in detail
the particular job duties and requirements and the relative
importance of these duties for a given job. Job Analysis is a
process where judgements are made about data collected on
a job.

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 Uses of Job Analysis Information
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Job description Workforce reduction

Recruiting
Criterion development
Selection

Training Performance assessment

Latigation
Compensation

Promotion
  Job analysis aims to answer questions such as:

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 Why does the job exist?
 What physical and mental activities does the worker undertake?
 When is the job to be performed?
 Where is the job to be performed?
 How does the worker do the job?
 What qualifications are needed to perform the job?
5 Brief History of Job Analysis

 1922 – Morris Viteles & job psychograph

 Used in job analysis to display mental requirements of a job
6

Job Psychograph
7 Types of Job Analysis

Task-oriented job analysis

 Begins with statement of actual tasks &
what is accomplished by those tasks

Worker-oriented job analysis

 Focuses on attributes of the worker
necessary to accomplish tasks
8 KSAOs

 Knowledge
 Collection of discrete, related facts & information about a particular domain

 Skill
 Practiced act

 Ability
 Stable capacity to engage in a specific behavior

 Other characteristics: interests, training, etc.

9 Role of Job Analysis in
Assessment
 Who provides information about the job?
10 1. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
(a) Job Incumbents
(b) Supervisors
2. Others who come in contact with the worker or job.
(a) Clients or customers
(b) People in other organizational units
3. The Job Analyst
4. Written Sources of Information
(a) Existing job descriptions
(b) Training Manuals
(c) Performance Appraisal Materials
(i) But, these may reflect people’s opinions about the job, rather than what the job really
involves.
(d) Previous job analyses.
11 Subject Matter Expert

 The Subject Matter Expert is that individual who exhibits the highest level of expertise in
performing a specialized job, task, or skill within the organization.

 An SME might be a software engineer, a helpdesk support operative, an accounts

manager, a scientific researcher: in short, anybody with in-depth knowledge of the subject
you are attempting to document.
 A subject-matter expert (SME) or domain expert is a person who is an authority in a
particular area or topic.
 Employee who provide information about a job in a job analysis interview or survey
12 Potential distorting influences
in JA
 Need of subject matter expert (SME) to
conform to what others report
 Desire to make one’s job look more difficult
 Attempts to provide answers that SME
thinks job analyst wants
 Carelessness
13 How Job Analysis is Done

1. Observation
2. Interviews: Incumbent, Supervisor
3. Critical incidents & work diaries
4. Questionnaires/surveys
15 Job Analysis:
Newer Developments
 Electronic performance monitoring
 Can be cost effective Siede Preis/Getty Images

 Potential for providing detailed &

accurate worklog
 e.g., “This call may be monitored for
quality control purposes.”
16 Cognitive Task Analysis (newer
development cont.)
 Cognitive task analysis (CTA) is a set of methods for identifying
cognitive skills, or mental demands, needed to perform a task
proficiently.
 Time consuming & requires a good deal of expertise to do well
 Think-aloud protocol
 A precursor of cognitive task analysis technique
 Approach that investigates thought processes of experts who achieve
high levels of performance
17 Context of Work (cont.)

 Conditions or characteristics of work that can change demands on

the incumbent
 Aspects of context
 Interpersonal relationships
 Physical work conditions
 Structural job characteristics

 Realistic job preview (RJP)

 Technique for providing practical information about a job to
prospective employee; includes information about the task and
context of the work
18 New Addition to
Job Analysis Instruments
 Personality based job analysis
 Personality-Related Position Requirements Form (PPRF)

 Devoted to identifying personality predictors of job performance

 Intended to supplement job analysis
 Summary of Job Analysis Process
20

1. The more information gathered from the

greatest number of sources, the better
the job analyst can understand the job

2. Most job analyses should include

considerations of personality demands
& work context
 Computer based job analysis:
 As computer technology has expanded, researchers have developed computerized job analysis
systems. They all have several common characteristics, including the way they are administered.
 First, analysts compose task statements that relate to all jobs. They are then distributed as
questionnaires that list the task statements.
 Next, employee responses on computer-scannable documents are fed into computer-based scoring
and reporting services capable of recording, analyzing, and reporting thousands of pieces of
information about any job.
 An important feature of computerized job analysis sources is the specificity of data that can be
gathered. All of this specific data is compiled into a job analysis database.
 A computerized job analysis system often can reduce the time and effort involved in writing job
descriptions.
 These systems have banks of job duty statements that relate to each of the task and scope statements
of the questionnaires.
 As is evident, the melding of computer technology with job analysis methodology allows firms to
develop more accurate and comprehensive job descriptions, linked to compensation programs, and
performance appraisal systems. These processes can also provide better data for legal defensibility
than was once available.
Computer based
Job Anaylsis
O * Net

 The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is a free online database that contains
hundreds of occupational definitions to help students, job seekers, businesses and
workforce development professionals to understand today's world of work
 It was developed under the sponsorship of the US Department of Labor/Employment and
Training Administration (USDOL/ETA) through a grant to the North Carolina Employment
Security Commission (now part of the NC Commerce Department) during the 1990s
O * Net (Cont.)
 From 1938 to the 1990s, vocational lists and employment matching offered by the U.S.
government were available through the book, The Dictionary of Occupational Titles or the
DOT.
 The DOT was first published in 1938 and "emerged in an industrial economy and
emphasized blue-collar jobs.
 its usefulness waned as the economy shifted toward information and services and away
from heavy industry
 With the shift in the economy, plans developed to replace the book format of the DOT with
an online database. A limited use, preliminary version was released in December 1997,
followed by a public edition in December 1998
 The O*NET system varies from the DOT in a number of ways. It is a digital database
which offers a "flexible system, allowing users to reconfigure data to meet their needs" as
opposed to the "fixed format" of the DOT; it reflects the employment needs of an
Information society rather than an Industrial society; costs the government and users much
less than a printed book would, and is easier to update as new data is collected
O * Net (Cont.)

For each job, O*NET provides the following information:

 Personal requirements: the skills and knowledge required to perform the work
 Personal characteristics: the abilities, interests and values needed to perform the work
 Experience requirements: the training and level of licensing and experience needed for the
work
 Job requirements: the work activities and context, including the physical, social, and
organizational factors involved in the work
 Labor market: the occupational outlook and the pay scale for the work
26 O*NET Data Bases

Figure 5.12
Data Bases Forming the Foundation for O*NET
Source: Mumford & Peterson (1999).

Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Competency Modeling

Competencies are the measurable or observable knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors
(KSABs) critical to successful job performance. Choosing the right competencies allows
employers to:
 Plan how they will organize and develop their workforce.
 Determine which job classes best fit their business needs.
 Recruit and select the best employees.
 Manage and train employees effectively.
 Develop staff to fill future vacancies.
Examples of Competencies

Competency Types
 Knowledge Competencies - practical or theoretical understanding of subjects.
 Skill and Ability Competencies - natural or learned capacities to perform acts.
 Behavioral Competencies - patterns of action or conduct.
29 Competency Modeling
 Competency modeling is typically defined as the identification, definition, and
measurement of the KSAOs that are needed to perform successfully on the job
(Bartram, 2004; Schippmann, et al., 2000).
 Competency modeling can be carried out using a few different approaches, but
the most common are the individual job level and the organization level
(Mansfield, 1996)
 Identifies characteristics desired across all individuals & jobs within an
organization
 Connects individuals with organizational viability & profitability

 Natural extension of job analysis logic, rather than a replacement

Job evaluation

 A job evaluation is a systematic way of determining the value/worth of a job in relation to

other jobs in an organization. It tries to make a systematic comparison between jobs to
assess their relative worth for the purpose of establishing a rational pay structure.
 Job evaluation needs to be differentiated from job analysis.
 Job analysis is a systematic way of gathering information about a job.
 Every job evaluation method requires at least some basic job analysis in order to provide
factual information about the jobs concerned. Thus, job evaluation begins with job analysis
and ends at that point where the worth of a job is ascertained for achieving pay equity
between jobs.
31 Job Evaluation, Comparable
Worth, & the Law
 Job evaluation: Method
for making internal pay
decisions by comparing job titles to one another
& determining their relative merit

 Compensable factors
 Skills, responsibility, effort, & working conditions

 Equal Pay Act of 1963: requires “equal

pay for equal work.”
Benefits of job Evaluation
 It tries to link pay with the requirements of the job.
 It offers a systematic procedure for determining the relative worth of jobs. Jobs are ranked on
the basis of rational criteria such as skill, education, experience, responsibilities, hazards, etc.,
and are priced accordingly.
 An equitable wage structure is a natural outcome of job evaluation. An unbiased job evaluation
tends to eliminate salary inequities by placing jobs having similar requirements in the same
salary range.
 Employees as well as unions participate as members of job evaluation committees, while
determining rate grades for different jobs. This helps in solving wage related grievances
quickly.
 Job evaluation, when conducted properly and with care, helps in the evaluation of new jobs.
 It points out possibilities of more appropriate use of the plant's labour force by indicating jobs
that need more or less skilled workers than those who are manning these jobs currently.
33 Job Analysis & Employment
Litigation
 Competent job analysis does not guarantee
validity, but absence of credible job analysis
could be very damaging

 Growing gap between evolution of I-O

psychology & Uniform Guidelines on Employee
Selection Procedures (1978)
C. Sherburne/PhotoLink/Getty Images

 SIOP Principles (2003) are more updated and

consistent with current research