DESIGNING PRODUCTIVE AND SATIS-FYING WORK

- Job Analysis & Design

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A Case of Job-based HRM

A federal court has determined that in New London, Connecticut, the police were justified in denying employment to an applicant who was too smart to be a policeman. Yep, he was too smart for the New London police force. The Atlanta Mobile Register writes "Police throughout the country should be en-raged, because the policy at issue in this case feeds the unfortunate stereo-type of the "dumb cop." For that matter, the citizens of New London, Conn., should be enraged, too, because it is their police department that is ensuring that the officers who serve the public are of only average intelligence. The policy is “insane.“ The case began when Robert Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, applied for the New London police force. When he took the en-trance exam, he scored 33 points - which indicates an IQ of about 125. But the department only considers candidates who score between 20 and 27, with 20 representing an IQ of about 100, which is supposed to be average. "The department's theory is that those who score too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after receiving costly training. "Mr. Jordan sued, saying that he was the victim of illegal discrimination. Two federal courts have now refused to uphold his claim, though, saying that be-cause the same standards were applied to all applicants, no illegal discrimina-tion occurred. The courts also ruled that even though the policy might be un-wise - we would say flat-out stupid - it was at least arguably a rational way to reduce expensive job turnover." (Atlanta Mobile Register 09/11/00)"

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Taylor’s Scientific Manage-ment The principal object of management

- secure the maximum prosperity for both em-ployers and employees, but soldiering was prevalent.

Causes of Soldiering - The fallacy that efficiency improvement will lead to layoffs

- Systematic free-riding from imperfect man-agement (hourly wage system)

- Inefficient rule-of-thumb methods

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Taylor’s Scientific Management (Cont’d)

Task management Job-based hiring and training

Job & Performance-contingent payHierarchical division of the work and responsibility

• Concepts of tasks or jobs • Time and motion study (goal management)• Narrowly-defined / Individual (vis-à-vis team) job design

• Job-based pay • Individual / short-term incentive systems • Appropriate pay level

• Task management initiated by management• Leadership• Suggestion program• Long-term change effort

• Job-based selection• Develop specialist• Feedback and coaching from su-pervisors Princi-

ples of SM

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What is the Job?

JOB FAMILYA group of individual jobs with similar characteristics; e.g. marketing, engineering, office support, technical.

JOBA collection of tasks/duties that a person is required to perform at work.; e.g. customer support representative.

TASK /DUTY

A specific statement of what a per-son does; for example, answers the telephone.

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O*NET (Occupational Information Net-work)

Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)– A systematic occupational classification struc-

ture based on interrelationships of job tasks and requirements.

– Contains standardized and comprehensive de-scriptions of twenty-thousand jobs.

O*NET Database– A online database of all DOT occupations plus

an update of over 3,500 additional DOT occu-pations.

– Data are collected and published continuously. http://online.onetcenter.org

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Evaluation of Taylorism

Contributions - cost-efficiency and productivity improvement, espe-

cially under stable environment (competitors, client needs, technology), mass-production, market-dominant players

Limitations 1. Inhumanization – overlook the value of intrinsic rewards and so-

cial relationships, work alienation2. Adversarial labor relations – conflict between labor and man-

agement regarding the appropriate level of goal and profit dis-tribution, “Drive System” focusing on productivity

3. Deskilling 4. Inflexibility – social, political, psychological, and economic costs

for change

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Three Elements of Work De-sign Breath of job

– The number and variety of tasks that will be grouped to-gether to form employee jobs

Autonomy– the extent to which individual workers are given the free-

dom and independence to plan and carry out work tasks.– potential benefits: information & learning, motivation &

ownership, flexibility to adapt quickly to change

Interdependence – the extent to which an individual’s work actions and out-

comes are influenced by other people.

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Strategic Framework for Work Design

Figure 4-1

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Job Analysis

Job are identified through a process known as Job Analysis.

Job analysis is a process of getting detailed information about jobs to determine the responsibilities of a job and the associated knowl-edge, skill, and ability requirements. collect information that identifies similarities and differences in

the work

Job Description– Statement of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDRs) of a

job to be performed

Job Specification– Statement of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other character-

istics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform the job

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Job Descriptions and Job Specifications

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Example of Job Description

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Example of Job Specifica-tions

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Job Analysis Process

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Job Analysis Methods

Task Analysis Inventory– The job agents provide ratings concerning a large number of tasks.

Most analyses require responses for at least 100 different task statements. These task statements usually begin with an action verb that describes a

specific activity

Task X if Done

Time Spent1=small amount :5=large amount

Difficulty1=one of the easiest :5=one of the hardest

Importance1=not important :5=extremely im-portant

1. Answer customers questions about prod-ucts and services

2. Call patient about script not picked up af-ter 7 days

3. Make refunds

4. Recommend prod-ucts to customers

Example: Task inventory for “customer service duty of a Drug Clerk in a Pharmacy Pharmacy

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Job Analysis Methods (Cont’d) Critical-incidents technique

– Job agents are asked to generate a number of statements that describe behaviors they consider particularly helpful or harmful for accomplishing work.

– Each statement includes a description of the situation and the actions that deter-mined whether the outcome was desirable or undesirable.

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Results from An Analysis Using the Critical-Incidents Technique

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Job Analysis Methods (Cont’d) Position Analysis Questionnaires (PAQ)

– a structured questionnaire that assesses the work behaviors re-quired for a job. Such as: Information input—where and how a worker obtains needed information such

as education and or experience (e.g., use of written material) Mental processes—reasoning and decision-making activities (e.g., using math-

ematics) Work output—physical actions required for the job, as well as tools or devices

used (e.g., use of keyboard devices) Relationships with other persons—the interactions and social connections that

a worker forms with others (e.g., Instruction, supervision) Job context—the physical and social surroundings where work activities are

performed (e.g., low temperature) Other job characteristics—activities, conditions, or characteristics that are im-

portant but not contained in the other five dimensions (e.g., controlled work pace)

– collects information not about tasks or duties but rather about the characteristics people must have in order to do the job well.

– transcribed into smaller document called a Job Description by the job analysts.

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Competency Modeling

An alternative to traditional job design that focused on competencies (a broader set of characteristics and ca-pabilities) that workers need to effectively perform job duties

Competencies include both “can-do” (knowledge, skills, and abilities) and “will-do” (motivation, values, and in-terests) characteristics of people.

One area of difference between competency modeling and traditional job analysis is that com-petency modeling tends to link work analysis pro-cedures and outcomes to business goals and strategies

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Importance of Job Analysis

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Job Require-ments

Job Require-ments

Recruitment / Selection

Recruitment / Selection

Organizational Structure

Organizational Structure

Performance Appraisal

Performance Appraisal

Training and Development

Training and Development

Compensation Management

Compensation Management

Determine the qualifications necessary to perform a job

Determine the qualifications necessary to perform a job

Reduce role conflict & ambiguity and design work flows

Reduce role conflict & ambiguity and design work flows

Provide performance criteria for evaluating employees

Provide performance criteria for evaluating employees

Determine training needs and develop instructional programs

Determine training needs and develop instructional programs

Provide basis for determining employee’s rate of pay

Provide basis for determining employee’s rate of pay

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Job Analysis and Legal Is-sues When an organization makes hiring or promotion deci-

sions that have discriminatory effects, the organization can defend itself successfully by showing that it based its decisions on good, solid analyses of the jobs involved.

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Job Design

The process of job design focuses on determining what tasks will be grouped together to form employee jobs

Job

Design for Efficiency(Mechanistic Approach / Industrial

engineering) simplify work tasks as much as possible

Design for Mental Ca-pacity

(Perceptual approach)simplify mental demands

on workers and thereby de-crease errors

Design for Motivation (Motivational ap-

proach) provide workers with

meaningful and enjoyable tasks to build intrinsic mo-

tivationDesign for Safety and Health (Biological Ap-proach / Ergonomics)

designing work to prevent physical injury and discomfort

Job Characteristic Model (Hackman & Oldham, 1980)

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Employee growthneed strength

Personal and Work outcomes

High intrinsicwork motivation

High work performance

High job satisfaction

Low absenteeismand turnover

Critical Psychologicalstatus

Experiencedmeaningfulnessof the work

Experiencedresponsibilityfor work outcomes

Knowledge ofresults

Core job dimensions

Skill varietyTask identityTask significance

Autonomy

Feedback

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Job Design Tradeoffs

Motivation vs. efficiency– Often the same factors that enhance efficiency (e.g., repetition, stan-

dardization) reduce motivation.

Motivation vs. Overload– Important not to overload and stress employees. – Probably curvilinear: moderate levels of job enrichment/enlargement

enhances performance.

Balancing costs– Increased employee responsibility means higher wages.– Enlarged/enriched jobs will require more training and more selective

hiring systems.– Biological or perceptual job redesign will involve altering or replacing

equipment, technologies, etc… Need to balance gains in productivity vs. upfront costs.

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Closing Questions

Giving workers more autonomy is a sure way to improve their performance

The primary objective of good work de-sign is to cluster tasks into jobs that maximize the efficiency of workers

People who continuously perform repeti-tive tasks often find their work to be un-satisfying

T or F

T or F

T or F