The Necessity of Job Analysis - Coursework Example

Lecturer: presented: Job Design Job design is an arrangement of procedures and organization of work which indicates the techniques and the interactions which are put in place in order to suit the technical and managerial requirements while on the other hand to satisfy the individual needs of the employees. It highlights the occupation structure, the duties of the workers as well as guidelines regarding the information which the worker is supposed to access. The importance of job analysis in human resources is to help the management to ascertain and endorse the usefulness of certain activities which take place in employment such as employment procedures such as training, choice of the appropriate employees, reparation as well as evaluation and appraisal. It helps in developing an organized database containing information concerning the job (Singh, P 2008 pp. 82-84). The Necessity of Job Analysis Job analysis is significant in to the employers when selecting the employees who are suitable for a particular position in the organization. In the recruitment process, it is usually possible to make mistakes in regard to employee selection. It enables the management to understand the content of advertisements for vacant posts in the organization. These are important in order to avoid applications from unqualified people. It is also necessary in order for the management to fix a particular salary to the vacant position. The screening of applicants and the method to use for this purpose arise through the job analysis whereby tests and interviews are developed. It is also possible to develop the necessary materials for orientation of the new staffs (Chris Charlie. 2007 pp.23-27). The management is able to develop a compensation package for the employees with the use of job analysis. It indicates the appropriate package depending on the level of skills, and other aspects of the job in which the employees are entitled to compensation. It is also easy to identify the characteristics of the working environment whereby the management can be able to assess the level of hazards which the employees are exposed to. It makes it possible for the management to understand the attentiveness and manual labor that the employees contribute which is essential in determining the target for every employee and the remuneration which may depend on the amount of physical effort or skills (Peterson, Norman G.; Mumford, Michael D.; Borman, Walter C. 2001 pp. 211-216). It assists the management in developing skills through training programs. Through it, the management is able to understand the content of the training programs which suits the job. On the other hand, it makes it easy for the management to develop an assessment criterion to establish the impact of training. It assists the management to identify the necessary equipment to use in the training as well as the methods to use in the training. More over, in order to conduct performance appraisals, it provides the employer with a basis for the appraisal. In this case, it provides the aims and objectives of the organization, performance benchmarks, mode of evaluation and the activities that need to be evaluated. (James Edwards 2006 pp. 67-71). Job analysis methods have several advantages and disadvantages. These methods include; observation, critical incident, interviews and questionnaires. Observation Observation is an important method which allows the management to acquire first hand information in regard to the employees. It is usually straightforward and easy to use. It is mainly helpful while analyzing activities that involve manual work and continuous movement. Disadvantages It is usually time consuming since there has to be a skilled person assigned to make the observations, and it requires a substantial time period before reaching a conclusion. This time is necessary in order to analyze the variation in worker performance. It may give the wrong results especially when the employees are aware that they are being observed. Advantages of Interviews Interviews have an advantage of acquiring firsthand information from the employees. Information which is not observable can be acquired through this method. In jobs that have a long job cycle, it is the most appropriate method to use. It can also be used to collect qualitative information and data which can not be obtained through physical observation. Disadvantages of Interviews There is usually the possibility of collecting subjective information from the employees thereby interfering with the reliability of information. A qualified interviewer is required in order to ensure that the questions are designed to acquire useful information. This adds extra costs to the organization. Due to the different views of the employees, it may be time consuming to combine and analyze the information acquired from different interviews. Advantages of Questionnaires These are a set of written questions and therefore they do not necessitate the use of an experienced interviewer. It is cheaper to administer questionnaires than interviewing the employees. It is also not time consuming and many workers can be reached within a short period of time. The questions are structured to obtain standardized information and data. Disadvantages of Questionnaires It is usually difficult to develop the most appropriate questionnaires. Since the employees fill and submit them at their own time, the response may be low, with some failing to submit them. There may also be problems due to failure of completion of the questionnaires. In some cases, the response may require interpretation and the respondent may not be available (James Edwards 2006 pp.16-26). Case Studies of Job Analysis Air Canada is one of the companies which benefited from the job analysis that was conducted when the company planned to employ 1000 more flight attendants. It was able to identify the key requirements to search for in the more than 20,000 candidates who applied. This helped the management in advertising the position and structuring the interviews as well as the questionnaires (SHL Group 2008). However, many firms have failed due to relying on only one method of job analysis. In a survey conducted in the United Kingdom, workers in the transport and distribution sector claimed to be unhappy with job analysis. They felt that the job analysis does not achieve the desired objectives especially when in their performance appraisal (Peter 2009). Job design and its Importance to Job Analysis The organizational structure highlighted in the job design is significant in work performance. The job design is helps the workers to understand their role in the organizational structure. It also provides guidelines regarding the information which the worker is supposed to know. They are supposed to know the exact units that they are supposed to produce over a particular period of time. The occupational titles and job descriptions in the job design inform the employees on the hierarchy within the organizational structure and therefore they can tell their position and where they are supposed to report. Organizational (Alan Feldman 2008 pp. 36-41). Job design is significant in job analysis since the information needed in order to develop training programs is provided. It is easy classify the job with the use of the hierarchy obtained from the job design. Job analysis with the use of the methods available is made simpler with the use of the job descriptions and titles obtained from the job design. With the use of the guidelines from the design, job analysis will be effective. The employees are also effectively analyzed using the quality assurance and bench marks in the job design. The organizational charts are important in establishing the interconnections between staff and the relevant departments as well as the time motion studies while conducting a job analysis (Anthony Geoffrey 2004 pp. 76-81). There are several approaches to job analysis. These may be standardized, meaning that they are typical to that job or on the other hand they may be customized, meaning that they can be adjusted to fit the particular job. Standardized approaches are more reliable since the information obtained usually has a common basis. They usually use questionnaires which are structured. These may be questionnaires which are worker oriented structured work inventories as well as checklists. Their structure controls the response of the workers. On the other hand, customized analysis usually obtains varying information from the respondents. Interviews and face to face conferences are used. Experts are engaged in acquiring information. It is usually designed to fit to the working environment (Chris Charlie. 2007 pp 78-82) Highlight the ways in which the changing nature of work are influencing job analysis In the recent years, the rate of recruitment of skilled labour in to the market has been high, leading to a supply that exceeds the labour demand. This has raised the competitiveness in the job market which has made employers to change their approach to job analysis. They are tending towards being highly specific in job descriptions in order to acquire the best out of the excess labour pool. More over, companies and organizations are many and producing almost the same products and services. This has made them lay extra emphasis on the diversity of Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs). This is done in order for them to cope with the prevailing competition in the market. They also need to capitalize on the human resource in order to cover the expenses in terms of salaries and wages. Greater the diversity in Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs) fits the employee to the job description (James Edwards 2006 pp 33-45). Due to the rising needs of new products as people advance, organizations are striving to produce new commodities in order to satisfy this demand. The job analysis has to be tactical in order to achieve this. Co-operation within the organization is being sort by many organizations in order to achieve the organizational objectives. This has led to a shift in the manner through which the job analysis is conducted since the management and the rest of the employees are working as a team, rather than the management playing a purely supervisory role (Anthony Geoffrey 2004 p. 41). The traditional job analysis method involves the use of interviews for the employees, researching and conducting surveys. The available information concerning the job is reviewed and then the job analysts are selected and trained, after which the task listing is developed and validated. Questionnaires are prepared and the survey sample is identified. The results from the survey are analyzed and validated. The process is time consuming and expensive. It is commonly used when accurate information can not be obtained from other sources. On the other hand, strategic analysis involves gathering of information on which to base the survey, followed by observations on the proposed site for analysis. This is followed by group meetings which are accompanied by analyzing the scope of the job and the eventual documentation of the job analysis. It is the most commonly used method. It is less time consuming compared to the traditional method, and requires less resources (James Edwards 2006 pp. 17-21). Bibliography 1. Charlie C. 2007 Leadership in Today’s Society: an Overview of Development, 2nd edition, London: Century Business. 2. Edwards J. 2006, “Leadership in the Labor Market” Journal of Leadership Behavior & Research. Vol.11 No. 1, July. 3. Feldman A. 2008, Management and Leadership: Impact of Bad Leadership in Business, California University Press. 4. Geoffrey A. 2004, “Human Resources Development: Difficulties Encountered in Leadership,” Business Development Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, August. 5. Peter A. 2009. Recruitment 77, viewed on 15th Mar. 2009 at 6. Peterson, Norman G.; Mumford, Michael D.; Borman, Walter C. 2001. Understanding work using the occupational information network. Journal on Implications for Practice and Research, Vol. 54, No. 2, 451-493. 7. SHL Group 2008. Flight attendants take off with Air Canada, viewed on 15th Mar. 2009 at 8. Singh, P 2008. “Job analysis for a changing workplace”, Journal on Human Resource Management Review Vol. 18 No. 2, 87-99. Read More