ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENTS AND JOB ANALYSIS

Effective HR management demands that job analysis be the foundation for a number of other HR activities. The process of analyzing jobs in organizations requires planning of several factors. As Figure indicates, some of the considerations are how it is to be done, who provides data, and who conducts and uses the data so that job descriptions and job specifications can be prepared and reviewed.

Once those decisions are made, then several results are linked to a wide range of HR activities. The most fundamental use of job analysis is to provide the information necessary to develop job descriptions and specifications.

Decisions in the Job Analysis Process

1. JOB ANALYSIS RESPONSIBILITIES

Most methods of job analysis require that a knowledgeable person describe what goes on in the job or make a series of judgments about specific activities required to do the job. Such information can be provided by the employee doing the job, the supervisor, and/or a trained job analyst. Each source is useful, but each has drawbacks. The supervisor seems to be the best source of information on what should be done, but employees often know more about what actually is done. However, both may lack the knowledge needed to complete a job analysis and draw the appropriate conclusions from it. Thus, job analysis requires a high degree of coordination and cooperation between the HR unit and operating managers.

The responsibility for job analysis depends on who can best perform various aspects of the process. Figure shows a typical division of responsibilities in organizations that have an HR unit. In small organizations, managers have to perform all the work activities identified in figure. In larger companies, the HR unit supervises the process to maintain its integrity and writes the job descriptions and specifications for uniformity. The managers review the efforts of the HR unit to ensure accuracy and completeness. They also may request reanalysis when jobs change significantly.

 Typical Job Analysis Responsibilities

2. JOB DESCRIPTIONS AND JOB SPECIFICATIONS

In most cases, the job description and job specifications are combined into one document that contains several different sections. An overview of each section follows next.

JOB DESCRIPTIONS

A job description indicates the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a job. It identifies what is done, why it is done, where it is done, and briefly, how it is done.

Performance standards should flow directly from a job description, telling what the job accomplishes and how performance is measured in key areas of the job description. The reason for including the performance standards is clear. If employees know what is expected and how performance is to be measured, they have a much better chance of performing satisfactorily. Figure shows a job description duty statement and some performance standards used for a customer response representative in a telecommunications firm.

Unfortunately, performance standards often are omitted from job descriptions.

Even if performance standards have been identified and matched to job descriptions, they may not be known by employees if the job descriptions are not provided to employees but used only as tools by the HR department and managers.

Such an approach limits the value of job descriptions.

Job description=Identification of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a job.

Performance standards=Indicators of what the job accomplishes and how performance is measured.

 

 Sample Job Duty Statements and Performance Standards

JOB SPECIFICATIONS

While the job description describes activities to be done, it is job specifications that list the knowledge, skills, and abilities an individual needs to perform a job satisfactorily. Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) include education, experience, work skill requirements, personal abilities, and mental and physical requirements. Job specifications for a data entry operator might include a required educational level, a certain number of months of experience, a typing ability of 60 words per minute, a high degree of visual concentration, and ability to work under time pressure. It is important to note that accurate job specifications identify what KSAs a person needs to do the job, not necessarily what qualifications the current employee possesses.

Job specifications=List the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) an individual needs to do the job satisfactorily.

 

3. DEVELOPING JOB FAMILIES AND ORGANIZATION CHARTS

Once all jobs in the organization have been identified, it is often helpful for communicating with employees to group the jobs into job families and display them on an organization chart. There are various ways of identifying and grouping job families.

JOB FAMILIES 

A job family is a grouping of jobs having similar characteristics. In identifying job families, significant emphasis is placed on measuring the similarity of jobs. For instance, at one insurance company the HR director decided that jobs requiring specialized technical knowledge, skills, and abilities related to information systems (IS) should be viewed as a separate job family, regardless of the geographic locations of those jobs. Due to the nature of information systems jobs, attracting and retaining IS professionals was difficult, and special compensation programs were needed to match the compensation packages given by competing employers.

ORGANIZATION CHARTS 

In many organizations, organization charts are developed.

An organization chart depicts the relationships among jobs in an organization. Organization charts have traditionally been hierarchical, showing the reporting relationships for authority and responsibilities. In most organizations, the charts can help clarify who reports to whom. 

In developing typical organization charts, such as the one shown in figure, there are some general considerations:

1. Focus of chart: Label the chart to identify the scope of the chart, whether for a department, division, region, or the company as a whole.

2. Simplicity: Keep the chart as simple as possible, emphasizing primary lines of authority.

3. Titles: Use job titles, describing the job level and function, in each box on the chart. For example, the title of Director may not be sufficient. Where possible, indicate the area of responsibility, such as Director of Administration. Broader titles, such as General Manager or Secretary, need no further clarification.

4. Incumbents: Do not develop organization charts around existing people in the organization. First identify the functions, and then add names of incumbents to the charts.

5. Jobs: Depict the jobs in organizational units as rectangular boxes.

6. Levels: Use vertical placement to depict the relative position of jobs at different levels in the organization. Use horizontal placement to show jobs having similar levels of authority in the organization.

7. Authority: Show direct lines of authority with solid lines, drawn vertically and horizontally as appropriate. For indirect or functional authority, use dotted lines In dynamic organizations the charts can become very complicated because dual reporting relationships may exist. For instance, a design engineer may report to a project manager on a project while also reporting to the chief design engineer for technical review and supervision. This type of organization, often called a matrix organization, has grown in usage in recent years, particularly in professional practice and high-technology industries