TOPIC: JOB ANALYSIS

OBJECTIVES
The student who studies this chapter should be able to:
1. List the uses of job analysis information.
2. Describe the sources and ways of collecting job analysis information.
3. Discuss the different job analysis methods.
4. Describe the evidence for reliability and validity of job analysis methods.
5. Explain how job evaluation is used to set salary levels for jobs.
WHAT IS JOB ANALYSIS?
Job analysis is a method for describing jobs and/or the human attributes necessary to perform them.
According to Brannick, Levine, and Morgeson (2007, p. 8), there are three elements that comprise a
formal job analysis:
1. The procedure must be systematic. This means the analyst specifies a procedure in advance and follows
it.
2. The aspects of a job are broken into individual units. We describe components of jobs rather than the
overall job.
3. There must be a written report that can be electronic or on paper.
The job‐oriented job analysis provides information about the nature of tasks done on the job. Some
methods describe the tasks themselves. Other methods provide information about characteristics of tasks.
For example, a task for a police officer would be.
Completes report after arresting a suspect.
This describes something a police office does. A characteristic of an officer’s job would be.
Uses pencils and pens. Tasks can be divided into a hierarchy in which higher‐level descriptions are bro-
ken down into smaller and smaller pieces of the job. For example, one of the major tasks performed by
police officers is apprehending suspects. This police function can be further broken down into the specific
actions that are involved, such as:

 Go to suspect’s house to make arrest.

 Knock on door and identify self.
 Handcuff suspect.
 Inform suspect of legal rights.
 Put suspect in car.
 Drive suspect to police station.
Brannick et al. (2007) discussed a hierarchy that contains five levels of specificity:
1. Position
2. Duty
3. Task
4. Activity
5. Element
A position is a collection of duties that can be performed by a single individual. Typically, each employee
has a single position, although it is possible that one individual holds more than one position.
Furthermore, a number of similar positions might be given the same title; for example, several police
officers within a department might have the title of “patrol officer,” although each has a separate position
and collection of tasks. One position might be assigned to patrol an area of the city by car, another to
patrol on foot, and a third to work at a desk in the station.
Richard Hutchings/Photo Researchers
A duty is a major component of a job. For a police officer, a duty would be
Enforce the law
Each duty is accomplished by performing one or more associated tasks.

A task is a complete piece of work that accomplishes some particular objective.

One of the tasks involved in enforcing the law is
Arrest suspects who violate the law
Each task can be divided into activities, which are the individual parts that make up the task. In this case,
activities that make the task of arresting suspects would include:

 Driving to a suspect’s house to perform an arrest.

 To accomplish this activity, a number of very specific actions or elements are involved, such as
place the key in the ignition to start the patrol car
For most jobs, there are several duties; each duty is associated with several tasks; each task is associated
with several activities; and each activity can be broken down into several elements. This means that a job
analysis can contain a great deal of very specific information about what happens on a particular job. A
job analysis that goes to the level of job elements results in a long and detailed report.

A person‐oriented job analysis provides a description of the characteristics or KSAOs necessary for a
person to successfully perform a particular job. KSAOs are the employee’s knowledge, skills, abilities,
and other characteristics necessary for a job. The first three characteristics focus mainly on job
performance itself; the “other” characteristics relate to job adjustment and satisfaction, as well as
performance.
Knowledge is what a person needs to know to do a particular job. For example, a carpenter should have
knowledge of local building codes and power tool safety.
Skill is what a person is able to do on the job. A carpenter should have skill in reading blueprints and in
using power tools.
Ability is a person’s aptitude or capability to do job tasks or learn to do job tasks. It is a person’s potential
to develop skills. Most skills require one or more abilities. The skill of using power tools requires several
abilities, including hand–eye coordination. In order to build the roof on a house, a carpenter should have
good balance and an ability to work quickly.
Finally, other personal characteristics include anything relevant to the job that is not covered by the other
three characteristics. A carpenter should have a willingness to do manual tasks and to work outdoors.
Examples of KSAOs and Associated Tasks

KSAO TASK
Knowledge of legal arrest procedures Arrest suspects
Skill in using a firearm Practice shooting firearm on firing range
Ability to communicate with others Mediate a dispute between two people to prevent
violent incident

Courage (as other personal characteristic) Enter dark alley to apprehend suspect
Purposes of Job Analysis

Job analysis information has many purposes. It can serve as the foundation on which many other activities
and functions are built. Ash and Levine (1980) outlined 11 common uses of job analysis information, 5 of
which we discuss in this section of the chapter, along with 2 not on their list.

Career Development

A progression of positions is established for individuals who acquire the necessary skills and maintain
good job performance. Not everyone can climb to the top of the ladder due to limited opportunities for
promotion, and inability to achieve the necessary KSAOs. This is referred to as a career ladder.

Competency systems are systems that reward employees for acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to
both improve performance and be promoted. Such systems require the identification of critical
competencies, the availability of the means and means of learning, and a procedure for evaluating
progress.

Legal Issues

Most industrialized countries have laws prohibiting discriminatory employment practices, especially in
the hiring of employees. In Canada and the U.S., it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of age, color,
disability, gender, race, or religion. Job analysis provides a list of relevant KSAOs as the basis for hiring
rather than irrelevant personal characteristics.

The concept of essential function is important in deciding whether or not to hire a person with a disability.
In the United States, an organization might be able to deny employment to a person who cannot perform
essential functions under certain conditions. It is illegal to refuse to hire individuals with disabilities
because they cannot perform nonessential functions.
Job analysis is used to identify essential functions and KSAOs (Mitchell, Alliger, & Morfopoulos, 1997).
This can help ensure that decisions about actions affect people are not based on personal factors that are
job relevant. When KSAO are derived from a properly conducted job-analysis, employee actions are
likely to be legal.

Performance Appraisal

A job-oriented analysis provides a list of the major components of a job, which can be used as models for
performance evaluation. A well-designed performance appraisal system will be based on a job analysis.

The behavior-focused performance appraisal methods to be discussed in this chapter are based on a job
analysis. Critical incidents are instances of behavior that represent different levels of job performance
from outstanding to poor. A good incident would describe how a person did something that worked well,
such as defusing a potentially violent encounter.

Selection

A person-oriented job analysis should be the first step in the design of an employee selection system.
Interviews and psychological tests should be used to assess how well job applicants fit the requirements
for the job. This is done by using methods such as interviews, psychological tests and other methods to
assess individual characteristics.

A person-oriented job analysis produces a list of the KSAOs for a particular job. These are the
characteristics that a job applicant is expected to have at the time of hiring. This leads us to the next use
of job analysis information, which is to train people for the job.

Training

An effective training program in an organization should be based on a thorough analysis of the KSAO
requirements for a job. Deficiencies on the part of applicants or employees are the areas toward which
training efforts might be directed if the characteristics can be acquired. For example, one cannot train a
person to be taller if there is a height requirement for a position.

Vocational Counseling

A major function of schooling, including at the university level, is to assist students making vocational
choices. A number of vocational tools exist to help individuals match their KSAOs to the KSAO
requirements of jobs. Some of these tools attempt to match individual preferences and personalities to
occupations.

Job analysis can be used to determine KSAO requirements for specific occupations. A battery of ability
tests was administered to a sample of individuals and their ability profiles were matched to the
requirements for each of the available jobs. Scores indicating how well the test scores matched job
requirements were computed in order to demonstrate the best and worst-fitting occupations for each
person.

Research

Job analysis can help researchers determine the role of job requirements or task characteristics in many
organizational phenomena that we will discuss in this book.

Writing Job Descriptions

A job analysis is the process of determining the work activities and requirements of an employee, and a
job description is the written result of such an analysis. Job analyses and job descriptions serve as the
basis for many HR activities, including employee selection, evaluation, training, and design.

Employee Selection

It is difficult to imagine how an employee can be selected unless there is a clear understanding of the
tasks to be performed and the competencies needed to perform those tasks. By identifying such
requirements, it is possible to select tests or develop interview questions that will determine whether a
particular applicant possesses the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to carry out the job.

Training

Again, it is difficult to see how employees can be trained unless the requirements of the job are known.
Job analyses yield lists of job activities that can be systematically used to create training programs.

Person Power Planning

Job analysis is an important but seldom employed tool to determine worker mobility within an
organization. Many organizations promote the person who performs the best in the job immediately
below the one in question. Although this approach has its advantages, it can result in the so-called Peter
Principle: promoting employees until they eventually reach their highest level of incompetence (Peter &
Hull, 1969). With this approach, there is a better match between the person being promoted and the
requirements of the job.

Job Classification

Job analysis enables a human resource professional to classify jobs into groups based on similarities in
requirements and duties. Job classification is useful for determining pay levels, transfers, and promotions.

Job Evaluation
Job analysis information can also be used to determine the worth of a job. Job evaluation will be
discussed in greater detail later in this chapter.

Job Design

Job analysis can be used to determine the optimal way in which a job should be performed. By analyzing
a job, wasted and unsafe motions can be eliminated, resulting in higher productivity and reduced numbers
of job injuries. Frank Gilbreth studied the inconsistency with which brick masons did their work and
reduced the number of motions needed to lay a brick from 18 to 4½.
METHOD OF JOB ANALYSIS
Many different methods can be used to conduct a job analysis; no one method stands out as being
superior to the others. Each has its advantages and limitations. Many of these methods use more than one
source and more than one way of collecting information.

Collecting Information Advantages Limitations

Techniques for Job Analysts
Perform the Job  Provides the context in  Fails to show differences
which the job is done. among jobs with the same
 Provides extensive detail title.
about the job.  Is expensive and time
consuming.
 Can take extensive
training of analyst.
 Can be dangerous to
analyst.
Interview Employees Who  Provides multiple  Is time consuming
Perform the Job perspectives on a job. compared to
 Can show differences questionnaires.
among incumbents with  Fails to show context in
the same job. which the tasks are done.
Observe Employees Performing  Provides relatively  Is time consuming.
the Job objective view of the job.  Might cause employees to
 Provides the context in change their behavior
which the job is done. because they know they
are being observed.
Administer Questionnaires to  Is efficient and  Ignores the context in
Employees Who Perform the Job inexpensive. which the job is done.
 Shows differences among  Limits respondents to the
incumbents in the same questions asked.
job.  Requires knowledge of the
 Is easy to quantify and job to design the
analyze statistically. questionnaire.
 Is easy to compare  Allows job incumbents to
different jobs on common easily distort answers to
job dimensions. make their jobs seem more
important than they are.
Methods Providing Information About Tools and Equipment

Job Components Inventory (JCI) - A structured job analysis technique that concentrates on
worker requirements for performing a job rather than on specific tasks. The KSAOs for a job
and for an individual are listed. The degree of correspondence of the lists is used to determine if
an individual is suited to a particular job or if the person needs additional training to perform a
particular job adequately. he JCI also provides information about the perceptual, physical,
mathematical, communication, decision making, and responsibility skills needed to perform the
job.

Methods Providing Information About the Work Environment

AET (Arbeitswissenschaftliches Erhebungsverfahren zur Tätigkeitsanalyse) - An

ergonomic job analysis method developed in Germany. Arbeitswissenschaftliches
Erhebungsverfahren zur Tätigkeitsanalyse means “ergonomic job analysis procedure.” By
ergonomic, we mean that the instrument is primarily concerned with the relationship between
the worker and work objects. Although the AET appears to be a promising method for obtaining
certain types of job analysis information, there has not been enough published research to draw
any real conclusions.

Methods Providing Information About Competencies

Occupational Information Network (O*NET) - The job analysis system used by the federal
government that has replaced the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). O*NET is a major
advancement in understanding the nature of work, in
large part because its developers understood that jobs can be viewed at four levels: economic,
organizational, occupational, and individual. As a result, O*NET has incorporated the types of
information obtained in many job analysis techniques.

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAC) - The PAQ is a systematic job analysis questionnaire
that assists the user in undertaking a quantified analysis of a given work. To do a job analysis
using the PAQ, the user analyzes background material, observes the job, and conducts detailed
interviews with job incumbents to identify job content, then scores the amount to which each
item on a standard list of PAQ job aspects pertains to that specific employment.

Task Inventory – Is a list of tasks involved into the typical performance of a specific job. Such
an inventory can be compiled for every job in your organization. It is usually done for the
purposes of HR (human resource) management and business process improvement: Task
Inventory is a method of job analysis that learns a workplace in terms of practical tasks and
typical activities which are to be performed regularly.

Critical Incident Technique (CIT) - The job analysis method developed by John Flanagan that
uses written reports of good and bad employee behavior. The CIT is used to discover actual
incidents of job behavior that make the difference between a job’s successful or unsuccessful
performance (Flanagan, 1954). The CIT is an excellent addition to a job analysis because the
actual critical incidents can be used for future activities such as performance appraisal and
training. The
CIT’s greatest drawback is that its emphasis on the difference between excellent and poor
performance ignores routine duties. Thus, the CIT cannot be used as the sole method of job
analysis.
 Threshold Traits Analysis (TTA) - A 33-item questionnaire developed by Lopez that
identifies traits necessary to successfully perform a job. This method is available only by hiring
a particular consulting firm (Lopez and Associates), but its unique style makes it worthy of
mentioning. The TTA questionnaire’s 33 items identify the traits that are necessary for the
successful performance of a job. The 33 items cover five trait categories: physical, mental,
learned, motivational, and social.

Fleishman Job Analysis Survey (F-JAS) - A job analysis method in which jobs are rated on
the basis of the abilities needed to perform them. The F-JAS is easy to use by incumbents or
trained analysts, demonstrates acceptable levels of reliability, and is supported by years of
research. Its advantages over TTA are that it is more detailed, is commercially available, is
available in several languages, and can be completed online.

Job Adaptability Inventory (JAI) - A job analysis method that taps the extent to which a job
involves eight types of adaptability. is a 132-item inventory developed by Pulakos, Arad,
Donovan, and Plamondon (2000) that taps the extent to which a job incumbent needs to adapt to
situations on the job.

Personality-Related Position Requirements Form (PPRF) - A job analysis instrument that

helps determine the personality requirements for a job. The PPRF consists of 107 items tapping
12 personality dimensions that fall under the “Big 5” personality dimensions (openness to
experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability). Though
more research is needed, the PPRF is reliable and shows promise as a useful job analysis
instrument for identifying the personality traits necessary to perform a job.

Personal Improvements Characteristics (PIC) - Similar to the PPRF, the 48 questions on the
PIC help determine which of the seven main personality traits are needed to perform a given
job. Research on the PIC indicates that it has acceptable reliability and is able to differentiate
between jobs (Foster, Gaddis, & Hogan, 2012.).

Each method was better suited for some purposes than others. Choosing the method to use for a
job analysis may be influenced by numerous factors, including cost and purpose. Given the fact
that these are often dependent on the perspective of a person, the issue of its reliability is often
questioned. The reliability of these methods has been scrutinized and studied by some experts
and they have deemed some of these methods as reliable. The best evidence for the validity of
job analysis ratings comes from studies that compared different methods or sources of
information, such as incumbents versus supervisors. Spector, Brannick, and Coovert (1989)
summarized the results of nine studies that reported correlations among methods or sources that
ranged from .47 to .94. These results are suggestive of validity for job analysis ratings, but an
intriguing study raises some doubts about the interpretation of source agreement.