Studied by 36 people
What is the order of work analysis & design?
Work Analysis Flow
Job Analysis
Job Description
____ is considered the “bedrock” of human resources management, as it lays the groundwork for all other HR activities
Job Analysis
Job
Collection of tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDRs)
Work
Broad, includes TDRs + skills & knowledge
Why is the concept of a job in work design'/analysis up for debate?
Because of rapid technology, work is becoming more important than jobs
Work Analysis
Defining & codifying tasks + duties → Job Description
Includes job analysis + task/skill analysis
One of the give major variables in strategy implementation is
Job Design
How did companies in the United States shift from a mechanistic approach (assembly lines) to self-directed work teams?
Volvo
Charifman of Volvo - “'I want the people in a team to be able to go home at night and really say, 'I built that car,”
Motivational approach to work design
The Volvo Way is based on the conviction that every individual has the capability and the determination to improve our business
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
Bundling tasks → jobs
Organization Structure
Stable and formal network of vertical and horizontal interconnections among jobs that constitute the organization
Understand how jobs at different levels relate
The picture below is an example of
Work-Unit Activity Analysis
For a Work Unit Activity Analysis, you:
Start at the Outputs, then end with the input
Raw Materials
consist of the materials that will be converted into the work unit’s product
KSAO’s are not raw materials/input
Equipment
refers to the technology and machinery necessary to transform the raw materials into the product
Human Skills
Final inputs in the work-flow process
How is the work-unit activity analysis important to HR?
Must understand the qualifications for the job to recruit & retain talent
Work Outputs
Can be a product/service
Must also specify standards for quantity or quality of outputs:
Can create challenges for how to process inputs to generate outputs efficiently.
Must decided whether to produce whole output or just parts.
Work Processes
Determine how output is generated (operating procedures).
Team-based job design.
Becoming increasingly popular - back each other up, catch errors, etc.
Efficiency experts can improve work-flow processes.
Lean production.
When efficiency experts visit a company, they are looking for 3 different kinds of waste:
(1) movement that creates no value
(2) the overburdening of specific people or machines
(3) inconsistent production that creates excessive inventories
Lean Production
Developed in Japan
Leverage technology + skilled personnel
Emphasizing manufacturing goods with a minimum amount of time, materials, money, and people
What is the downside to “just-in-time” inventory management practices?
Efficiency gained from maintaining an inventory (measured in days rather than weeks) → creates a lack of flexibility
True or False: Identifying outputs is the final stage of Work-Unit Activity Analysis?
False
It is the first step
Job Analysis
Process of analyzing various aspects of work so as to come about a job description
Important in design/redesigning work
What are potential uses of job analysis?
Organization Deisgn
HR managmeent
Work design
Organization design
Smaller companies tend to have more open-ended approaches to job design because they need employees to be more flexible & do more tasks
Larger organizations, which tend to be more specialized, usually have more formality
Task
Distinct work activity with a specific purpose
Job
Collection of tasks
Job Family
Group of jobs with similar characteristics
Occupation
Higher level than a job, a profession
True or False: accoutning and laborers are both occupations
True
If it can be high-level and include a variety of different types of jobs (ex. auditor, analyst, etc.) it is an occupation
What are the 2 job analysis techniques?
O*Net
Position Analysis Questionnaire
Task inventory approach
Focuses on collecting information about the tasks that need to be done to perform a job
Subject matter experts generate statements about the tasks needed to perform the job
Job incumbents put a checkmark next to the statements that they feel describe their job
True or False:
Small companies and startups tend to have more narrow or closed approaches to job design because they have fewer tasks or moving pieces relative to large companies.
False
True or False: TDRs are observable actions
True
Job Description
a list of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDRs) that a job entails
Balance breadth and specificity when constructiong
What elements do job description have? (5)
Job Title
Job Activities & Procedures
Working Conditions & Physical Environment
Social Environment
Conditions of Employment
Job Specification
is a list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform the job
Knowledge
factual (declarative) knowledge or procedural information that is necessary for successfully performing a task
Skill
individual’s level of proficiency at performing a particular task
Ability
refers to a more general enduring capability that an individual possesses
True or False:
Under KSOAs - A skill is an individual's level of proficiency when performing a specific task.
True
Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)
194 items about work behaviors, work conditions, job characteristics
Most commonly used P
Generalized across variety of jobs
Fixed job titles, narrow task descriptions
Difficult to make job description
Requires trained employee
Occupational Information Network (O*NET)
1000 - describe the qualifications, work styles, activities and contexts relevant to broadly defined occupations
Uses common language, various occupations, broadly defined
May generalize across countries (developed in the U.S.)
Transition from DOT
The PAQ has 6 sections:
information input, relationships, mental processes, job context, work output and other characteristics
O-NET is most usefel in:
A rapidly changing, incrqasingly complex, global economy
Job Design
Process of defining how work will be performed and the tasks that will be required in a given job
Job redesign
changing the tasks or the way work is performed in an existing job
one must have a complete understanding of the job – through job analysis – and its relevance for work-flow
Mechanistic Approach
“identifying the simplest way to structure work that maximizes efficiency”
Specialization
Skill variety
Work methods autonomy
___ is one of the earliest mechanistic approaches that sought to identify the one best way to perform the job through the use of time-and-motion studies.
Scientific management
Motivational Approach
job characteristics that affect the psychological meaning + motivational potential
views attitudinal variables as the most important outcomes of job design
Decision-making autonomy
Task significance
Interdependence
Job Characteristics Model (5)
Skill variety is the extent to which the job requires a variety of skills to carry out the tasks.
Task identity is the degree to which a job requires completing a “whole” piece of work from beginning to end.
Autonomy is the degree to which the job allows an individual to make decisions about the way the work will be carried out.
Feedback is the extent to which a person receives clear information about performance effectiveness from the work itself.
Task significance is the extent to which the job has an important impact on the lives of other people.
Biological Approach
identify clearly the outputs of work, to specify the quality and quantity standards for those outputs, and to analyze the processes and inputs necessary for producing outputs that meet the quality standards
Physical demands
Ergonomics
Work conditions
Perceptual Motor Approach
Roots in the human‑factors literature and focuses on human mental capabilities and limitations
The goal is to design jobs in a way that ensures that they do not exceed people's mental capabilities
Job complexity
Information processing
quipment use
Trade Offs Among Job Design Approaches
.
According to the BCG video, What are the key HR issues folks are concerned about?
Talent Management
Leaders
Engagement
Workforce planning
According to the BCG video, why are workforce planning + recruiting increasingly important to the future?
Retiring baby boomers
Growth in employability issues
In the BCG video, what does the speaker mean by “strategic workforce planning”, and how is this relevant to the importance of HR as a business function?
Labor Supply & Demand
shortage/surplus of labor
Competitive advantage
HR Planning
Must follow EEO requirements, be effective/efficient, support the KSAs of employees, & within operating budgets
Processes + practices used to ensure individuals with the KSAOs meet an organization at it’s current & future labor force needs
including talent inventories, workforce forecasts, action plans and program evaluations
How is HR planning part of the strategic management process?
Forecasting labor demand (external analysis, which is part of SWOT)
What are the 3 stages in the HR planning process?
Forecasting - make useful predictions about where there will be future labor surpluses and shortages
Goal Setting & Strategic Planning - set specific, quantitative goals for increasing or decreasing human resource units
Program Implementation & Evaluation - expansion into new markets, mergers & acquisitions, industry trends
Determining Labor Demand
•derived from product/service demanded
•external in nature
•multiple methods and various levels of sophistication (statistical analysis, judgement)
•indicators
Determining Labor Supply
•Internal movements caused by transfers, promotions, turnover, retirements, etc.
•transitional matrices identify employee movements in different job categories over time to chart historical trends in company’s labor supply
•Succession planning
•useful for AA / EEO purposes
What is a workforce utilization review?
comparison of the proportion of a firm’s workers in a particular subgroup within a particular job or occupation with the relevant outside labor market to determine if persons in that subgroup (e.g., Hispanics or Women) are being under-utilized
True or False:
Succession plans with internally sourced candidates are generally cheaper than those with externally sourced candidates?
True
In the War for Talent video, what is the shift from HR being 1.0 → 3.0?
1.0:
HR = personnel, transactional
3.0:
Transofrmational
CEOs demand HR is good at business
In the War for Talent video. what does Richards mean when he says “The - War for Talent is over and talent won”?
Employers are facing a shortage for talented workers & have trouble getting large pool of applicants
What is the global average of talent shortage around the world?
75%
Job Choice
An individual’s decision to accept an offer of employment
Personnel Policies
•Organizational decisions that affect the nature of the vacancies for which people are recruited.
•Personnel Policies vary:
Internal versus external recruiting
Internal Job ladders
Extrinsic versus intrinsic rewards
Employment-at-will policies
Image advertising
Internal Recruitment
Gives opportunities for promotion to employees
Lateral move - try something new/develop new skills
Vertical move - promotions
Word of mouth, employee inventory, previous performance appraisals
Pros: Most cost-effective, employees already know company, managers have access to past performance
Cons: Companies want new ideas, difficult for diversity
External Recruitment
Source should be dictated by nature of the job, location, and skill level needed
Relevant labor market: location in which one can reasonably expect to find a sufficient supply of qualified applicants
Why are informal sources of external recruiting important?
Word of mouth, referrals
Applicant will have a more realistic sense of what it may look like to work at firm
Ex. , Sprint saw their proportion of new hires grow from 8% to 34% recently
Advertising
Newspapers, bulletin boards and the Internet
Websites can help firms determine the extent to which a individual might actually be a good fit for a position
College Recruiting
•Sending recruiters to college campuses to attract employees right out of college
•Recruiters usually have multiple openings
•May speak to student organizations or alumni groups
•Internships are sometimes offered to evaluate performance and allow student to get to know organization
Employment Agencies & Search Firms
•May benefit small HR departments to make recruiting process more efficient
•Public employment agencies provide career guidance, testing, training, and placement for free
•Private employment agencies provide job search assistance for a fee
True or False: recruiters have a large impact on job choice
False
What are ways a recruiter is likely to be perceived as more credible?
From the same functional area the applicant is being considered for
Give a realistic job preview, are warm, informative, & honest
How to enhance a recruiter’s impact?
1.Provide timely feedback
2.Include line personnel
3. Recruit in teams
What are the arugments against using personality yesting in selection? (3)
people can fake their answers
2. tests are inaccurate
3. personality changes from situation to situation
Reliability
degree to which a measure of physical or cognitive abilities or traits is free from random error. Reliability is “the extent of unsystematic variation of one individual’s scores
What is the test-retest reliability method?
the degree to which a measure correlates with itself at two different times
Is a correlation coefficient (perfect = +1.0, negative = -1.0r
Whats is internal consistency reliability?
the extent to which different items in the same test are consistent with one another
Correlation Coefficient Guide
0.10 are trivial
0.10 to 0.29 are small
30 to 0.49 are moderate
0.50 and above are considered large
Validity
extent to which a performance measure assesses all the relevant—and only the relevant- aspects of a criterion such as job performance
Quality & accuracy of inferences made from the test
What kind of correlation is this?
Positive
As extraversion goes up, so does sales performance
What kind of correlation is this?
Negative
As x goes up, y goes down
What kind of correlation is this?
Zero
do not change each other, & cannot be predicted from each other
Content Validation
a test-validation strategy performed by demonstrating that the items, questions, or problems posed by a test are a representative sample of the kinds of situations or problems that occur on the job
Criterion-Related Validity
demonstrate the extent to which a given measure (X) is predictive of some criterion (Y)
Job performance = ultimate criterion in personnel
Concurrent Validation
Less time consuming + less resource intensive as predictive validation
Predictive validity
Measuring all applicants, correlating scores on the test pre-hiring with job performance scores post-hiring
Limitations:
Needs more time/effort
Not often done in business organizations
Generalizability
the degree to which the validity of a selection method established in one context extends to other contexts
Contexts include:
different situations (jobs or organizations)
different samples of people
different time periods
___ is impacted by reliability, validity, and generalizability
Utility
Utility
degree to which information (provided by selection methods) enhances the effectiveness of selecting personnel
Verbal Comprehension
person’s capacity to understand & use written/spoken language
Quantitative Ability
Speed & accuracy w/ one can solve arithmetic problems
Reasoning Ability
Person’s capacity to invent solutions to diverse problems
How does IQ predict/relate job performance?
Rapid learning & job knowledge when info is complex
0.60 - 0.70
Note 
Flashcard (22)