HRM 502

Lecture-3
Job Analysis and Design of Work
Recruitment is made to position in the organization. Positions are also
mentioned as jobs. Organizations consist of jobs that have to be
staffed.
Job analysis is the procedure through which the duties of the positions
and the characteristics of the people are hired for them are
determined.
Job analysis produces information used for writing job description. A
list of what job entails and job specification. Job specification: What
kind of people re hired for the job.
Following types of information are needed
for the job analysis
• Work Activities: Information about the job’s actual work activities, such as cleaning,
selling, teaching, or painting. This list may also include how, why, and when the worker
performs each activity.
• Human Behaviors: Information about human behaviors the job requires, like sensing,
communicating, lifting weights, or walking long distances.
• Machines, Tools, Equipment, and Work Aids: Information regarding tools used, materials
processed, knowledge dealt with or applied (such as finance or law), and services
rendered (such as counseling or repairing).
• Performance Standards: Information about the job’s performance standards (in terms of
quantity or quality levels for each job duty, for instance).
• Job Context: Information about such matters as physical working conditions, work
schedule, incentives, and, for instance, the number of people with whom the employee
would normally interact.
• Human Requirements: Information such as knowledge or skills (education, training, work
experience) and required personal attributes (aptitudes, personality, interests).
Steps in Job Analysis
• Step 1: Decide How You Will Use the Information: Some data collection
techniques—like interviewing the employee—are good for writing job
descriptions. Other techniques, like the position analysis questionnaire we
describe later, provide numerical ratings for each job; these can be used to
compare jobs for compensation purposes.
• Step 2: Review Relevant Background Information Such as Organization Charts
and Process Charts: It is important to understand the job’s context. For example,
organization charts show the organization wide division of work, and where the
job fits in the overall organization. It should show the title of each position and, by
means of interconnecting lines, who reports to whom, and with whom the job
incumbent communicates. A process chart provides a detailed picture of the work
flow. Thus, in the process chart, the quality control clerk should review
components from suppliers, check components going to the plant managers, and
give information regarding the components’ quality to these managers. Finally, an
existing job description may provide a starting point for revising the job
description.
• Step 3: Select Representative Positions: The manager must at some point select particular
positions to focus on. For example, to analyze an assembler’s job, it is probably unnecessary to
analyze the jobs of all the firm’s 200 assembly workers; instead a sample of 10 jobs will do.
• Step 4: Actually Analyze the Job: In brief, the job analysis process involves greeting each job
holder; briefly explaining the job analysis process and the participants’ roles in this process;
spending about 15 minutes interviewing the employee to get agreement on a basic summary of
the job; identifying the job’s broad areas of responsibility, such as “calling on potential clients”;
and then interactively identifying specific duties/tasks within each area.
• Step 5: Verify the Job Analysis Information with the Worker Performing the Job and with his
or her Immediate Supervisor: This will help confirm that the information (for instance on the
job’s duties) is factually correct and complete and help to gain their acceptance.
• Step 6: Develop a Job Description and Job Specification: The job description lists the duties,
activities, and responsibilities of the job, as well as its important features, such as working
conditions. The job specification summarizes the personal qualities, traits, skills, and
background required for getting the job done.
Some Job Analysis Guidelines
In any event, there are several practical considerations to keep in mind.
First, conducting the job analysis usually involves a joint effort by a human resources
specialist, the worker, and the worker's supervisor. The human resources specialist
(perhaps a human resources manager, job analyst, or consultant) might observe and
analyze the job and then develop a job description and specification. Often the supervisor
and worker fill out questionnaires listing the subordinate's duties and activities. The
supervisor and worker may then review and verify the job analyst's conclusions regarding
the job's activities and duties.
Second, job analysis almost always requires collecting job analysis information from several
people familiar with the job (called “subject matter experts”) such as job incumbents and
their supervisors, using questionnaires and interviews. For example the job incumbent or
his or her supervisor alone will not suffice.
Third, if there are several employees doing the same job (as you might find for instance with the jobs of
“programmer," "assembler," or “sales clerk”), it is typical to collect job analysis information from several of
them from different departments, and then average up your results, to determine how much time a typical
employee on that job spends on each job duty. The caveat is that employees who have the same job title but
work in different departments may experience very different pressures. Therefore, simply adding up and
averaging the amount of time that, say, recruiters in the engineering office and assembly plant each need to
devote to "interviewing candidates" could end in misleading results. The point is that you must understand the
job's departmental context: The way someone with a particular job title spends his or her time is not
necessarily the same from department to department.
Fourth, make sure the questions and surveys are clear and understandable to the respondents.
Fifth, if possible, observe and question respondents early enough in the job analysis process to catch any
problems while there's still time to correct the job analysis procedure (such as the questions) you are using.

Interviews, questionnaires, observations, and diary/logs are the most popular methods for gathering job
analysis data. They all provide realistic information about what job incumbents actually do. Managers use them
for developing job descriptions and job specifications.
Writing job description
The most important product of job analysis is the job description. A job description
is a written statement of what the worker actually does, how he or she does it, and
what the job’s working conditions are. You use this information to write a job
specification; this lists the knowledge, abilities, and skills required to perform the
job satisfactorily.
There is no standard format for writing a job description. However, most
descriptions contain sections that cover:
1. Job identification
2. Job summary
3. Responsibilities and duties
4. Authority of incumbent
5. Standards of performance
6. Working conditions
7. Job specification
JOB ANALYSIS IN A “JOBLESS" WORLD
Job is generally defined as “a set of closely related activities carried out
for pay," but over the years the concept of a job has actually changed
quite dramatically. In a nutshell, jobs tend to be much more varied and
loosely defined than in the past. For example, when an employer like
Daimler-Chrysler moves from traditional assembly-line production to
using self-managing teams, the employees' jobs move from narrowly
defined to broad and flexible (some call this “dejobbing”). This
obviously has ramifications for what job descriptions look like. The
“New Workforce” feature below illustrates this.
Why Managers Are "Dejobbing" Their
Companies
Daimler's Alabama Mercedes factory actually presents in microcosm a picture of
why companies are moving to broader, simpler descriptions of jobs-to dejobbing, in
other words. Companies are grappling with challenges like rapid product and
technological change, global competition, deregulation, political instability,
demographic changes, and shift to a service economy. This has increased the need
for firms to be responsive, flexible. and much more competitive. In turn, the
organizational methods managers use to accomplish this have helped weaken the
meaning of job as a well-defined and clearly delineated set of responsibilities.
Requiring that employees limit themselves to narrow jak runs counter to the need
to have them willingly switch from task to task as jobs and team assignments
change. Here is a sampling of organizational factors that have contributed to
encouraging workers not to limit themselves to narrowly defined jobs.
Job design
Job design is the process of defining how work will be performed and
the tasks that will be required in a given job. Job redesign refers to
changing the tasks or the way work is performed in an existing job. To
effectively design jobs, one must thoroughly understand the job as it
exists (through job analysis) and its place in the larger work unit’s
work-flow process (work-flow analysis). Having a detailed knowledge of
the tasks performed in the work unit and in the job, a manager then
has many alternative ways to design a job. This can be done most
effectively through understanding the trade-offs between certain
design approaches.
Major Elements of Various Approaches to Job Design
 Ergonomics
Ergonomics can roughly be defined as the study of people in their working environment.
More specifically, an ergonomist (pronounced like economist) designs or modifies the work to
fit the worker, not the other way around.

Ergonomics - Environment, Health and Safety

There are three types of ergonomics: physical, cognitive, and organizational. Each
of these contributes not only to organizational success but also to worker satisfaction
and the bottom line.
Options for Human Resource Management
Importance of Job Analysis
Job analysis is the building block of everything that human resource managers do. Almost
every human resource management program requires some type of information that is
gleaned from job analysis: selection, performance appraisal, training and development,
job evaluation, career planning, work redesign, and human resource planning.
• Work Redesign: As previously discussed, job analysis and job design are interrelated.
Often a firm will seek to redesign work to make it more efficient or effective. To redesign
the work, detailed information about the existing job(s) must be available. In addition,
redesigning a job will, in fact, be similar to analyzing a job that does not yet exist.
• Human Resource Planning: In human resource planning, managers analyze an
organization’s human resource needs in a dynamic environment and develop activities
that enable a firm to adapt to change. This planning process requires accurate
information about the levels of skill required in various jobs to ensure that enough
individuals are available in the organization to meet the human resource needs of the
strategic plan.
Importance of Job Analysis
• Selection: Human resource selection identifies the most qualified applicants for
employment. To identify which applicants are most qualified, it is first necessary
to determine the tasks that will be performed by the individual hired and the
knowledge, skills, and abilities the individual must have to perform the job
effectively. This information is gained through job analysis.
• Training: Almost every employee hired by an organization will require training.
Some training programs may be more extensive than others, but all require the
trainer to have identified the tasks performed in the job to ensure that the
training will prepare individuals to perform their jobs effectively.
• Performance Appraisal: Performance appraisal deals with getting information
about how well each employee is performing in order to reward those who are
effective, improve the performance of those who are ineffective, or provide a
written justification for why the poor performer should be disciplined. Through
job analysis, the organization can identify the behaviors and results that
distinguish effective performance from ineffective performance.
Importance of Job Analysis
• Career Planning: Career planning entails matching an individual’s skills and
aspirations with opportunities that are or may become available in the
organization. This matching process requires that those in charge of career
planning know the skill requirements of the various jobs. This allows them
to guide individuals into jobs in which they will succeed and be satisfied.
• Job Evaluation: The process of job evaluation involves assessing the relative
dollar value of each job to the organization to set up internally equitable
pay structures. If pay structures are not equitable, employees will be
dissatisfied and quit, or they will not see the benefits of striving for
promotions. To put dollar values on jobs, it is necessary to get information
about different jobs to determine which jobs deserve higher pay than
others.