PowerPoint Presentation

to accompany

Human Resource Management,

4rd Edition

by Raymond J. Stone

Prepared by Retha Wiesner © John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 2002
 JOB ANALYSIS,
JOB DESIGN AND QUALITY
OF WORK LIFE (QWL)

Chapter 5
 Objectives
• Explain what is meant by job analysis and job design.
• Understand the uses of job analysis.
• Describe the content of a job description and a job
specification.
• Discuss the collection of job analysis data.
• Explain the major methods of job analysis.
• Discuss competency profiling.
• Understand the major approaches to job design.
• Discuss quality of work life, employee participation and
industrial democracy.
 Defining Job Analysis
• Obtaining information about jobs by determining
their essential duties, tasks and responsibilities
using various methods.
• Information includes: the end result, behaviours
required to do the job, equipment that must be
used to do the job, environmental factors relevant
to performance, personal factors relevant to job
performance.
• Collecting, making sense of and then recording,
usually in form of job description.
 Job-oriented and Employee Oriented
Approach
• Job-oriented: what gets done
• Employee oriented: how the job gets done
• Only include relevant factors like aptitudes,
abilities etc. and not details that cannot be
demonstrated to be relevant like sex, age marital
status, ethnic background (sometimes these may
be relevant, but usually not).
• Properly conducted job analysis can identify and
eliminate subtle discrimination against certain
individuals or groups.
 Defining Job Analysis
(A possible breakdown)
• Why does the job exist?
• What physical and mental activities does the worker
undertake?
• When is the job to be performed?
• How does the worker do the job?
• What qualifications are needed to perform the job?
• What are the working conditions (such as the levels of
temperature, light, offensive fumes and noise) of the job?
• What machinery or equipment is used in the job?
• What constitutes successful performance?
 Reasons for Job Analysis

• Job description • Job evaluations

• Job specifications • Salary & benefits
• Recruitment • Enterprise bargaining
• Selection • Working conditions
• Training and • Authority
development relationships
• Performance appraisal • Standards expected
• Fringe benefits
 JOB ANALYSIS OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the job analysis
is to collect information for:
job description selection
• job specification job design
• HR planning recruitment

TYPE OF INFORMATION
TO BE COLLECTED
• What is performed?
• Where is it performed?
• How is it performed?
• Why is it performed?
• When is it performed?

Sources of data Methods of data collection

• Job incumbent  Records/files/manuals • Observation  Diaries/log
• Supervisor  Plans and blueprints • Interviews
• Job analyst  HR information systems • Questionnaire
• Experts • Critical incident report

Form of data analysis

Source: Asia Pacific
• Qualitative
Management Co Ltd. • Quantitative
2001
Job descriptions and Person (job)
Specifications
• When the job related information has been
collected and analysed it needs to be presented in
some form of job description.
• The job description is a written description of a
job and the types of duties performed and the
conditions under which it is performed.
• Person specifications detail the qualifications,
experience and personal qualities of candidates.
Components of Job Descriptions
• Job identification • Accountability
• Job summary • Authority
• Duties and • Special circumstances
responsibilities • Performance standards
• Relationships • Trade
• Know-how union/association
• Problem solving
 Data Collection Methods
• Interviews
• Questionnaires
• Observation
• Diaries and logs
• Critical incidents
• Focus and consultative groups
• Combination
 Evaluation of Methods
• Completeness
• The problems of jobs changing over time
• The performance by experienced and
inexperienced workers
• Complexity of the job
 Functional Job Analysis
• Functional Job Analysis (FJA) was developed by
the US Training and Employment Service.
• FJA uses standardised statements and terminology
to describe the nature of jobs and to prepare job
descriptions and job specifications.
• It produces a description of a job in terms of data,
people and things.
 Australian Standard
Classification of Occupations
• ASCO represents a ‘skill-based classification of
occupations ...as a national standard for ...the
provision of occupational information.’
• It covers 1079 distinct occupations contained
within 282 unit groups.
• ASCO provides generic job descriptions from
which analysis can be initiated and guided and
serves to establish common categories of such
jobs and their appropriate remuneration analysis.
 Position Analysis Questionnaire
• Worker oriented questionnaire, covering 194
tasks.
• By means of a five point scale, it seeks to
determine the degree, if any, to which the different
tasks, or job elements, are involved in performing
a particular job.
• Six divisions
• Results are quantitative in nature
• Permit comparison across a number of jobs
 The Management Positions
Descriptions Questionnaire
• The Management Positions Descriptions
Questionnaire (MPDQ) is a 197-item,
behaviourally oriented, structured
questionnaire for describing, comparing,
classifying and evaluating management
positions.
• The latest version of the MPDQ is divided
into ten sections
 The Position Classification
Inventory

• The Position Classification Inventory

(PCI) is a job analysis inventory based on
Holland’s RIASEC theory which can be
used to classify occupations and to assess
person–job fit.
 The Hay Guide Chart Profile
Method
• Widely used in job evaluation, the Hay
Guide Chart Profile Method is
commercially available through Hay Group.
• Job content is analysed in terms of three
major factors which are present to some
degree in every job.
New Multi-method Approaches
• Approaches to job analysis based on computer technology and
sophisticated quantitative techniques are now coming into use.
• They use multidimensional perspectives on the source of job
information, the type of data analysed and the response scale
formats.
• They are designed to concurrently support multiple HR
applications.
• They are structured questionnaires to be completed by
employees, supervisors and/or subject-matter experts.
• They use computer-friendly computer systems which may
perform complex multivariate statistical procedures but which
also provide graphical, quality reports for ease of data
interpretation.
 Competency Profiling
• HR managers have increasingly focused on
person-oriented approaches such as critical
incident reporting and behaviour–event interviews
to identify the skills and behaviours needed to
perform a job.
• These occupational requirements are referred to as
competencies.
• Specifically a competency ‘is an underlying
characteristic of a person that leads to or causes
superior or effective performance’.
 Competency Characteristics
• Motives — what drives, directs and selects behaviour
towards certain actions or goals and away from others.
• Traits — physical characteristics and consistent
responses to situations or information.
• Self-concept — a person’s attitudes, values or self-
image.
• Knowledge — information a person has in specific
content areas.
• Skill — the ability to perform a certain physical or
mental task.
The Behavioural Event Interview
(BEI)
• The Behavioural Event Interview (BEI) is a
development of critical incident reporting.
• It generates information not only about the job but
also about what the job holder thinks, feels and
hopes to achieve in the job.
• This helps the HR manager identify and measure
competencies such as achievement motivation and
logical problem solving.
 Job Analysis and EEO (Pitfalls)
• There should be no obvious or disguised
violations of EEO requirements.
• Avoid listing lengthy experience requirements (for
example, 10–15 years) unless no-one with less
experience could satisfactorily perform the job.
• Job specifications and job descriptions should not
be based on opinion without a proper job analysis
being undertaken.
 Job Design
• The job analysis focuses on organisational
expectations of jobs; job design concerns
the satisfaction of job holders’ needs.
• This constitutes a shift to quality of work
life issues.
 Methods of Job Design
• Job specialisation
• Job enlargement - horizontal
• Job rotation
• Job enrichment - vertical
• Autonomous work teams
• Compressed work week
• Flexitime
• Job sharing
• Part - or fractional time
• Telecommuting
 Job Enrichment
– Skill variety: the degree to which a job
requires a variety of different activities, which
involves the use of a number of different skills
and talents of the person.
– Task identity: the degree to which the job
requires completion of a whole and identifiable
piece of work.
– Task significance: the degree to which a job
has substantial impact on the organisation.
Job Design Addressing Core Job
Dimensions
• Autonomy: the degree to which the job provides
freedom, independence and discretion to the
individual in scheduling the work and in
determining the procedures to be used in carrying
it out.
• Feedback: individual, direct and clear feedback
about the effectiveness of their performance.
 Essentials of Job Design
• The job holders are willing and able to perform
that activity and to be trained if needed.
• The previous performers of the activity are willing
to relinquish it and have it replaced.
• There is a high likelihood of making the activity
dependent upon some level of performance to
increase effort and results.
 Quality of Work Life
• Adequate remuneration
• Development of human capabilities
• Growth and security
• Constitutionalism
• Total life space
• Social relevance
 Quality Circles
• Quality circles usually consist of small groups of
five to ten workers who meet on a regular basis.
• Meetings generally involve the group’s supervisor
(although the supervisor may not be the quality
circle leader).
• The objective is to identify problems as a group,
process suggestions and examine alternatives for
improving (at relatively low cost) productivity,
raising product and service quality, and increasing
worker satisfaction.
Employee Participation and Industrial
Democracy

• Industrial democracy is often confused with the

less emotive term ‘employee participation’.
• Industrial democracy and employee participation
have been described as different aspects of the
same concept.
• Industrial democracy implies at least the
‘redistribution of decision making power’.
 Summary
• Job analysis is a fundamental HRM activity.
• Job design identifies what work must be performed.
• QWL programs represent a comprehensive effort to
improve the quality of the work environment by
integrating employees wellbeing with the
organisation’s need for higher productivity.
• Managers need a good understanding of these issues
and how they link in with the strategic business
objectives of the organisation.