JOB ANALYSIS

Lecture Overview

- Nature of Job Analysis

- Job Analysis Process

- Job description and job specification

- Job Design

- Factors Affecting Job Design

- Job Design Approaches

 Nature of Job Analysis
- Job: Job is bundle of related tasks

- Work: Synonymous of job and defined as “physical and

mental activity that is carried out at a particular place and
time, according to the instructions, in return for money”

- Monetary reward is mandatory for performing of task to

be said work in business organization context

- Psychological perspective is concerned with employee

behavior

- Sociological perspective is concerned with structural

and contextual factors affecting individual's
experience at work (such as leadership, communication
system, power and politics, group dynamics etc)

- The nature of work and how job is organized affect other

human resource functions/activities
 Job Analysis
- Job Analysis is the process of collecting data and
information about a job and result of job analysis is job
description and job specification

Job
JobAnalysis
Analysis

Job Job Specification

JobDescription
Description Job Specification
Statement of individual
Job
Jobtitle
title Statement of individual
Qualification necessary to
Location
Location
Qualification necessary to
do job
Job do job
JobSummary
Summary Education
Education
Duties
Duties Experience
Reporting Experience
Reporting Training
Training
Authority
Authority Initiative
Machines Initiative
Machinesandandtools
tools Physical
Physicalabilities
abilities
Materials used Psychological
Materials used
Supervision/Subordinate Psychologicalabilities
abilities
Supervision/Subordinate Communication
Communicationskills skills
Working
Workingconditions
conditions Responsibilities
Hazards Responsibilities
Hazards Sensory
Sensorydemands
demands

Adopted from : Aswathappa, 2008, p. 106

JOB DESCRIPTION:

A broad general & written statement of a specific job, based on the findings of the job
analysis. It generally includes duties, purpose, responsibilities, scope & working condition of
a job along with the job’s title, and the name or designation of the person whom employee
reports.
Job description usually forms the basis of job specification.

JOB SPECIFICATION:

A statement of employees characteristics and qualifications required for satisfactory

performance of defined duties & tasks comprising a specific job or function. Job specification
is derived from Job Analysis.
 The Process of Job Analysis

Strategic
Strategicchoices
choices

Gather
GatherInformation Benefits/Uses
Information Benefits/UsesofofJob
JobDescription
Description
And Job Specification
And Job Specification
Personnel
Personnelplanning
planning
Performance appraisal
Performance appraisal
Process Hiring
ProcessInformation
Information Training
Hiring
Training anddevelopment
and development
Job evaluation
Job evaluation
Compensation
Compensation
Health
Healthand
andsafety
safety
Job
JobDescription
Description Employee discipline
Employee discipline
Work
Workscheduling
scheduling
Career
Careerplanning
planning

Job
JobSpecification
Specification

Source: Aswathappa, 2008, p. 107

 The Process of Job Analysis
1 Strategic Choices: The decision organization is required to
make in job analysis

I) The level of employee involvement

– Too much involvement result into bias information

– Too little affect quality of information

ii) The level of detail of job analysis

– If job analysis is base for all HR decisions then detailed

– If objective is to identify general duties and clarify rules

and responsibilities of job holder then less detailed

iii) Past, present or future oriented job analysis

– Traditional job analysis tend to focus on how job was
carried out in past and being done at present

– If technological changes or sudden shifts in environment

expect to change the job then future oriented approach is
best
 The Process of Job Analysis

iv) Timing and Frequency

– New organization

– New job created

– Job is changed

– New remuneration plan

– Job incumbent feel inequities

v) Sources and tools for gathering job data

– Job holder

– Job expert

– Supervisor

– Job analyst
 The Process of Job Analysis

2 Information Gathering
- Type of data to be collected

- Method to be used (observation, questionnaire,

interviews, diary method, check list)

- Who should collect job data (job analyst, supervisor,

job holder)

3 Information Processing
- Job description

- Job Specification
PURPOSE OF JOB ANALYSIS
Observation:
Under this method, data is collected through observing an employee while at work. The
job analyst on the basis of observation carefully records what the worker does, how
he/she does, and how much time is needed for completion of a given task. This is the
most reliable method of seeking first hand information relating to a job.
This method is suitable for jobs that consist primarily of observable physical ability, short
job cycle activities. The jobs of draftsman, mechanic, spinner or weaver are the examples
of such jobs. However, the flip side of this method is that this method is not suitable for
jobs that involve unobservable mental activities reveal overlaps and grey areas and have
not complete job cycle.
That it is time consuming is it’s yet another handicap. Given these, the job analyst needs
to be quite skillful in collecting data about jobs with a high degree of discretion or decision
content. Training can make the job analyst skillful.

.
Interview:
In this method, the job analyst directly interviews the job holder through a
structured interview form to elicit information about the job. This method is found
suitable particularly for jobs wherein direct observation is not feasible. By way of
directly talking to the job holder, the interviewer job analyst may extract
meaningful information from the job holder about his/her job.
However the interview method is both time consuming and costly. Particularly, the
professional and managerial jobs due to their complicated nature of job, require a
longer interview’ This may also be a possibility that bias on the part of the analyst
and the job holder i.e., the respondent may cloud the accuracy and objectivity of
the information gathered through interview. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of the
interview method will depend on the ability of both interviewer and respondent in
asking questions and responding them respectively
Questionnaire:
Questionnaire method of job data collection is desirable especially in the following
two situa­tions:
First, where the number of people doing the same job is large and to personally interview
them is difficult and impracticable.
Second, where giving enough time to employees is desirable to enable them to divulge and
explore the special aspects of the jobs.
In this method, the employee is given structured questionnaire to fill in, which are then
returned to the supervisors. The supervisor, after making the required and necessary
corrections in the infor­mation contained in the questionnaire, submits the corrected
information to the job analyst. Question­naire provides comprehensive information about the
job.
Information so obtained can be quantified and processed in the computer. The greatest
advantage of the questionnaire method is that it enables the analyst to cover a large number
of job holders in the shortest possible time. However, the method suffers from certain short­
comings as well.
In the absence of direct rapport between the job analyst and the employee, both cooperation
and motivation on the part of the employee tends to be at low level. Often employee due to
lack of training and skill, do not express the job related information in a meaningful and clear
fashion. As such, job related data tends to be inaccurate. Moreover, the method is time-
consuming and costly.
Checklists:
The checklist method of job data collection differs from the questionnaire method in
the sense that it contains a few subjective questions in the form of yes or no. The job
holder is asked to tick the questions that are related to his/her job. Checklist can be
prepared on the basis of job informa­tion obtained from various sources such as
supervisors, industrial engineers, and other people who are familiar with the
particular job.
Once the checklist is prepared, it is then sent, to the job holder to check all the tasks
listed in the list he/she performs. He/she is also asked to mention the amount of time
spent on each task by him/her and the type of training and experience required to do
each task. Information contained in checklist is, then, tabulated to obtain the job-
related data.
Like questionnaire method, the checklist method is suitable in the large
organization's wherein a large number of workers are assigned one particular job.
Since the method is costly and, therefore, is not suitable for small organization's.
Critical Incidents:
This method is based on the job holder’s past experiences on the job. They are asked
to recapitu­late and describe the past incidents related to their jobs. The incidents so
reported by the job holders are, then, classified into various categories and analyzed
in detail. Yes, the job analyst requires a high degree of skill to analyze the incidents
appropriately described by the job holders. However, this method is also time-
consuming one.

Diaries or Log Records:

In this method, the job holder is asked to maintain a diary recording in detail the job-
related activities each day. If done judiciously, this method provides accurate and
comprehensive information about the job. This overcomes memory lapses on the part
of the job holder. As recording of activities may spread over several days, the method,
thus, becomes time-consuming one.
The disadvantage associated with this method is that it remains incomplete because it
does not give desirable data on supervisor relationship, the equipment used and
working conditions prevalent at the work place.
Technical Conference Method:
In this method, a conference is organised for the supervisors who possess extensive
knowledge about job. They deliberate on various aspects of the job. The job analyst obtains
job information from the discussion held among these experts/supervisors. The method
consumes less amount of time. However, the main drawback of this method is that it lacks
accuracy and authenticity as the actual job holders are not involved in collecting job
information.
It is seen from the preceding description that no single method is complete and superior. In
fact, none of the method is to be considered as mutually exclusive. The best data related to a
job can be obtained by a combination of all methods described above.

The problems that may crop up while conducting job analysis are:
1. Lack of support from the top management.
2. Relying on one source and method of data collection.
3. Non-trained and non-motivated job holders who are the actual source of job data.
4. Distorted information/data provided by the respondents i.e., the job holders because of non-
preparedness on their part.
 Job Design

- Job Design: “Organization of tasks, duties and

responsibilities into a unit of work to achieve certain
objectives”

i) The specification of individual tasks

ii) The methods to be used to perform task

iii) The combination of tasks into specific jobs to be

assigned to individual

- The job design should balance organizational

needs/requirements and individual needs of job holder
 Job Design
- Work Specialization and Division of Labour: The degree to
which the tasks are subdivided in separate jobs

- Earlier job design revolve around to simplify the task or

breaking whole job or tasks into specific tasks to be
performed by individual

- In early 19th century Henry Ford is credited with

manufacturing automobiles on assembly line (Division of
Labour)

- Advantages: Increase productivity, more trained, increased

quality, shorter production time, less supervision, easy hiring

- Disadvantages: Employee dissatisfaction, wastage of

organizational resources (salary budget), boredom, less
flexibility and freedom, under utilization of skills

- Well designed job essential for attracting qualified and

motivated individual and retaining them.
 Factors Affecting Job Design

Feedback

Organizational
Factors

Environmental Productivity and

Job Design
Factors Satisfying jobs

Behavioural
Factors

Source: Aswathappa, 2008, p. 126

 Factors Affecting Job Design

1 Organizational Factors

i) Characteristics of Tasks: Organizing a number of tasks in a

job or group of jobs,
Complexity of job (number of variety of tasks to be
performed, range and scope of decision, difficulty in
predicting outcomes)

Task Elements
a) planning (course of action, timing, and resources)

b) executing (carrying out the plan)

c) controlling (monitoring and taking corrective action)

- Integrated job contains all three elements of each task

involved in a job

ii) Work Flow: The nature of product and service determine flow of
work (for example: in automobile manufacturing)
 Factors Affecting Job Design

Iii) Ergonomics: Designing jobs in such way that it facilitates worker

to perform work and balance/fit between the physical abilities
and characteristics of individual and tools/equipments

iv) Work Practices: set way or predetermined way of performing work

2) Environmental Factors:

I) Employee Abilities and Availability: who will actually do work

(balance between abilities and availability of person who will
perform work)

ii) Social and Cultural Factors: Job design meet expectation of

individual and society

3 Behavioural Element: Deal with human needs and to satisfy them

Person inspired by higher level need like to work for job
having following characteristics
 Factors Affecting Job Design

3 Behavioural Element: Deal with human needs and to satisfy them

Person inspired by higher level need like to work for job

having following characteristics

I) Feedback: Meaningful feedback on performance

ii) Autonomy: Authority to make decisions on task and take

responsibility of what is done. It increases self actualization
and self esteem needs

Iii) Use of Abilities: Job should be designed in such way that it

take use of individual abilities

iv) Variety of tasks

 Job Design Approaches

high
Job enrichment

Job enlargement
Impact

Job engineering

Job rotation
low

low complexity high

 Job Design Approaches

- Job Rotation: Moving employee from one job to other to add

variety and reduce boredom. After some time employee move to
other at same level

Disadvantages: Disturb work, training cost, de-motivate

ambitious and motivated employee

- Job Engineering: focus on tasks to be performed, workflows

among employees, methods to be used, layout of workplace,
interdependencies among tools and employee
Example: Specialization of labour,

- Job Enlargement: Adding to some extent similar tasks to be

performed in a single job (example: auto mechanic change
oil, changing transmission fluid)

I) Task variety ii) Meaningful work modules iii) Ability utilization iv)
Worker pace control v) Performance feedback
 Job Design Approaches

- Job Enrichment: Adding more motivators to make job more

exciting and challenging

Giving employee more freedom, autonomy, and control over their job

Characteristics of Enriched Jobs

Direct Feedback
Personal Client
Accountability relationship

Enriched jobs Learning

Authority

Control over Scheduling of

resources Unique work
Experience
Source: Aswathappa, 2008, p. 131
 Job Design Approaches

- Job Enrichment:
More responsibility and autonomy (vertical enrichement0
Adding variety of tasks (horizontal enrichment)

Feedback Knowledge of results

Outcome

Satisfaction
Motivation
Self control Performance
Autonomy Low absenteeism
Self esteem
Low turnover
Job involvement

Significance,
Meaningfulness
identity,
achievement
Skill development
Source: Aswathappa, 2008, p. 132
 Job Design Approaches

- Job Enrichment

Issues to Think

- Enriched is relative term

- Enriched job creates Snow Ball effect

- Assumes that worker like responsibility

- Jon enrichment may have negative short term effect

- Job enrichment may become static

 Summary

- Nature of Job Analysis

- Job Analysis Process

- Job description and job specification

- Job Design

- Factors Affecting Job Design

- Job Design Approaches