Ch 3: Job Analysis Flashcards
Framework for Industrial Psychology
Job Analysis
- > Job Evaluation > Compensation
- > Job Description
a. > Criterion development + Performance Appraisal + Job design/redesign + Training
b. *Job Specifications - > Job Specifications > Selection + Placement

Job Analysis
The process of defining a job in terms of its component tasks or duties and the knowledge or skills required to perform them.
Element
In job analysis, the smallest unit of work activity.
Task
A work activity that is performed to achieve a specific objective.
Position
An individual’s place in the organization defined by the tasks performed.
Job
A collection of positions similar enough to one another to share a common job title.
KSAOs
The knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that are required for successful job performance.
Levels of Work Activity
Job Title:
Instructor
Position:
Professor of Psychology
Task:
Lecture
Element:
Prepare Lesson Outline
Task-Oriented
Approaches to job analysis that focus on describing the various tasks that are performed on the job.
Worker-Oriented
Approaches to job analysis that examine broad human behaviors involved in work activities.
Task Inventory Approach
Task-oriented approach that uses task statements generated by experts familiar with the job in question.
Subject Matter Experts
SMEs
Individuals who participate in job analyses as a result of their expertise.
Incumbents
Employees who are currently occupying the job of interest.
Functional Job Analysis
FJA
A highly structured task-oriented approach developed by Sidney Fine in which data are obtained about what tasks a worker does and how those tasks are performed.
Job Element Method
JEM
(Worker-Oriented Techniques)
A worker-oriented approach to job analysis that was designed to identify the characteristics of superior workers in a particular job.
JEM’s aim is to directly connect job analysis to the selection context by identifying KSAOs that are necessary for successful job performance.
Con: JEM ignores the specific job tasks, making it difficult to demonstrate that a particular element is related to a job.
Job analysis should remain focused on OBSERVABLES instead of hypothetical traits or characteristics.
Position Analysis Questionnaire
PAQ
(Worker-Oriented Techniques)
A widely used job analysis instrument that focuses on general work behaviors.
PAQ Dimensions
- Information input
- Mental Processes
- Work output
- Relationships with other persons
- Job context
- Other job characteristics
Cons: reading level is college level, not well suited for managerial jobs, and too abstract.

Common-Metric Questionnaire
CMQ
A worker-oriented job analysis instrument that attempts to improve the generalizability of worker-oriented approaches through the use of items focused on slightly less general work behaviors.
O*NET
Occupational Information Network initiative data gathering in various ways
hybrid approach as it focuses simultaneously on both the work and the worker.

Strategic Job Analysis
An approach to job analysis that considers the status of jobs as they currently exist but also factors in how jobs are likely to change in the future as a result of anticipated organizational or industry changes.
Job Description
As an outcome of job analysis, a written statement of what job holders actually do, how they do it, and why they do it.
Job Specifications
An outcome of job analysis delineating the KSAOs deemed necessary to perform a job; often called job specs.
Job Evaluation
As an outcome of job analysis, a technique that attempts to determine the value or worth of particular jobs to organizations so that salaries can be set accordingly.
Point System
The most common approach to job evaluation, which involves estimating the value of jobs based on points assigned to various predetermined dimensions.
Compensable Factors
Dimensions or factors that are used to rate jobs, indicating that employees are compensated based on these factors.
Examples include:
effort, skill, responsibility, and working conditions.
Perfect/Imperfect Wage Equity Plot

Comparable Worth
A doctrine maintaining that jobs of equal (or comparable) worth to the organization should be compensated equally.