Chapter 4

Preparation of a job description begins with what?

Gathering information about the job from people already performing the task, the position's supervisor, or the managers creating the position.

Occasional telework is available at what fraction of companies?

2/3

A general enduring capability that an individual possesses

Ability

The allocation of decision-making authority among individuals, subgroups, and the team as a whole.

Authority Differentiation

The degree to which the job allows an individual to make decisions about the way work will be carried out.

Autonomy

Unable to perform basic tasks

Below Expectations

An area of personal capability that enables employees to perform their work successfully.

Competency

Identifies and describes all the competencies required for success in a particular occupation or set of jobs.

Competency Model

A schedule in which full-time workers complete their weekly hours in fewer than 5 days.

Compressed Workweek

Understands basic principles and performs routine tasks with reliable results; works with minimal supervision or assistance.

Meets Expectations

What are the two sources of job information provided by the Dept. of Labor?

Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and Occupational Information Network (O*NET)

Study of interface between individuals' physiology and characteristics of physical work environment.

Ergonomics

Performs complex and multiple tasks; can coach, teach, or lead others.

Exceeds Expectations

The extent to which a person receives clear information about performance effectiveness from the work itself.

Feedback

A job analysis technique that asks subject-matter experts to evaluate a job in terms of the abilities required to perform the job.

Fleishman Job Analysis System

A scheduling policy in which full-time employees may choose starting and ending times with guidelines.

Flextime

What are 3 alternatives to the 8 to 5 job?

Flextime, Job sharing, and compressed workweek.

Study of jobs to find simplest way to structure work to maximize efficiency. (usually used for highly specialized and repetitive jobs)

Industrial Engineering

A set of related duties

Job

The process of getting detailed information about jobs.

Job Analysis

What makes it possible to define what a person in a certain position does and what qualifications are needed for the job?

Job Analysis

_______________ _____________ is so important to HR managers that it has been called the building block of all HRM functions.

Job Analysis

A list of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDRs) that a particular job entails.

Job Description

What are the outputs of a job analysis?

Job Description and Job Specification.

Broadening types of tasks performed in a job

Job Enlargement

Empowering workers by adding more decision-making authority to jobs

Job Enrichment

Enlarging jobs by combining several relatively simple jobs to form a job with a wider range of tasks

Job Extension

What are the two methods of job enlargement?

Job Extension and Job Rotation

To achieve high-quality performance, organizations have to understand ___________ _________ and ____________.

Job Requirements and People

Enlarging jobs by moving employees among several different jobs.

Job Rotation

A work option in which two part-time employees carry out tasks associated with a single job.

Job Sharing

The qualities or or requirements that the person performing a job must possess. It is a list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform the job.

Job Specification

Factual or procedural information that is necessary for successfully performing a task

Knowledge

Are KSAO's directly observable?

No

Who monitors ergonomics?

OSHA

An online job description database developed by the labor department

Occupational Information Network (O*NET)

How often should job descriptions be reviewed?

Once per year

Job-related licensing, certifications, or personality traits.

Other Characteristics

The set of job duties performed by a particular person.

Position

A standardized job analysis questionnaire containing 194 questions about work behaviors, work conditions, and job characteristics that apply to a wide variety of jobs.

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

What are the three categories of inputs for a work flow analysis?

Raw Materials, Equipment, and Human Resources

Instead of merely enriching individual jobs, some organizations empower employees by designing work to be done by _______________ ____________ _____________ ______________.

Self-managing work teams that have authority for an entire work process or segment.

An individual's level of proficiency at performing a particular task

Skill

The degree to which team members have specialized knowledge or functional capacities.

Skill Differentiation

What are the three dimensions of measuring teams?

Skill Differentiation Authority Differentiation Temporal (Time) Stability

The extent to which a job requires a variety of skills to carry out the tasks involved.

Skill Variety

What are the 5 characteristics of a motivating job?

Skill Variety, Task Identity, Task Significance, Autonomy, and Feedback.

The degree to which a job requires completing a "whole" piece of work from beginning to end.

Task Identity

The extent to which the job has an important impact on the lives of other people

Task Significance

What is TDR?

Tasks, duties, and responsibilities

The broad term for doing one's work away from a centrally located office.

Telework

The length of time over which team members must work together

Temporal (time) stability

What is the objective of job enlargement?

To make jobs less repetitive and more interesting

T/F: All job descriptions within an organization should follow the same format

True

T/F: Almost every HRM program requires some type of information determined by job analysis

True

T/F: As workers find more and more uses for mobile devices, they are at risk for repetitive stress injuries (RSI's)

True

T/F: Individual differences among workers will also affect how much they are motivated by job characteristics and able to do their best work.

True

T/F: Some of the advantages of telework to employers include... - Less need for office space - greater flexibility to implement for managerial, professional, or sales jobs. - Flexibility to employees with special needs - CSR

True

T/F: The more characteristics a job has, the more motivating the job will be, according to the Job Characteristics Model.

True

T/F: redesigning work to make it more worker friendly can lead to increased efficiencies

True

T/F: telecommuting can support a strategy of corporate social responsibility because these employees do not produce the greenhouse gas emissions that result from commuting by car.

True

The process of analyzing the tasks necessary for the production of a product or service

Work Flow Design

The activities that a work unit's members engage in to produce a given output.

Work Processes

Self-managing work teams have authority for what?

an entire work process or segment

people who currently hold the position in the organization

incumbents

Telework is difficult to set up for __________________ workers.

manufacturing workers