2: Job Analysis

Question 1

What is Campbell’s Model of Job Performance?

Answer 1

This model is a valuable middle ground between an overly simplistic view of performance as a single broad factor and an equally idiosyncratic view that there can be no general understanding of job performance beyond the particular job being considered because every job is different.

Campbell’s model also helps I-O psychologists to concentrate on aspects of work behaviour that are under the direct control of the worker.

Question 2

Define Performance

Answer 2

Actions or behaviours relevant to the organisation’s goals; measured in terms of each individual’s proficiency.

Question 3

Define Workers’ Productivity

Answer 3

The ratio of effectiveness (output) to the cost of achieving that level of effectiveness .

Question 4

Define Worker’s Effectiveness

Answer 4

Evaluation of the results of performance; often controlled by factors beyond the actions of an individual.

Question 5

What are the determinants of performance?

Answer 5

Causes that shape performance:
1. Indirect Influences: ability, personality, training, experience
-> Declarative knowledge (DK)
Understanding what is required to perform a task; knowing information about a job or task.
-> Procedural knowledge and skill (PKS)
Knowing how to perform a job or task; often developed through practice and experience.

2. Motivation:
   concerns the conditions responsible for variation in intensity, persistence, quality and direction of behaviour

Question 6

What are the components of performance? (by John Campbell & Colleagues)

Answer 6

first 3 are present in every job while the other 5 vary: Procedural Knowledge/skill of Cause of Performance

1. Job-specific task proficiency
   An individual’s capacity to perform the core substantive or technical tasks central to the job.
2. Demonstrating effort
   The consistency of an individual’s effort; the frequency with which people will expend extra effort when required; the willingness to keep working under adverse conditions.

3. Maintaining personal discipline
The extent to which an individual avoids negative behaviour 
a. excessive absenteeism, 
b. alcohol or substance abuse, 
c. law/rules infractions

4. Non-job-specific task proficiency
   An individual’s capacity to perform tasks or execute performance behaviours that are not specific to his or her particular job.
5. Written and oral communication task proficiency
   An individual’s proficiency in writing and speaking, independent of the correctness of the subject matter.
6. Facilitating peer and team performance
   The extent to which an individual
   a. supports peers,
   b. helps peers with problems,
   c. helps keep a workgroup goal-directed,
   d. acts as a role model for peers and the workgroup.
7. Supervision/leadership
   Proficiency at influencing the performance of subordinates through face-to-face interpersonal interaction and influence.
8. Management/administration
   Behaviour directed at articulating for the unit, organising people and resources, monitoring progress, helping to solve problems that might prevent goal accomplishment, controlling expenses, obtaining additional resources, and dealing with other units.

Question 7

How do Maximium and Typical Performance differ?

Answer 7

1. Goal setting induces while Low Confidence reduces Maximum Performance
2. When performance is complex, most important areas show max performance while the less impt ones show typical performance
3. Maximum performance is influenced by cognitive ability and formal knowledge while typical performance is influenced by personality.

Question 8

Define Criterion deficiency

Answer 8

A situation that occurs when an actual criterion is missing information that is part of the behaviour one is trying to measure.

Question 9

What is Criterion contamination?

Answer 9

A situation that occurs when an actual criterion includes information unrelated to the behaviour one is trying to measure.

Question 10

What is the Ultimate Criterion?

Answer 10

Ultimate criterion: Ideal measure of all the relevant aspects of job performance.

Question 11

What is an Actual Criterion?

Answer 11

Actual criterion: Actual measure of job performance obtained.

Question 12

what is organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB)?

Answer 12

behaviour that goes beyond what is expected on the job, including extra-role behaviours and generalised compliance

Question 13

what is Task performance?

Answer 13

Proficiency with which job incumbents perform activities that are formally recognized as a part of their job.

Question 14

what is generalised compliance?

Answer 14

Behaviour that is helpful to the broader organisation, such as upholding company rules.

Question 15

What is counterproductive work behaviours

Answer 15

Counterproductive work behaviour (CWB): Voluntary behaviour that violates significant organisational norms and threatens the well-being of the organisation, its members, or both.

Question 16

What are the common CWB?

Answer 16

1. Dishonesty: Employee theft of goods and time (arriving late, leaving early, taking unnecessary sick days) or dishonest communications with customers, co-workers, or management.
   - > Lower productivity by raising the cost of production, lowering output, or both
   - > Likely caused by feelings of inequity
2. Absenteeism: involves the failure of an employee to report for or remain at work as scheduled.
3. Sabotage: Acts that damage, disrupt, or subvert the organisation’s operations for personal purposes of the saboteur by creating unfavourable publicity,
   - > damage to property,
   - > destruction of working relationships,
   - > harming employees or customers.
   eg. Lordstown syndrome: Act of sabotage named after a General Motors plant plagued with acts of sabotage.

Question 17

What is Adaptive Performance?

Answer 17

1. a new component that can be added to Campbell’s performance model.
2. occupations vary in the extent to which adaptability is required and in the type of adaptive performance threat is most critical.
   a. Handling Emergencies: reacting with appropriate urgency in life-threatening situations, quick analysis and decision-making, maintain emotional control and objectivity
   b. handling work stress: remaining calm, creating constructive solutions and act as a calming influence
   c. solving problems creatively
   d. dealing with uncertain work situations
   e. learning work tasks, technologies etc
   f. Demonstrating interpersonal adaptability
   g. cultural adaptability (group, organisations or cultures)
   h. physicall oriented adaptability

Question 18

What are the different types of performance indicators? How would they fare under Campbell’s model

Answer 18

1. objective measures, 
Usually a quantitative count of the results of work, 
-> sales volume, 
-> complaint letters, 
-> output.

2. judgmental measures, and
   Evaluation made of the effectiveness of an individual’s work behaviour; judgement is most often made by supervisors in the context of a performance evaluation.
3. personnel measures.
   Measure typically kept in a personnel file, including absences, accidents, tardiness, rate of advancement, disciplinary actions, and commendations of meritorious behaviour.

objective and personnel measures would fail as they are not under complete control of the worker or not actual behaviours.

Question 19

What is Job Analysis?

Answer 19

Process that determines the important tasks of a job and the human attributes necessary to successfully perform those tasks

attempts to develop a theory of human behaviour about the job in question. This theory includes performance expectations as well as the experience and KSAOs necessary to meet those expectations.

seeks to define jobs and work in terms of the match between required tasks and human attributes

Question 20

What are the purposes of Job Analysis?

Answer 20

job description, recruiting, selection, training, compensation, job design, criterion development, and performance assessment.

Question 21

What is a Job Description?

Answer 21

very useful for recruiting.

list of:
type of tasks carried out,
required worker attributes,
training and experience requirements.

Question 22

What is Recruiting?

Answer 22

If we know what the job requires and which human attributes are necessary to fulfil those requirements [Job Description], we can target our recruiting efforts to specific groups of potential candidates.

For technical jobs, these groups might be defined by credentials (a bachelor’s degree in engineering) or experience (five years of programming in C).

Question 23

What is Selection?

Answer 23

Based on the job analysis, we know the attributes most likely to predict success in a job, we can identify and choose (or develop) the actual assessment tools.

• > a personality test that measures the Big Five,
• > a commercially available test of general mental ability,
• > an interview format intended to get at some subtle aspects of technical knowledge or experience.

Question 24

What is Training?

Answer 24

helps identify the areas of performance that create the greatest challenge for incumbents → pre-assignment or post-assignment training opportunities.

automobile manufacturing subassembly: one of the most troublesome tasks is installing the dashboard console without pinching the bundled wiring that powers the displays on that dash. Newly hired assembly-line workers who will be assigned to that subassembly task should receive specific training modules designed to help them perform this task better.

Modules can also be prepared for the line supervisors who direct that subassembly operation so that they can follow up the initial training with online coaching.

Question 25

What is Compensation?

Answer 25

identifies the major performance components and expectations for each job →
management placing a monetary value to the organisational mission on each of those components.

Management can also determine the level of performance expected on each of those components for each job in the organisation as a way of identifying the comparative value of each job.

These components and levels of performance can then help set the budget for the organisation’s human resources.

eg.
An organisation may decide, for example, that rapidly changing technology makes its market so unstable that it will place a higher value on demonstrated individual adaptability and non-job-specific task proficiency (as defined above in Campbell’s model) and less value on written and oral task communication proficiency or the maintenance of personal discipline (from Campbell’s model).
This means that jobs that depend heavily on the first two performance
components will pay better than jobs with heavy concentrations of the latter components.

Question 26

What is a Promotion/Job Assignment?

Answer 26

The concept of a job ladder or job family is based on the observation that a particular job may have closer connections to a subset of other jobs than to a job chosen at random. A cluster of positions that are similar in terms of the human attributes needed to be successful in those positions or in terms of the tasks that are carried out.

Job analysis permits the identification of clusters of positions that are similar, either in terms of the human attributes needed to be successful at them or in terms of the tasks carried out in those jobs. This in turn allows the organisation to identify logical career paths and the possibility of transfer from one career ladder to another.

Question 27

What is Job Design?

Answer 27

A comprehensive job analysis can assist in design changes for eliminating or automating tasks in a job.

1. tasks that are particularly dangerous (e.g., welding and auto body in the assembly process)
2. associated with high-performance failures (e.g., preparing neonatal feeding solutions in which minute differences in ingredients could harm, or even kill, a newborn baby).
3. advisable to automate tasks associated with an inefficient use of workers’ time.

Question 28

What is Workforce Reduction/Restructuring?

Answer 28

Mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, and rightsizing are all terms that imply job changes—often involuntary ones on the part of the employees.

Mergers and acquisitions call for identifying duplicate positions and centralising functions. The challenge is to identify which positions are truly redundant and which provide a unique added value.

downsizing interventions, positions with somewhat related tasks are often consolidated into a single position. The job descriptions of those who stay with the organisation are enlarged, with the result that fewer people assume more responsibilities.

both scenarios: management’s key role in deciding which tasks to fold into which positions; detailed job analyses provide a template for making these decisions rationally.

Question 29

What is Criterion Development?

Answer 29

Criterion: behaviour that constitutes or defines the successful performance of a given task. It is the outcome variable in criterion-related validity studies.

Predictor variables such as scores on a test of mental ability are correlated with criterion measures to demonstrate that those scores are valid predictors of probable job success.

In content-related validity studies, the I-O psychologist establishes logical links between important task-based characteristics of the job and the assessment used to choose among candidates. It is the job analysis that provides the raw material for criterion development.

For example, in a criterion-related validity study of a problem-solving test for software engineers, a job analysis might tell us that one of the engineer’s most common and important tasks is to identify a flaw in a software program. As a result, we might then develop a measure of the extent to which the engineer does consistently identify the flaw without asking for assistance. This measure might be in the form of a rating scale of “troubleshooting” to be completed by the engineer’s supervisor. We would then have both the predictor score and a criterion score for calculating a validity coefficient.

Question 30

What is Performance Evaluation?

Answer 30

Once the job analyst identifies critical performance components of a job, it is possible to develop a system for evaluating the extent to which
an individual worker has fallen short of, met, or exceeded the standards set by the organisation for performance on those components.

Question 31

What is Litigation?

Answer 31

When tests or other assessment practises are challenged in court, the employer must provide evidence that the test or assessment practice is valid or job-related, regardless of what validity model (e.g., criterion/content/construct) is used.

The first step in such a defence is demonstrating that the employer truly knows which critical tasks define the job in question, as well as the attributes necessary to perform those tasks. Job analysis information is the easiest way to demonstrate that knowledge base.

Job analysis can be used to distinguish between those workers entitled to overtime pay (i.e., non-exempt) and those who are not (exempt). This is an important distinction because exempt status is the crux of many lawsuits involving the right to overtime pay.

Question 32

What are the different approaches to Job Analysis?

Answer 32

Step 1:

1. Task-oriented job analysis: Approach that begins with a statement of the actual tasks as well as what is accomplished by those tasks.
   ●activity category,
   ●importance,
   ●frequency
2. Worker-oriented job analysis: Approach that focuses on the attributes of the worker necessary to accomplish the tasks.
   KSAOs: Individual attributes of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that are required to successfully perform job tasks.
   ● Knowledge: “a collection of discrete but related facts and information about a particular domain . . . acquired through formal education or training, or accumulated through specific experiences” (Peterson, Mumford, Borman, Jeanneret, & Fleishman, 1999, p. 71)
   ● Skill: a practised act, or the capacity to perform a specific task or job duty (Gatewood, Feild, & Barrick, 2011; Harvey, 1991)
   ● Ability: the stable capacity to engage in a specific behaviour
   ● Other characteristics: personality variables, interests, training, and experience

Step 2:
identify the KSAOs that an incumbent needs for performing the tasks or executing the human behaviours described in the job analysis

Step 3:
Develop Assessment Devices

Question 33

What are the ways to obtain job analysis information?

Answer 33

1. Critical incident technique: Approach in which subject matter experts (SMEs) are asked to identify critical aspects of behaviour or performance in a particular job that led to success or failure.
2. Interviewing job incumbent
3. Direct observation
4. Spying
5. Work participation/job try out
6. Self-report
   - >Questionnaire
   - > Work diary: Job analysis approach that requires workers and/or supervisors to keep a log of their activities over a prescribed period of time.
7. Interviewing SMEs
8. Work on an existing database.

Question 34

What is Electronic performance monitoring?

Answer 34

facilitates the gathering of job analysis information independent of what might be collected from subject matter experts (SMEs). Although electronic performance monitoring can be very cost-effective and has the potential for providing detailed and accurate work logs, it is often unpopular with workers.

Question 35

What is a Cognitive task analysis ?

Answer 35

provides valuable addition to traditional job analysis procedures. Most job analyses concentrate on observable behaviour, but special data collection techniques must be used for cognitive behaviour because it is not directly observable, concentrating on how behaviour occurs rather than on what is accomplished.

Question 36

What is a Personality-Related Position Requirements Form?

Answer 36

Rationales

1. Jobs increasingly emphasise customer service and emotional labour
2. Personality is related to job performance

107 behavioural items mapping to Big-5
Eg. Agreeableness
“Listen attentively to the work-related problems of others.”
“Keep cool when confronted with conflicts.”
Eg. Conscientiousness
“See things that need to be done and do them without waiting for instructions.”

Three-point response scale
0 = not required,
1 = helpful,
2 = essential

Question 37

What is The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)?

Answer 37

a national database of jobs and job analysis information.

Question 38

What is Occupational Information Network, or O*NET?

Answer 38

collection of databases that contains information on experience requirements, work context, typical tasks and duties, wage expectations, requisite abilities, and basic skills.

Question 39

What is the Functional Job Analysis (FJA)?

Answer 39

Forms the basis for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)

Job analyst writes task statements using the following format:

1. (Not showing) Assumes the subject of the sentence is the worker
2. Action verb (e.g., “develops”, “prepares”, “assesses”)
3. Immediate objective of work (e.g., “in order to…”)
4. What and how the job is completed

Question 40

What is the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) [Task-oriented]?

Answer 40

Theoretical foundations

a. All jobs have common elements (e.g., behavioural requirements, work conditions)
b. These elements can be compared across jobs
c. A common set of worker attributes are required to perform jobs with similar elements

Worker-oriented

Provides taxonomic information in 195 elements under six divisions across jobs
1. Information input
2. Mental processes
3. Work output
4. Relationship with other persons
5. Job context (physical & social environment)
6. Other job characteristics (e.g., structure/scheduling)
A standardised instrument (not in the public domain)

Rate on six aspects on a 5-point scale on different areas when applicable (plus a “does not apply” response)
1. Importance to the job
2. Extent of use
3. Amount of time
4. Applicability
5. Possibility of occurrence
6. A special code for certain job
Can translate ratings into KSAOs

Question 41

What is Competency Modelling?

Answer 41

seeks to define organisational units in terms of the match between the goals and missions of those units and the competencies required to meet those goals and accomplish those missions.

Bottom-up extension of Job Analysis (Top-Down)

The more information one can gather from the greatest number of sources, the better one’s understanding of the job is likely to be.

Task-based analyses tend to be less useful for many purposes than worker- or behaviour based analyses.

Most job analyses should include considerations of personality demands and work context; some job analyses should also include considerations of purely cognitive tasks.

Question 42

What are limitations of Job Analysis?

Answer 42

1. Different job analysts may come up with different interpretations
   —– Morgeson et al. (2004) → Looked at responses in a JA survey among office assistants (N=494) doing the competency and ability items version or the competency and task items version (plus bogus items)
   On frequency, importance, and required-at-entry (Likert scale)
   —–Endorsing more ability items than task items
   —–Inflating on non-essential ability but not on the nonessential task items
   not found among supervisors or job analysts
2. Different workers may respond to the questionnaire according to different benchmarks
3. Systematic psychological errors
4. Personal Biases
   —-Aguinis, Mazukiewicz, and Heggestad (2009): Sources of biases identified in PPRF ratings
   ——a. Self-serving biases and social projection
   ——-b. Web-based frame of reference training
   In the form of questionnaire instructions moving the rating frames from respondents themselves to people working in the job

A field experiment was conducted
Randomly assign participants into FoR group or standard instructions
Completed big-five measures and PPRF
Results
Correlations between respondents’ big-five traits and PPRF
dropped from .27 to .07 (admin assistants) and .30 to .09 (supervisors)
The strongest training effect: openness to experience

5. task performance is not a sufficiently holistic assessment of job performance
Adaptive Performance: Performance in face of changes in the environment → Typology developed by Pulakos et al. (2000)
1. Handing emergency
2. Handling work stress
3. Creative problem solving
4. Proactive learning
5. Dealing with uncertainty
6. Interpersonal adaptability
7. Cultural adaptability
8. Physical adaptability

6. Destructive (Counterproductive Work) behaviours
   Behaviours violating the organisational norms and threatening organisational well-being
   Can be for self-gains, organisational gains, or destructive
   Manifested as Dishonesty, absenteeism, sabotage
   The feeling of injustice is an important antecedent of CWB
   Personality matters as well E.g., Negative affect, anger, narcissism, low humility
7. Organisational-citizenship behaviours (Extra-role behaviours)
   Working beyond job descriptions that is beneficial to the organisation
   Altruism: Helping other colleagues in the organisation
   Generalised compliance: Behaviour helpful to the organisation generally
   More likely to occur among:
   Jobs high in autonomy
   High on agreeableness and conscientiousness of the Big-5
   But maybe harmful when the job emphasises following strict rules and procedures

Question 43

What are Compensable factors?

Answer 43

Factors in a job evaluation system that are given points that are later linked to compensation for various jobs within the organisation; factors usually include skills, responsibility, effort, and working conditions.

Question 44

What is Comparable worth?

Answer 44

Notion that people who are performing jobs of comparable worth to the organisation should receive comparable pay

Ignores market conditions and usual practises

Question 45

What is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Answer 45

Federal legislation that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin, which define what is known as protected groups. Prohibits not only intentional discrimination but also practices that have the unintentional effect of discriminating against individuals because of their race, colour, national origin, religion, or sex.