Segismundo, Isabelle D.

(2014-55553)
CHAPTER 3 I JOB ANALYSIS
Personnel Psychology-specialty area of I/O Psychology focusing on an organization’s human resources

- Concerned with the creation, care and maintenance of a workforce

- Includes recruitment, placement, training and development of workers; the measurement and
evaluation of their performance; and the concern with worker productivity and well being
- Goal: take care of an organization’s human resources

Job Analysis

- Systematic study of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a job and the knowledge, skills, and
abilities needed to perform it
- Starting point for nearly all personnel functions and is critical for developing the means to assess
personnel
- Conducted on periodic basis to ensure that the information about the job is updated (needs to reflect
the work being done)
- Not easy so methods need to be precise and comprehensive
- Should not be a limiting process (must allow for flexibility and creativity in their jobs)
- Job analyst must be well trained in basic research methods, must be an expert in objective
measurement techniques
- Involves the objective measurement of work behavior performed by actual workers
- Job Description: detailed description of job tasks, procedures, and responsibilities; tools and
equipment used; and the end of product or service
- Job Specification: provides information about the human characteristics required to perform the
job(usually physical and personal traits, work experience and education)
o Usually gives the minimum acceptable qualification
- Job Evaluation: assessment of the relative value or worth a job is to an organization to determine
appropriate compensation or wages
- Performance Criteria: means for appraising worker success in performing a job
- Important:
o Provide detailed information needed for other personnel activities
o Legal decisions

Job Analysis Methods

- Observations
o Trained job analysts gather information about a particular job
o Usually observes the job incumbent at work for a period of time
 May also use videos to record work behavior
o Takes notes on the exact tasks and duties performed
o Usually work best with jobs involving manual operations, repetitive tasks or other easily seen
activities
o Important to select times that are representative of the worker’s routine
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o Concern: whether the presence of the observer influences workers’ performance
- Participation
o Involves actually performing the particular job or operation to get a firsthand understanding of
how the job is performed
- Existing Data
o Uses information or records that are already existing
o Data may be borrowed from another organization
o Should always be checked to make sure if conforms to the job currently being performed and to
determine if existing data accounts for inclusion of new technology in the job
- Interviews
o Questions can be open ended or be structured/standardized
o May want to get more than 1 perspective by interviewing other people(job incumbent, job
incumbent’s supervisor or incumbent’s subordinates)
o Can also do several interviews of job incumbents to get a more reliable representation of the
job
- Surveys
o Administration of a pencil-and-paper questionnaire
o Can consist of open ended questions, closed-ended questions or checklists
o Advantages:
 Allows collection of information from a number of people simultaneously
 Anonymous=less distortion or withholding of information
o Disadvantages:
 Information obtained can be limited by the questions (cannot probe)
o Subject Matter Expert(SMEs)-an individual who has detailed knowledge about a particular job
- Job Diaries
o Record their daily activities in a diary
o Advantages:
 Provides a detailed, hour by hour, day by day account of the worker’s job
o Disadvantages:
 Time Consuming
- Concern: potential errors and inaccuracies (human factor)
o Examples: carelessness, poor analyst training to biases

Specific Job Analysis Techniques

- Job Element Method

o Looks at the basic knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics that are required to
perform a particular job
o Experts/SMEs identify the job elements(KSAOs) then rate/rank the different elements in terms
of their importance for performing the job
o “person oriented”- focuses on the characteristics of the individual who is performing the job
o Has limited scope
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- Critical Incidents Technique
o Records the specific worker behaviors that have led to particularly successful or unsuccessful
job performance
o Obtained by questioning(interviews/questionnaires) job incumbents, job supervisors, etc.
o Helps determine the particular knowledge, skills and abilities that a worker needs to perform a
job successfully
o Can also be used to develop appraisal systems for particular jobs
- Position Analysis Questionnaire
o Structured questionnaire that analyzes various jobs in terms of the following:
 Information Input-where and how the worker obtains the information needed to
perform the job
 Mental Processes-kinds of thinking, reasoning and decision making required to perform
the job
 Work Output-the tasks the worker must perform and the tools/machines needed
 Relationships with other persons-the kinds of relationships and contacts required to do
the job
 Job Context-physical/social contexts in which the work is performed
 Other Job Characteristics-other relevant activities, conditions or characteristics
necessary to do the job
o Each are individually rated in a 1-5 scale using six categories:
 Extent of Use
 Importance to the Job
 Amount of Time
 Applicability
 Possibility of Occurrence
 Miscellaneous Job Elements
o Produce a vary detailed profile of a particular jobs that can be used to compare jobs within a
company or similar positions in different organizations
- Functional Job Analysis
o A structured job analysis technique that examines the sequence of tasks in a job and the
processes by which they are completed
o Helped crate Dictionary of Occupational Title(DOT) which has been replace by the Occupational
Information Network(O*NET)
o Uses 3 broad categories representing the job’s typical interaction with data, people, things
 Data-information, knowledge and conceptions
 People-amount of contact with others the job requires
 Things-worker’s interaction with inanimate objects (tools, machines, equipment, work
products)
o Advantages:
 Cost effective
 Uses job descriptions based on national databases
 For research (gain insight into how workers are performing their jobs)
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- Comparing the Different Job Analysis Techniques
o FJA, CIT, PAQ- effective job analysis techniques
 FJA, CIT- provided detailed, comprehensive types of analyses; tailored to analyze specific
jobs
 PAQ- more limited information; more cost effective and easier to use
 CIT- analyze complex jobs
o Must use caution in interpretation of numerical scale values
o Possible Solution: rating using “Relative Importance” of tasks
o No method is superior to all others

Job Analysis and the ADA

- 1990: American with Disabilities Act

o Employers prevent employment discrimination against disabled persons and must make
reasonable accommodations that will allow disabled persons to perform the essential job
duties
o Job requirements be reviewed and updates

Job Evaluation and Comparable Worth

- Process of assessing the relative value of jobs to determine appropriate compensation

- Compensable Factors-job elements that are used to determine appropriate compensation for a job
o Summed total indicates the value of the job, which is then translated into money
o Does not take into account market conditions (supple and demand)
- Issue
o Discrimination in compensation (wage discrepancies for men and women)
o Equal Pay Act of 1963
 Men and women performing equal work should receive equal pay
o Title VII of Civil Act of 1964
 Prohibits discrimination in employment practices based on race, color, sex and national
origin
o Women still receive lower wages than men performing the same/equivalent work
o Access to higher paying jobs
o Women are often paid far less than men for performing equivalent tasks
o “Comparable Worth”-the notion that jobs require equivalent KSAOs should be compensated
equally
 Tied to the ability of the organizations to conduct valid and fair job evaluations
 Argument: job evaluation methods are inaccurate because they do not account for
factors such supply and demand, education, experience, preference
 These factors do not account for the disparity in pay
 Reasons:
 Society does not value the type of work required by jobs filled by women
 More value is ascribed to higher level jobs that are filled by men
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o “Exceptioning”-the practice of ignoring pay discrepancies between particular jobs possessing
equivalent duties and responsibilities
o Steps to correct pay inequalities
 Job evaluations will have to be conducted for nearly all jobs
 Salaries of lower paid workers will have to be raised