Work Analysis

Question 1

What is the result of a job analysis?

Answer 1

a job description.

Question 2

Job analysis:

Answer 2

focused on analyzing existing jobs to gather information for other HR management practices such as selection, training, performance appraisal, and compensation.
Process of getting detailed information about jobs.

Question 3

Job design:

Answer 3

focused on redesigning existing jobs to make them more efficient or more motivating to jobholders.

Question 4

Job analysis vs. Job design:

Answer 4

Job design has a more proactive orientation toward changing the job, whereas job analysis has had a passive information gathering orientation.

Question 5

Work flow design:

Answer 5

process of analyzing the tasks necessary for the production of a product or service, prior to allocating and assigning these tasks to a particular job category or person.

Question 6

Organization structure:

Answer 6

refers to the relatively stable and formal network of vertical and horizontal interconnections among jobs that constitute the organization.

Question 7

“Work” vs. “Job”

Answer 7

Job is a collection of tasks, duties, and responsibilities. Work is broader, includes other aspects such as skills.

Question 8

Work analysis:

Answer 8

concept that is broader and more inclusive than job analysis, which refers generally to the analysis of work for the purposes of defining and codifying various tasks and duties into a stable job description.

Question 9

Link between strategy and job design?

Answer 9

Essential to the success of a firm.
Car example: manufacturers reorganized work from a mechanistic approach (assembly lines) to a motivational approach (self directed work teams).
This change allowed manufacturers to make and assemble more varied types of cars.
Car companies had to figure out how to design work that didn’t take away motivation, but was more efficient. Figured out groups/teams were better than assembly lines.

Question 10

Volvo motivation story:

Answer 10

'’I want the people in a team to be able to go home at night and really say, ‘I built that car,’ ‘ ‘‘That is my dream.’’
This is highly representative of a motivational approach to work design.
How work is designed should be influenced by and supportive of a firm’s business strategy, culture and broader approach to managing human resources. At Volvo, there has long been a people-oriented culture, and the relatively early move toward a team-based motivational approach to work design is no big surprise.

Question 11

How is work analysis/design tied to business strategy?

Answer 11

Mechanistic: maximize efficiency.
Biological: ergonomics, work conditions.
Motivational: Volvo

Question 12

Importance of work-flow analysis:

Answer 12

it tells HR managers and line managers what tasks are needed to produce a firms products and/or services, and what qualifications are necessary to perform those tasks.
Provides a means for the manager to understand all the tasks required to produce a number of high quality products as well as the skills necessary to perform those tasks.

Question 13

Work flow analysis:

Answer 13

(Raw units + equipment + HR) to (Activity) to (Output)

Question 14

Task:

Answer 14

distinct work activity with a specific purpose.

Question 15

Job:

Answer 15

collection of tasks.

Question 16

Job family:

Answer 16

group of jobs with similar characteristics, such as the engineering job family in an organization.

Question 17

Occupation:

Answer 17

Higher level than a job, a profession.

Question 18

Job description:

Answer 18

A list of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDRs) that a job entails. TDRs are observable actions.
It is important to balance breadth and specificity when constructing job descriptions.
Usually, a job description will also include the following types of information: 1. Job Title, 2. Job Activities & Procedures, 3. Working Conditions & Physical Environment, 4. Social Environment, and 5. Conditions of Employment.

Question 19

Job specification:

Answer 19

A list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform the job.
Knowledge: factual (declarative) knowledge or procedural information that is necessary for successfully performing a task.
Skill: an individual’s level of proficiency at performing a particular task.
Ability: refers to a more general enduring capability that an individual possesses.
Other characteristics might be personality traits such as one’s achievement motivation or persistence.

Job specifications identify the essential elements of a job – those tasks that can not be re-assigned to someone else in a different position. These can be used as guidelines for recruitment, selection and placement – and they may be included in a job description or they may be in a separate document.

Question 20

Two approaches to work analysis:

Answer 20

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET)

Question 21

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ):

Answer 21

A standardized job‑analysis questionnaire containing 194 items representing work behaviors, work conditions, or job characteristics that are generalizable across a wide variety of jobs.

The PAQ has six sections – it analyzes six features of a job:

• information input
• relationships
• mental processes
• job context
• work output
• other characteristics.

It measures these aspects of a job using 194 questions or items. This is a standardized tool that can be used across different job types and across different industries and organizations. The person filling out the survey is asked whether each of the 194 items applies to the job under consideration – and does so using six different scales. These scores are then submitted to a computer analysis at PAQ headquarters.

Research has indicated that the PAQ measures 32 specific dimensions and 12 more global overall dimensions of jobs (listed above). The PAQ database has linked scores on certain dimensions to scores on subtests of the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB).
Knowing the dimension scores provides some guidance regarding the types of abilities that are necessary to perform the job. Obviously, this technique provides information about the work performed in a format that allows for comparisons across jobs, whether those jobs are similar or dissimilar. Another advantage of the PAQ is that it covers the work context as well as inputs, outputs, and processes.

It is both standardized and comprehensive. But it has limitations and weaknesses. It is long and time consuming. Evaluating 194 questions along six different dimensions is a big deal. Moreover, the PAQ is accordingly relatively complicated and, in general, only persons familiar with the tool should use it as a way to analyze a job. This means that a firm must have persons with specialized job analysis knowledge or otherwise find persons who do (perhaps through outsourcing or external consulting). Moreover, the PAQ, because it is standardized and not particularly customized, results in a sort of abstract picture of what a job looks like. It focuses on more general work behaviors– and it may not be very applicable to certain types of work, namely white collar workers. Thus, it is not ideal for the purpose of developing a job description or for redesigning jobs. Despite this, it is a widely used job analysis tool.

Question 22

Occupational Information Network (O*NET):

Answer 22

Instead of relying on fixed job titles and narrow task descriptions, the O*NET uses a common language that generalizes across jobs to describe the abilities, work styles, work activities, and work context required for various occupations that are more broadly defined.

his essentially replaced the Department of Labor’s Dictionary of Occupational Titles or DOT, which relied on fixed job titles and relatively narrow job descriptions. ONet uses a vernacular or language system that can be used across different types of work to describe the qualifications, work styles, activities and contexts relevant to broadly defined occupations– 1,000 of them. This is more useful in a rapidly changing, increasingly complex, global economy where jobs are not as static as they once were and more broadly defined occupations are more flexible and useful. Research suggests that ONet may also generalize across countries, even though it was developed in the U.S. by the United States Government. The reason your book devotes and entire section to ONet is that it is widely available and widely used. It is used by employers, employment agencies, vocational counselors, and even job seekers. Individuals can use ONet to determine the types of knowledge and skills they would need – or would need to acquire – to be qualified for different occupations.

Question 23

Organization structure:

Answer 23

Provides a cross-sectional overview of the static relationships between individuals and units that create the outputs.
Organization structure is typically displayed via organizational charts that convey both vertical reporting relationships and horizontal functional responsibilities.

Question 24

Importance of Job Analysis to HR Managers & Line Managers

Answer 24

All HR activities rely on some sort of job analysis having been done a priori or in advance. It is important for organizations to match job requirements with human capital and human resources management so as to achieve effectiveness. If you think about it, having a job description – as well as job specs – is important and probably necessary to be able to recruit for a specific position. It is also necessary for selection – to determine what types of selection methods would be useful for a given job and also to determine how to tailor them to the job.
For instance, structured interview questions should be designed to assess the extent to which there is person-job fit.
Line managers too must have job descriptions and job specs so that they can effectively evaluate performance and give relevant, critical performance feedback. As we will talk about when we discuss performance appraisal, feedback should be as job-relevant as possible for it to be perceived as useful and fair, and job descriptions help managers connect their feedback to the job. Of course, managers are ultimately responsible for hiring decisions, so job analysis is useful to them for this purpose as well- not just HR. Moreover, managers need to understand clearly the different jobs in their business so as to better understand work flow.

Question 25

Job design:

Answer 25

The process of defining how work will be performed and the tasks that will be required in a given job.

Question 26

Job Redesign:

Answer 26

The process of defining how work will be performed and the tasks that will be required in a given job.
To effectively design, or redesign a job, one must have a complete understanding of the job through job analysis, and its relevance for work-flow.

Four approaches used in job design are:

• mechanistic approach
• motivational approach
• biological approach
• perceptual-motor approach

Question 27

Mechanistic Approach:

Answer 27

Looks at:

• specialization
• skill variety
• work methods autonomy

The mechanistic approach has roots in classical industrial engineering. The focus of the mechanistic approach is identifying the simplest way to structure work that maximizes efficiency. This most often entails reducing the complexity of the work to provide more human resource efficiency—that is, making the work so simple that anyone can be trained quickly and easily to perform it. This approach focuses on designing jobs around the concepts of task specialization, skill simplification, and repetition.

Scientific management is one of the earliest mechanistic approaches that sought to identify the one best way to perform the job through the use of time-and-motion studies.

Question 28

Motivational Approach:

Answer 28

Looks at:

• decision-making autonomy
• task significance
• interdependence

The motivational approach to job design focuses on the job characteristics that affect the psychological meaning and motivational potential, and it views attitudinal variables as the most important outcomes of job design. The prescriptions of the motivational approach focus on increasing job complexity through job enlargement, job enrichment, and the construction of jobs around sociotechnical systems.

Question 29

Job characteristics model:

Answer 29

Skill variety: the extent to which the job requires a variety of skills to carry out the tasks.

Task identity: the degree to which a job requires completing a “whole” piece of work from beginning to end.

Autonomy: the degree to which the job allows an individual to make decisions about the way the work will be carried out.

Feedback: the extent to which a person receives clear information about performance effectiveness from the work itself.

Task significance: the extent to which the job has an important impact on the lives of other people.

These five job characteristics determine the motivating potential of a job by affecting three psychological states:

• experienced meaningfulness
• responsibility
• knowledge of results

When the core job characteristics are high, individuals will have a high level of internal work motivation, higher quantity and quality of work, and higher levels of job satisfaction.

Question 30

Biographical Approach:

Answer 30

Looks at:

• Physical demands
• Ergonomics
• Work conditions

A theme common to nearly all organizations is the need to identify clearly the outputs of work, to specify the quality and quantity standards for those outputs, and to analyze the processes and inputs necessary for producing outputs that meet the quality standards. This conception of the work-flow process is useful because it provides a means for the manager to understand all the tasks required to produce a number of high-quality products as well as the skills necessary to perform those tasks.

Ergonomics: concerned with the interface between individuals’ psychological characteristics and the physical work environment.

Question 31

Perceptual Approach:

Answer 31

Looks at:

• job complexity
• information processing
• equipment use

The perceptual-motor approach to job design has its roots in the human‑factors literature and focuses on human mental capabilities and limitations. The goal is to design jobs in a way that ensures that they do not exceed people’s mental capabilities.
This approach generally tries to improve reliability, safety, and user reactions by designing jobs in a way that reduces the information processing requirements of the job. This approach, similar to the mechanistic approach, generally has the effect of decreasing the job’s cognitive demands.

Question 32

Motivational Pros & Cons

Answer 32

Motivational Pros:

• higher job satisfaction
• higher motivation
• greater job involvement
• lower absenteeism

Motivational Cons:

• increased training time
• lower utilization levels
• greater likelihood of error
• greater chance of mental overload and stress

Question 33

Mechanistic Pros & Cons

Answer 33

Mechanistic Pros:

• decreased training time
• higher utilization levels
• lower likelihood of error
• less chance of mental overload and stress

Mechanistic Cons:

• lower job satisfaction
• lower motivation
• higher absenteeism

Question 34

Biological Pros & Cons

Answer 34

Biological Pros:

• less physical effort
• less physical fatigue
• fewer health complaints
• fewer medical incidences
• lower absenteeism
• higher job satisfaction

Biological Cons:
-higher financial costs because of changes in equipment or job environment.

Question 35

Perceptual-Motor Pros & Cons

Answer 35

Perceptual Pros:

• lower likelihood of error
• lower likelihood of accidents
• less chance of mental overload and stress
• lower training time
• higher utilization levels

Perceptual Cons:

• lower job satisfaction
• lower motivation

Question 36

Competitive Advantage & Strategy:

Answer 36

The analysis and design of work is one of the most important components to developing and maintaining a competitive advantage. Strategy implementation is virtually impossible without thorough attention devoted to work-flow analysis, job analysis, and job design. Managers need to understand the entire work-flow process in their work unit to ensure that the process maximizes efficiency and effectiveness. To understand this process, managers also must have clear, detailed information about the jobs that exist in the work unit, and the way to gain this information is through job analysis. Equipped with an understanding of the work-flow process and the existing job, managers can redesign jobs to ensure that the work unit is able to achieve its goals while individuals within the unit benefit from the various work outcome dimensions such as motivation, satisfaction, safety, health, and achievement. This is one key to competitive advantage.