HRM L2

Mod - The Analysis and Design of Work

Job Analysis

analyzing existing jobs to gather information for other human resource management practices such as selection, training, performance appraisal, and compensation

Job Design

redesigning existing jobs to make them more efficient or more motivating to jobholders

Job Design

proactive orientation toward changing the job

Job Analysis

passive information-gathering orientation

Workflow 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

Organization Structure

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

Workflow Analysis

identify 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

Workflow Process

provides a means for the manager to understand all the tasks required to produce a number of high-quality products as well as the skills necessary to perform those tasks

Output

product of a work unit that is often an identifiable object or a service

Raw Inputs’ question

what materials, data, and information are needed?

Equipment’s question

what special equipment, facilities, and systems are needed?

Human Resources’ question

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

Activity’s question

what tasks are required in the production of the output?

Output

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

Work Processes

activities that members of a work unit engage in to produce a given output

Work Processes

consists of operating procedures that specify how things should be done at each stage of the development of the product

Operating Procedures

tasks that must be performed in the production of the output

Tasks

broken down into those performed by each person in the work unit

Workflow Analysis’ Final Stage

identify the inputs used in the development of the work unit‘s product

Inputs

raw materials, equipment, and human skills needed to perform the tasks

Raw Materials

consist of the materials that will be converted into the work unit‘s product

Equipment

technology and machinery necessary to transform the raw materials into the product

Organization Structure

provides a crosssectional overview of the static relationships between individuals and units that create the outputs

Workflow Design

provides longitudinal overview of the dynamic relationships by which inputs are converted into outputs

Organization Structure

typically displayed via organizational charts that convey both vertical reporting relationships and horizontal functional responsibilities

Dimensions of Structure

Centralization and Departmentalization

Centralization

degree to which decision-making authority resides at the top of the organizational chart as opposed to being distributed throughout lower levels (in which case authority is decentralized)

Departmentalization

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

Structural Configurations

Functional Structure and Divisional Structure

Functional Structure

• employs a functional departmentalization scheme with relatively high levels of centralization

• individual units are so specialized as they have a weak conceptualization of the overall organization mission

• they tend to identify with their department and cannot always be relied on to make decisions that are in the best interests of the organization as a whole

Divisional Structure

• combine a divisional departmentalization scheme with relatively low levels of centralization

• act almost like separate, self-sufficient, semi-autonomous organizations.

Job Analysis

process of getting detailed information about jobs to understand match job requirements and people to achieve high-quality performance

Job Analysis

building block of everything that human resource managers do as it supplies some type of information

Work Redesign

• this is to make a work more efficient or effective by having an available detailed information about the existing job

• similar to analyzing a job that does not yet exist.

They are interrelated

Job Analysis & Job Design

Human Resource Planning

managers analyze the human resource needs in a dynamic environment & develop activity that enable a firm to adapt to change

Human Resource Planning

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

Selection

identifies the most qualified applicants for employment

Job Analysis

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

Training

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

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

Job Analysis

organization can identify the behaviors and results that distinguish effective performance from ineffective performance

Career Planning

entails matching an individual‘s skills and aspirations with opportunities that are or may become available in the organization

Career Planning

• this matching process requires that those in charge of career planning know the skill requirements of the various jobs

• allows them to guide individuals into jobs in which they will succeed and be satisfied

Job Evaluation

involves assessing the relative dollar value of each job to the organization to set up internally equitable pay structures

Importance of Job Analysis to Line Managers

1. Managers must have detailed information about all the jobs in their work group to understand the work-flow process

2. Managers need to understand the job requirements to make intelligent hiring decisions.

3. Manager is responsible for ensuring that each individual is performing satisfactorily (or better) to evaluate how well each person is performing and to provide feedback to those whose performance needs improvement

4. Manager is responsible to ensure that the work is being done safely, knowing where potential hazards might manifest themselves and creating a climate where people feel free to interrupt the production process if dangerous conditions exist

Nature of Information

Job Descriptions and Job Specifications

Job Description

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

TDRs

these are observable actions and stands for Tasks, Duties, and Responsibilities

Job Specification

list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform the job

KSAOs

stands for Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and other Characteristics

Knowledge

refers to factual 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

Other Characteristics

personality traits such as one‘s achievement motivation or persistence

Process of Job Analysis

entails obtaining information from people familiar with the job

Subject-matter Experts

people who are familiar with the job and possess deep knowledge

Job Incumbent

to get the most accurate information about what is actually done on the job

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

• one of the broadest and most well researched instruments for analyzing jobs

• its emphasis on inputs, processes, relationships, and outputs is consistent with the work-flow analysis approach

• a standardized job analysis questionnaire containing 194 items, representing work behaviors, work conditions, and job characteristics that can be generalized across a wide variety of jobs

How many items in PAQ? And how they are organized?

They are 194 items in PAQ and they are organized into 6 sections.

Sections in PAQ

1. Information Input

2. Mental Processes

3. Work Output

4. Relationships with other persons

5. Job Context

6. Other Characteristics

Information Output

where and how a worker gets information needed to perform the job

Mental Processes

the reasoning, decision making, planning, and information processing activities that are involved in performing the job

Work Output

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

Relationships with other persons

the relationships with other people required in performing the job

Job Context

the physical and social contexts where the work is performed

Other Characteristics

the activities, conditions, and characteristics other than those previously described that are relevant to the job

Job Design

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.

Mechanistic Approach

• it has roots in classical industrial engineering

• focuses in identifying the simplest way to structure work that maximizes efficiency

• entails reducing the complexity of the work to provide more human resource efficiency, making the work so simple that anyone can be trained quickly and easily to perform it

• this approach focuses on designing jobs around the concepts of task specialization, skill simplification, and repetition.

Scientific Management

• one of the earliest and best-known statements of the mechanistic approach

• sought to identify the “one best way” to perform the job

• once identified, workers should be selected based on their ability to do the job, trained in the standard “one best way” to perform the job, and be offered monetary incentives to motivate them to work at their highest capacity

According to this approach, productivity could be maximized by taking a _________ to the process of designing jobs

Scientific Approach

Motivational Approach

• it has roots in organizational psychology and management literature

• emerged as a reaction to mechanistic approaches to job design

• focuses on the job characteristics that affect psychological meaning and motivational potential

• it views attitudinal variables (such as satisfaction) as the most important outcomes of job design

• its prescriptions focus on increasing the meaningfulness of jobs through such interventions as job enlargement, job enrichment, and the construction of jobs around socio technical systems

Motivational Approach’s Job Characteristics Model

1. Skill Variety

2. Task Identity

3. Autonomy

4. Feedback

5. Task Significance

Skill Variety

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

Task Identity

the degree to which a job requires completing a “whole” piece of work from beginning to end

Autonomy

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

Feedback

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

Task Significance

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

Biological Approach

• this comes primarily from the sciences of biomechanics (i.e., the study of body movements), work physiology, and occupational medicine

• usually referred to as Ergonomics

• its goal is to minimize physical strain on the worker by structuring the physical work environment around the way the human body works

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

• any job that creates a significant number of injuries is a target for ergonomic redesign

Ergonomics

concerned with examining the interface between individuals' physiological characteristics and the physical work environment

Perceptual-Motor Approach

• it has roots in human-factors literature

• focuses on human mental capabilities and limitations

• its goal is to design jobs in a way that ensures they do not exceed people‘s mental capabilities and limitations

• this generally tries to improve reliability, safety, and user reactions by designing jobs to reduce their information-processing requirements

• similar to the mechanistic approach, this approach generally decreases the job‘s cognitive demands