chapter 5 job design and job analysis

For use with Human Resource Management in South Africa 4eby Grobler, Wärnich et al

ISBN: 1408019515 © 2010 Cengage Learning

CHAPTER 5 Job design and job

analysis



Chapter outcomes

•Discuss issues impacting on the design of jobs.

•Understand how the design of a job affects employee

motivation and performance.

•Show various methods of designing motivating jobs.

•Understand how motivating jobs can be created by

building work teams.

•Become aware of radically new organisational

programmes such as TQM.



Chapter outcomes (continued)

•Understand the basic elements of a job analysis programme.

•Describe the end products of job analysis.

•Identify the major methods of job analysis.

•Discuss the future use and updating of job analysis information.

•Cite techniques useful in writing job descriptions.

•Recognise the major elements of job descriptions and job

specifications.



Dividing work into jobs• Work – effort directed towards producing and accomplishing results

• Job – grouping of tasks, duties & responsibilities that constitute the total work assignment

• As organisations change, these tasks, duties & responsibilities may also change over time

• When all jobs are added together they should = the amount of “work” that is to be completed



Dividing work into jobs (continued)• Workflow analysis – studies the way work moves through the

organisation– Starts with examination of desired & actual outputs (goods &

services) into quantity & quality

– Activities (tasks & jobs) that lead to the outputs are evaluated to see if they can achieve the desired outputs

– Inputs (people, material, information, data, equipment etc) must be assessed to determine if these inputs make the outputs & activities more efficient



Dividing work into jobs (continued)• Re-engineering – generates the needed changes in the business

processes

– Purpose of business process re-engineering improve such activities as product development, customer service & service delivery

– Require the use of work teams, training employees to do more than one job and reorganising operations, workflow and offices to simplify and speed up the work



Designing jobs• Major HR concerns:

– Employee productivity– Job satisfaction

• Job design (JD) – determines how work is performed & greatly affects how an employee feels about a job, how much authority an employee has over the work, how much decision-making the employee performs on the job and how many tasks the employee should complete– JD determines working relationship with employees & relationship

among employees



A framework for job design

FeedbackFeedback

FeedbackFeedback

Task Task AccomplishmentAccomplishment Productivity Productivity Effectiveness Effectiveness EfficiencyEfficiency

Worker reactionWorker reaction Satisfaction Satisfaction Absenteeism Absenteeism TurnoverTurnover

Job contentJob content

Task variety, autonomy, Task variety, autonomy, complexity, difficulty, complexity, difficulty, identityidentity

Job functionsJob functions

Responsibility, authority, Responsibility, authority, information flow, work information flow, work methods, co-ordination methods, co-ordination requirementsrequirements

RelationshipsRelationships

Dealing with others, Dealing with others, friendship opportunities, friendship opportunities, teamwork requirementsteamwork requirements



Major approaches to job design• Specialisation-intensive jobs

– Job simplification (job specialisation)

• Motivation intensive jobs– Job rotation– Job enlargement– Job enrichment– Work teams

• Sociotechnical approach– Self-managed work teams



Advantages - Major approaches to job design

Specialisation intensive Productivity of skilled workers Training time required• Easy to replace workers• Few mental work errors• Greater manager control of operations



Advantages - Major approaches to job designMotivation intensive

Productivity of challenged workers Absenteeism Turnover Product quality• More employee ideas• Greater employee job satisfaction



New organisational approaches• Total quality management (TQM)

– Focuses on the quality of all the processes that lead to the final product or service

– To be successful it requires support of top management & the belief that quality is a key part of every employee’s job

– Customer focus in the process of designing and improving quality

– Proper implementation requires a clear vision & support of top management and a focus on results NOT the process



The office environment

• Work environment (space, workstations, light etc) affects employee morale, productivity and quality, absenteeism & turnover

• Creativity can happen anywhere

• Retain the services of an architect or design consultant



Robotics• The use of robots to perform routine tasks• Industrial robots:

– Anthropomorphic (approximate the appearance and functions of humans)

– Nonanthropomorphic (machine-like and have limited functions)

• First-generation robots – performed simple jobs and had limited capabilities

• Second-generation robots – built with senses, vision or touch, making them more adaptable

• New robots - perform most of the drilling, shaping & bending tasks previously performed by robots



Ergonomics• Taking into account the human factor in

designing the employee’s workstation• Relationship between the employees and their

workstations – machines used, lighting, noise, chairs etc, these can affect productivity

• IBM Employee handbook identifies the following:– Posture– Back– Hand– Environment



Productivity measures• Quantity or volume produced• Accurate measure of productivity is vital to

organisational improvement effort• Gain competitive advantage• Strategies to improve productivity & quality

– Depends on employee seeing a link between what they produce & what the company is attempting to achieve

– What will work for one company may not for another



Productivity measures (continued)

• Organisations must be careful not to measure the wrong things or overlook those that are critical to success

• Merely implementing quality techniques, including employee empowerment and benchmarking will not produce benefits

• Productivity is the relationship between what is put into a piece of work (input) and what is yielded (output)



Three major components of productivityEffectiveness

“Doing the right things”

Resource market

Market needs

Utilisation & efficiency

“Doing things right”

The production process

Labour, materials

and capital

Inputs

Conversion

Goods and

services

Outputs



Three major components of productivity

• Utilisation – the extent to which we use resources

• Efficiency – rate of conversion while resources are being used

• Effectiveness – measured in terms of “doing the right things”



Other JD issues

• Work schedules– Flexitime– Compressed workweeks

• Alternative physical work locations– Telecommuting



The nature of job analysis (JA)• Job analysis – • Investigates:

– Levels of decision-making– Skills employees need to do a job adequately– Autonomy of the job– Mental effort required to perform the job– Machines operated, reports completed & special

financial/other responsibilities– Working conditions (levels of temperature, light etc)



The importance of JA

• New realities:– Organisational restructuring due to downsizing– The need to motivate and reward people– The impact of technology on jobs throughout the

organisation– Labour legislation pertaining to employment equity and

general discriminatory practices– The implementation of teams



Components of a job

• To understand a specific job and to be able to make comparisons among or between jobs, it is important that anyone analysing a job should know that it can be broken down into several components and arranged into a hierarchy of work activities



Hierarchy of work activitiesJob family

Occupation

Job

Position

Duty

Task

Element



Programme implementation1. Committee review

2. Information collection– General methods

• Site observations• Work sampling• Interviews• Diaries• Questionnaires

– Specific methods• PAQ• FJA• CMQ• WPS



Programme implementation3. Information review

4. Product completion• Job description (JD)

Uses of a JD: Recruitment Interviewing Orientation Training Job evaluation Wage/salary surveys Performance appraisal Outplacement



Programme implementation

4. Product completion (continued)• Job description (JD) (continued)

Elements of a JD: Job identification Job summary Job duties & responsibilities

• Job specification (JS) Skills Knowledge Abilities

5. Future use & updating



JA problems

• Employee fear• Need to update information regularly• Job is held by only one or two employees



Summary• Understanding how people are motivated, that is, their needs

and goals, is critical to modern job design.• The task employees perform on the job and the variety,

difficulty level and autonomy of the job greatly affect job satisfaction and productivity.

• Employees, individually or in work teams, are being asked to take on greater responsibility for the design and control of their jobs. Simple, repetitious tasks are eliminated whenever possible, generally resulting in jobs that are more motivating and challenging. At the same time, some degree of job specialisation is necessary so that new employees can learn their jobs quickly and make fewer errors.

• Programmes such as job enrichment, self-managed work groups, TQM and re-engineering have resulted in redesigned jobs that were previously highly specialised and boring. There is also a trend toward multiskilling, whereby team members learn multiple tasks. Organisations are adopting work teams and giving them more freedom and responsibilities.



Summary

• Total Quality Management (TQM) is one of the fastest-growing productivity improvement programmes in the world. It is based on the principle of commitment to continuous improvement and meeting customers' needs. It is largely a bottom-up change effort.

• Re-engineering is more radical. It involves more than tweaking old procedures; it is the redesign of business processes to achieve major gains in cost, service or time. The process begins with the simple but powerful question: If we could start from scratch, how would we do this? It is different from TQM because it comes from the top down.

• Technology plays an important role in modern job design. Robotics, ergonomics and the office environment can improve employee creativity, productivity and quality.



Summary• In addition to job design, organisations may choose to implement

programmes that increase workplace flexibility. These programmes tend to adopt a scheduling mix between employees' needs and the organisation's staffing requirements in ways that are consistent with the company's culture. Compressed work weeks, flexitime programmes and telecommuting are the most common approaches. Employees who desire greater control over work hours, who would like easier commuting or want a different lifestyle will be attracted to organisations that offer these types of programmes.

• A sound JA programme produces many benefits for an organisation. Information critical to employment and compensation is collected on a systematic basis. JDs, JSs and JEs can easily be produced from the JA data. Thus, critical HR practices such as hiring, wage determination and administrative record-keeping are assisted by job analysis.

• Information collection should always begin by conducting a background search. Internal sources can include previous job analyses, interviews with job incumbents and job supervisors, site observations by the analyst, questionnaires and diaries.



Summary

• There is a variety of job analysis methods, with each having certain advantages, depending on the purpose, cost and time. The most popular method is the PAQ. A more complex method that demands computer analysis and that can handle thousands of jobs and people is the FJA.

• Job analysis is necessary to comply with the primary employment provisions. The process helps to determine essential functions and whether an individual can carry out the essential functions with or without reasonable accommodation.

• Job descriptions generally should contain a complete identification of the job and its location within the organisation. The section on duties and responsibilities should group all tasks into major functional categories, and each entry should begin with verbs. Job specifications should include all SKAs needed to perform the job, as well as other minimum qualifications.

chapter 5 job design and job analysis

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