Chapter 5

Using Job Analysis and Competency Modeling
Specific objectives of job analysis and competency modeling:

- provide accurate job descriptions

- develop new hiring practices

- identify training and development needs

- establish career paths

- guide job performance

- identify jobs to be eliminated or combined

Organizational redesign

Reengineering

Job enrichment:

Mergers/Acquisitions – job analysis helps provide a systematic basis for comparing the content of jobs that existed in the separate companies – necessary when deciding what jobs should be eliminated

Legal Protection – regular job analysis helps employers protect themselves against claims of unfair treatment

Nondiscrimination:

 Rowe v General Motors 

 Unites States v . City of Chicago  - 

Independent Contractors

1. an employer should not tell I.C. how to do their jobs

2. I.C. should not be hire to perform essential tasks or services

3. An I.C. should be allowed to hire someone else to do the work

4. An I.C. should be allowed to determine the hours of work needed to complete the job

5. An I.C. should not be prevented from doing work for other employers

6. An I.C. chooses where to do the work

 HR Triad: 

Line managers

HR professionals

Employees:

 Basic Terminology: 

Position: 

Job 

Occupation:

Job analysis:

1. Purposes of a job

2. Major duties or activities required of job holders

3. Conditions under which the job is performed

4. Competencies that enable and enhance performance in the job

Task-focused job analysis:

Worker-focused job analysis:

Competency: 

Competency Modeling: 

- describes both competencies that are necessary for successful performance and behavioral indicators that can be used to assess an individual’s proficiency in each competency

- useful when developing career paths

Job descriptions:

For employees – serves as a guide to work behavior

For supervisors – serves as a guide to performance management

 Information Sources: 

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): 

Job incumbents: 

Source of the most current &amp; accurate information about the job

Allows managers to gain a shared perspective about job expectations

Increases perceptions of procedural fairness &amp; reduce resistance to changes

Supervisors

Are in a better position to evaluate which tasks should be included

Trained job analysts

Cannot observe the mental/emotional demands of the job

Customers:

 Methods of Collecting Information: 

Observations:

- can be very time-consuming

Work sampling:

Interviews:

- can be conducted individually or in a group

- Individual - less chance that social pressures will distort responses

- Group – employees tend to stimulate each other to think of more ideas

Questionnaires:

- more economical, especially when electronic

 Standardized Approaches: 

Time and Motion study:

Ergonomic Analysis: 

Occupational Information Network (O*Net):

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

6 Divisions for Organizing Work Behaviors per PAQ:

1. Mental Processes

2. Work Output

3. Job Context

4. Other Job Characteristics

5. Relationships with Other People

6. Information Input

Management Position Description Questionnaire (MBDQ):

Standardized job analysis techniques make it easy to compare the results for a job with the results found for many other similar or dissimilar jobs – including those in other organizations

Customized Job Analysis

1. Generating Items – observation of jobs performed

2. Create a Questionnaire

3. Analyzing and Interpreting the Data

Pros/Cons: generate vivid job descriptions/time consuming

Personality-related Position Requirements Form (PPRF): 

1. General Leadership                                        7. General trustworthiness

2. Interest in negotiation                        8. Adherence to a work ethic

3. Achievement striving                                      9. Thoroughness and attentiveness to details

4. Friendly disposition                                        10. Emotional stability

5. Cooperative or collaborative work tendency      11. Desire to generate ideas

6. Sensitivity to others                                       12. Tendency to think things through

Competency Inventory:

Customized job analysis provides more job-specific details which are particularly useful for designing training programs and creating performance measurement and feedback systems

''' Decline of Job Analysis? '''

Decreased job specialization, increased job sharing and increased prevalence of work teams all cause people to question the usefulness of traditional job analysis techniques

Still necessary because:

- employers cannot develop an integrated HRM system to support the work if they do not understand it

- can be beneficial tools in strategic change

- essential for legal protection and important to defend the company’s employment process

 “My Job” to “My Role” 

- Changes in the nature of organizations and in the way work is done mean that approaches to job analysis and competency modeling also need to change

- Organizations want to hire employees who can perform a variety of different jobs and who are effective workers in teams

- Traditional approaches to job analysis were developed when people were hired for a specific job that often was performed alone

- The growing use of competency models reflect these changes in the work place

Chapter 4 Chapter 6