Human Resource Management: Chapter 4

Tell how to obtain information for a job analysis.

-incumbents, that is, people who currently hold that position in the organization. -Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) -Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

simplify a job's mental demands

-limit the amount of information and memorization that the job requires -provide adequate lighting, easy-to-understand gauges and displays, simple-to-operate equipment, and clear instructions. -provide social-media tools to simplify information sharing -creating checklists, charts, or other aids -evaluate whether their employees can handle the job's mental demands

Trends in Job Analysis

-Job Design -Designing Efficient Jobs -Industrial Engineering -Designing Jobs That Motivate

In which of the following scenarios will workers be less motivated to perform the job?

When the job has minimal impact on the lives of other people

Information input

Where and how a worker gets information needed to perform the job.

Discuss the three activities performed as part of a work-flow analysis.

1. Analyzing work outputs: An output is the product of a work unit and is often an identifiable thing, such as a completed purchase order, an employment test, or a service. The process begins by identifying these work unit outputs and specifying the standards for the quantity or quality of these outputs. 2. Analyzing work processes: Once the outputs of the work unit have been identified, it is possible to examine the work processes used to generate the outputs. The work processes are the activities that members of a work unit engage in to produce output. Every process consists of operating procedures that specify how things should be done at each stage of the development of the product. The tasks are usually broken down into those performed by each person in the work unit. 3. Analyzing work inputs: The final stage in work-flow analysis is to identify the inputs used in the development of a work unit's product. These inputs include raw materials, equipment, and human skills.

Designing Jobs That Motivate

1. Skill variety 2. Task identity—completing a "whole" piece of work from beginning to end 3. Task significance—important impact on the lives of other people. 4. Autonomy— allows an individual to make decisions about the way the work will be carried out. 5. Feedback—receives clear information about performance effectiveness from the work itself.

Elements in job specification

A list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform a particular job. -looks at the qualities or requirements the person performing the job must possess. KSAO are characteristics of people that are not directly observably

Flextime

A scheduling policy in which full-time employees may choose starting and ending times within guidelines specified by the organization.

Job

A set of related duties.

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

A standardized job analysis questionnaire containing 194 questions about work behaviors, work conditions, and job characteristics that apply to a wide variety of jobs. *One of the broadest and best-researched instruments for analyzing jobs -6 sections-info input, mental processes, work output, relationships with other persons, job context and other characteristics

Job Sharing

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

Training

Almost every employee hired by an organization will require training. Any training program requires knowledge of the tasks performed in a job so that the training is related to the necessary knowledge and skills.

Performance appraisal

An accurate performance appraisal requires information about how well each employee is performing in order to reward employees who perform well and to improve their performance if it is below standard. Job analysis helps in identifying the behaviors and the results associated with effective performance.

Competency

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

Human resource planning

As planners analyze human resource needs and how to meet those needs, they must have accurate information about the levels of skill required in various jobs, so that they can tell what kinds of human resources will be needed.

Job Enlargement

Broadening the types of tasks performed in a job.

Job Enrichment

Empowering workers by adding more decision-making authority to jobs.

Job Extension

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

Job Rotation

Enlarging jobs by moving employees among several different jobs.

Fleishman Job Analysis System

Job analysis technique that asks subject-matter experts to evaluate a job in terms of the abilities required to perform the job. -useful for employee selection, training, and career development. consists of a survey that is based on 52 categories to which job incumbents are required to respond

2 levels of workflow

Macro and Micro

Career planning

Matching an individual's skills and aspirations with career opportunities 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.

According to Herzberg's two-factor theory, which of the following factors would motivate individuals the most?

Meaningfulness of a job

Work redesign

Often an organization seeks to redesign work to make it more efficient or to improve quality. The redesign requires detailed information about the existing job(s). In addition, preparing the redesign is similar to analyzing a job that does not yet exist.

3 types of job analysis methods

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ), Fleishman Job Analysis System (FJAS), Occupational Information Network (O*NT)

Carla Warne is an HR executive looking for a new job. She comes across an advertisement in a newspaper seeking applications for the post of an HR manager. The advertisement exclusively highlights requirements such as strong communication skills, excellent teamwork, and leadership skills. These requirements constitute the _____.

Responsibility

Work Flow Analysis

Study of the way work (inputs, activities, and outputs) moves through an organization are useful in providing: 1) a means for the managers to understand all the tasks required to produce a high-quality product 2) the skills necessary to perform those tasks

other characteristics

The activities, conditions, and characteristics other than those previously described that are relevant to the job personality traits such as someone's persistence or motivation to achieve.

Work output

The physical activities, tools, and devices used by the worker to perform the job.

Job context

The physical and social contexts where the work is performed.

Job evaluation

The process of job evaluation involves assessing the relative dollar value of each job to the organization in order to set up fair pay structures. If employees do not believe pay structures are fair, they will become dissatisfied and may quit, or they will not see much benefit in striving for promotions. To put dollar values on jobs, it is necessary to get information about different jobs and compare them.

Mental processes

The reasoning, decision making, planning, and information-processing activities involved in performing the job.

Relationships with other persons

The relationships with other people required in performing the job.

Position

The set of duties (job) performed by a particular person.

Industrial Engineering

The study of jobs to find the simplest way to structure work in order to maximize efficiency.

Ergonomics

The study of the interface between individuals' physiology and the characteristics of the physical work environment. the goal is to minimize the physical strain on the worker

Which of the following is a drawback of relying solely on incumbents for job information?

They may have an incentive to exaggerate what they do.

Selection

To identify the most qualified applicants for various positions, decision makers need to know what tasks the individuals must perform, as well as the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities.

All job descriptions within an organization should follow the same format.

True

HR

What knowledge, skills, and abilities are needed by those performing the tasks?

Raw inputs

What materials, data, and information are needed?

Output

What product, information, or service is provided? How is the output measured?

Equipment

What special equipment, facilities, and systems are needed?

Activity

What tasks are required in the production of the input?

Job specification

a list of skills, knowledge, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs)

Job characteristics model

a model of how job design affects employee reaction

PAQ

a standardized job analysis questionnaire containing 194 items representing work behaviors, work conditions, or job characteristics that are generalizable across a wide variety of jobs

job description

a written description of the basic tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDR) that the job entailS Key components: job title, brief description of the TDRs, list of essential duties detailed specifications of the tasks involved in carrying out each duty

Skill is defined as _____.

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

telework, or telecommuting

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

FJAS

defines abilities as enduring attributes of individuals that account for differences in performance; based on taxonomy of 52 cognitive, psychomotor, physical, and sensory abilities that adequately represent all the dimensions relevant to work

Organizational structure

division of labor and patterns of coordination, communication, workflow, and formal power that direct organizational activities

Knowledge

factual or procedural information that is necessary for successfully performing a task.

Perceptual-motor approach

focuses on human mental capabilities and limitations; goal is to design jobs that don't exceed people's mental capabilities

Mechanistic approach

focuses on identifying the simplest way to structure work that maximizes efficiency by designing job tasks around 3 concepts: task specialization, skill simplification, and repitition

Biological appraoch

focuses on outcomes such as physical fatigue, aches and pains, and health complaints

when are the basic organizational structure most appropriate

functional structures are most appropriate in stable, predictable environments division structures are most appropriate in unstable, unpredictable environments where is difficult to anticipate demands for resources and coordination requirements b/w jobs are not consistent over time

Motivational Approach

has roots in organizational psychology and management literature views attitudinal variables and behavioral variables as the most important outcomes of job design focuses on increasing the meaningfulness of jobs through such interventions as job enlargement, job enrichment, and the construction of jobs around

Micro workflow

identifying the detail tasks of every stage in the workflow

Macro workflow

identifying the major steps, phases, or units of a workflow

The situation in which companies allow full-time qualified employees to trade places with an employee in a different department or different location is referred to as _____.

job swap

According to the Job Characteristics Model, which of the following would motivate employees the most?

job that requires a variety of skills and is an independent project.

4 approached used in job design

mechanistic, motivational, biology, perceptual-motor

Span of control

number of people directly reporting to the next level; assumes coordination through direct supervision

Work-flow design

process of analyzing the tasks necessary for the production of a product or service, prior to allocating and assigning these tasks to a particular job category or person

what are efficiency experts look for?

prowl through the manufacturing floor for waste that would not be detected by most managers (stopwatch, clipboards, and charts) 1) movement that creates no value 2) overburdening of specific people or machines 3) inconsistent production that creates excessive inventories

mechanistic approach

pursues maximize efficiency primarily by making a job so simple that anyone can be trained quickly and easily to perform it workers can be easily replace

Elements of Work Flow Analysis

raw inputs, equipment, human resources, activity, and output

Ability

refers to a more general enduring capability that an individual possesses. -to cooperate with others or to write clearly and precisely

Job redesign

refers to changing the tasks or the way work is performed in an existing job

Organization structure

refers to the relatively stable and formal network of vertical and horizontal interconnections among jobs that constitute the organization

why companies hire efficiency experts

removing every bit of waste in production operations decreasing movements that create no value

Organizational design and selection process

scope the work, structure the work, staff the work, synchronize the work

job design affects employee reactions based on 5 characteristics

skill variety, task identity, autonomy, feedback, task significance

social network

social structure of people, related (directly/indirectly) to each other through relations between the organization a. a look at the informal of connection inside the organization

Scientific management

sought to identify the one best way to perform the job through the use of time-and-motion studies; earliest mechanistic approaches

The extent to which the job has an impact on the lives of other people is referred to as its

task significance

Centralization

the degree to which decision-making authority resides at the top of the organizational chart as opposed to being distributed t/o lower levels

Departmentalization

the degree to which work units are grouped based on functional similarity or similarity of work flow

Job Design

the process of defining how work will be performed and the tasks that will be required in a given job.

Job Analysis

the process of getting detailed information about jobs task: have a passive, information-gathering orientation it usually includes both: job description job specification as an output of the process. Used for: recruitment and selection, Compensation, Training, and discovering unassigned duties

Job specifications differ from job descriptions in that job specifications primarily describe:

the qualities a person performing the job must possess.

A job specification focuses on:

the qualities or requirements the person performing the job must possess.

O*NET

uses a common language that generalizes across jobs to describe the abilities, work styles, work activities and work context required for various occupations that are more broadly defined

elements of Occupational Information Network (O*NET)

uses common language that generalizes across jobs to describe the abilities, work style, work activities, and work context require for the job

Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)

vehicle for helping the new public employment system link the demand for skills and the supply of skills in the U.S. workforce. -1930's created by the Department of Labor

In a Position Analysis Questionnaire, the details of physical activities, tools, and devices used by the worker to perform the job relate to the section termed _____.

work output