Lecture 3: Job Analysis PDF

Lecture 3: Job Analysis Job analysis – ○ A tool for defining a job in terms of its component tasks or duties and the knowledge or skills required to perform them ○ “A wide variety of systematic procedures for examining, documenting, and drawing inferences...

Lecture 3: Job Analysis Job analysis – ○ A tool for defining a job in terms of its component tasks or duties and the knowledge or skills required to perform them ○ “A wide variety of systematic procedures for examining, documenting, and drawing inferences about work activities, worker attributes, and work context” Significance ○ We need to know what people do on the job before we can do anything useful in terms of selecting, promoting, training, etc. employees ○ Needed so that personnel decisions (selection, promotion) can be legally defensible Cornerstone of I/O psychology Components ○ Job description → Tasks → Duties → Responsibilities involved with a particular job Focus on what needs to be done, how, and why: Elements of a job ○ Smallest unit of work ○ E.g. “remove tool from shed and prepare for use” Task statements ○ Distinct activity involved with job ○ E.g. “unloads tools from truck” ○ List only one activity per statement ○ Statement should be able to “stand alone” ○ Should be written in an easy to understand style ○ Use precision rather than general words “Responsible for…” “Oversees…” “Handles accounts…” ○ Example of a ‘restaurant associate” Food Preparation Removes buns from boxes and places on food preparation table Takes items from freezer and places in food preparation area Cooking Cooks hamburgers, chicken, and hot dogs on the grill Cooks French fries and other fried foods in deep friers Puts grilled food onto buns and adds requested condiments Cleaning Wipes counters and tables as needed Uses RK-9 to clean food preparation surfaces Cleans the grill at the end of each shift Duties ○ Larger segment of work, can include multiple tasks  ○ e.g. “ensure smooth day-to-day running of the office” ○ Job specifications What personal characteristics are necessary for an employee to perform the duties stated in the job description KSAOs – knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics Job analysis is essentially a comprehensive “data gathering” process where we try to get as much information about ○ What a job entails ○ The tasks it encompasses ○ What good and poor performance is ○ The KSAOs necessary to perform a job Job analysis – a process 1. Reviewing the relevant literature Information within an organization → Organizational charts → Previous job analysis results → Existing job descriptions → Existing training manuals Information outside an organization → Dictionary of occupational titles (DOT) → Occupational information network (O*NET) ○ Contains huge database with information regarding almost every occupation Task statements Tools and technology involved Knowledge areas Abilities Work activities Context Work styles Work values Wages Employment outlook → Often used to provide early background information on a job ○ Can help ‘set the stage’ for a job analysis → Also great for students to inform their career search 2. Collecting job information ○ Who provides job analysis information? People most knowledgeable about the job and how it is performance Subject-matter experts (SMEs) ○ Supervisor ○ Job analyst or I/O consultant ○ Incumbent (current employee) Issues:  ○ Incumbents can exaggerate ○ Supervisors can focus on what should be done, not what is done ○ Customer limited information about job tasks ○ How is job analysis information collected Interview Meet SMEs individually or in a group ○ “Walk me through a typical day - from the time you get to work until you leave.” ○ “What are the most important tasks that you perform on the job?” Advantages ○ Rich information Well-structured Disadvantages ○ Time-consuming ○ Expensive ○ Skills of interviewer are critical Observations Also called job shadowing Observe incumbents performing the job to understand the tasks, activities, and duties required Should be as unobtrusive as possible Advantages ○ Rich information ○ Might catch information interviewees might have missed Disadvantages ○ Obtrusiveness ○ Not always feasible Job participation Actually doing the job Advantages ○ Richest source of information ○ Information is very nuanced Disadvantages ○ Might not work for many positions ○ Results up to this point will provide a lot of information ☆ Need to identify key components of a job Use information to create task inventory Conduct a functional job analysis Use and ‘off-the-shelf’ questionnaire → PAQ, CMQ Develop critical incidents Task inventory ○ Use responses from interviews and other methods to write task statements ○ A task statement includes: ○ What an employee does ○ How an employee does that activity ○ Why an employee does that activity ○ A well-written task statement… ○ Contain details on only one action and one object ○ Makes sense by itself – shouldn’t require substantial knowledge of the job to understand a task statement ○ Indicate the tools/equipment used to complete the task ○ Examples ○ Ditch digger Consults maps to accurately plan location of ditch Uses appropriate equipment for soil density ○ University professor  Develops written assignments Grades exams Designs research studies Mentors and advises students on career issues ○ Janitor Removes all contents of each office’s recycling bin Places recyclable material in designated areas Task statements are then rated ○ Each task rated in terms of its… ○ Importance to overall job effectiveness ○ Amount of time spent on each task ○ Difficulty involved with completing task ○ Task statements are not retained if task it not performed often, is not very important, and/or if little time is spent on task ○ Sample job description: Functional job analysis ○ Follow same steps as Task Inventory approach to develop task statements ○ Each task statement is broken down into three components: Data – extent to which cognitive resources are needed to handle information, facts, and ideas People – extent to which interpersonal resources are needed (e.g., listening skills, leadership) Things – extent to which physical resources are needed (e.g., physical strength, coordination, tool use) ○ The three components of each task are then rated by the job ○ Analyst for: (very similar to task inventory) Time spent Complexity Importance These ratings allow for a common metric across jobs → Different jobs can be compared for how much time/complexity is involved with data, people, and things  Thus, functional job analyses go beyond task inventory approaches and are more intensive and require more effort on the job analyst’s part Advantages ○ Easily translated into quantitative results Disadvantages ○ Time-consuming and expensive to develop ○ Can be cumbersome and long Position analysis questionnaire (PAQ) ○ Purpose: standardized job analysis tool for measuring worker-oriented aspects of a job ○ Contains 195 items asking about job-related information ○ In terms of six domains: Information input Mental processes Work output (physical activities and tools) Relationships with others Job context (physical & social environment) Other job characteristics (work pace, stress) Advantages ○ Standardized ○ Cheap & quick to administer ○ Easy to obtain a list of attributes for selection Disadvantages ○ More representative of blue-collar jobs ○ Items are abstract and general ○ Its worker-oriented (does not quantify what work gets done Common Metric Questionnaire (CMQ) ○ Similar in structure and use as PAQ, but bigger → Taps 80 job-relevant dimensions ○ More behavioural in nature → Better for pure worker-oriented purposes  ○ Lower, more reasonable, reading level → CMQ useful for both blue- and white-collar jobs ○ General advantages ○ Quicker ○ Structured, so that results of questionnaires can be compared across jobs ○ Disadvantages ○ Often provided by another company ○ Have to pay to use, scoring often proprietary, must put a lot of faith in the output ○ Structured can mean lack of flexibility Key Differences: Task Inventory: Focuses on detailed task statements specific to a job; useful for understanding the exact tasks employees perform. Functional Job Analysis (FJA): More detailed and breaks tasks down into data, people, and things; allows for comparison across jobs. Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ): Standardized tool focusing on the worker’s actions rather than tasks; more worker-oriented. Common Metric Questionnaire (CMQ): A more behavioral and comprehensive version of PAQ, applicable to a broader range of jobs. ○