Module IV

Job Analysis

INTRODUCTION
Job analysis is the process of gathering information about a job. It is, to be more specific, a systematic investigation of the tasks, duties and responsibilities necessary to do a job.

Nature of job analysis

Job Tasks

Job Analysis

Job Duties

Job Responsibilities

Benefits of Job analysis

Job analysis information is useful for a variety of organisation purposes ranging from human resource planning to career counselling

Important benefits of Job Analysis

Multif c t d tur f A l i
Recr it ent Human Resource Planning Selecti n

Job E aluation

Pl cement

Job esign and Redesign

r ining

Performance Appraisal Employee Safety

Counselling

Who should conduct job analysis?

   Job incumbents themselves upervisors xternal analysts

The process of Job analysis

The major steps involved in job analysis are:  Organisational analysis  election of representative positions to be analysed

 Collection of job analysis data  Preparation of job description  Preparation of job specification

Methods Of Collecting Job Analysis Data

Seven general techniques are generally used to collect job analysis data;    Job performan e: the analyst actually performs the job in question and collects the needed information Personal observation: the analyst observes others doing the job and writes a summary Criti al in i ents: job incumbents describe several incidents relating to work, based on past experience; the analyst collects, analyses and classifies data. Interview: job incumbents and supervisors are interviewed to get the most essential information about a job

Panel of experts: experienced people such as job incumbents and supervisors with good knowledge of the job asked to provide the information. Diary metho : job incumbents asked to maintain diaries or logs of their daily job activities and record the time spent and nature of work carried out. Questionnaire metho : job incumbents approached through a properly designed questionnaire and asked to provide details.


The Position nalysis Questionnaire: it is a standardized form used to collect specific information about job tasks and worker traits.

Employee activities in PAQ



Information Input

Examples: Use of written materials Near-visual differentiation.



Mental Pro esses

Examples: Levels of reasoning in problem solving. Coding/decoding



Physi al a tivities

Examples: Use of Keyboard devices.

Management Position Des ription Questionnaire: it is a standardized form designed to analyze managerial jobs
Management Position Description Factors
Product, marketing and financial strategy planning. Coordination of other organizational units and personnel. Internal business control. Products and services responsibility. Public and customer relations. Advanced consulting. Autonomy of actions. Approval of financial commitments. Staff service. Supervision. Complexity and stress. Advanced financial responsibility. Broad personnel responsibility.


1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Fun tional job analysis: it is a systematic process of finding what is done on a job by examining and analyzing the fundamental components of data, people and things.

Behavioural Factors Impacting Job Analysis

The following behavioural factors must be taken care of while carrying out a job analysis:
     Exaggerate the facts Employee anxieties Resistance to change Overemphasis on current efforts Management straight jacket

Learning


The capabilities that human beings can learn are classified into five types namely, verbal information, intellectual skills, motor skills, attitudes and cognitive strategies (Gagne, 1996).

Verbal information is knowing the facts (i.e. addressing what aspects of a phenomenon) about a subject-matter which is also called as declarative knowledge. For example, An HR manager describes the past history of an employee without looking at his file or a school teacher can identify all the students in his class by name. Verbal information is considered to be the easiest to acquire.

Intellectual skills are also known as procedural knowledge which is aimed at addressing how aspects of learning of a phenomenon. For example, An HR manager can explain based on his overall experience; how a particular employee continues to be inefficient even after undergoing months of training and a school teacher can tell how certain students continue to score high marks while others fail in the same examination.

The third category of learned capabilities is known as motor skills. These are the capabilities which necessitate the physical movement of individuals or their body parts for learning and performance. For example, hand-footeye coordination is necessary for a tailor to stitch cloth using a sewing machine without the use of electricity.

The fourth category of learned capabilities is attitudes. Attitudes are evaluative judgments by individuals about particular objects, people, or events; favourable or unfavourable, formed fundamentally on the basis of ones own feelings, beliefs and practices. For example, An efficient teacher has the attitude to work hard for better results of his students or a social worker for creating a better society

Learning Enhancement Factors

The knowledge, skill, trait, motive and self concept learnt needed by people for bringing out a specific behaviour for performance can be learnt. But there are certain factors which encourage or hinder the learning.

Trainee characteristics

Training design

Training environment

Trainer capabilities Learning Enhan ement Fa tors

Transfer of training

Trainee characteristics


Trainee characteristics are trainability (i.e. ability, motivation, and perception of work environment), attitude and self concept of the trainees. Trainability means the trainees preparedness for the learning to happen. The previous education and experience contributes to the preparedness. For example, An illiterate person cannot be trained as a teacher for primary school. Similarly, it is difficult to teach a supervisory role to a person if he does not know the fundamental aspects of the job role which he has to supervise.

Training design


The features of the training design (content, methodology and delivery) play an important role in maximizing the learning. The programme should have been designed scientifically by keeping in mind the learning objective, the trainee characteristics and the contextual constraints so as to ensure the targeted learning. For example, How can the illiterate trainees learn through self study method? Similarly, blind trainees cannot benefit by demonstration of the trainer or by a video show.

Trainer Capabilities


The trainer or facilitator is an important person in the learning process. The knowledge, skill, trait, self concept and motive that he brings with him to the learning environment can make or break the success of learning. Even in a self study learning approach, the trainer/facilitator plays a role in the way he has developed the learning material.

Training Environment


The training environment includes both physical environment and psychological environment. The things like surroundings, settings and location are the components of physical settings. The training centre should be equipped with learning amenities like training aids, labs, library and well-designed classrooms. The centre should be surrounded by a pleasant neighbourhood with parks, trees and playgrounds free from pollution of noise, dust, smell and other irritants.

Transfer of Learning


Retention of learning is a prerequisite to transfer of learning. Retention of learning is as important as the learning itself. Retention of learning means the ability to recall the learnt abilities as and when required at a later date. If the trainees fail to retain what they learnt, then it is only a waste of time and money. There are certain factors that contribute to the retention of learning, like meaningfulness of the material, degree of the original learning and interference. Transfer of learning means realizing the learned abilities of training in the form of performance at work or the ability of the trainees to successfully use the learned capabilities for task performance on the job. According to the general principles, instead of merely focusing on identical elements, learning the fundamental elements of a task will ensure transfer of training (Hendrickson & Schroeder, 1941).