Thema 1: hoofdstuk 1 lezen, is niet voor tentamen
Thema 2: hoofdstuk 12, 13 en 14
Thema 3: hoofdstuk 10 en 11
Thema 4: hoofdstuk 7, 8 en 9 (niet het gedeelte van job descriptive index tot antecedents of
job satisfaction)
Thema 5: niks, eventueel artikel van de handleiding maar niet verplicht
Thema 6: hoofdstuk 3, 4, 5 (leren tot electronic assessment), 6 (leren tot legal selection in
united states, dus niet validity generalization tot alternatives to conducting validation
studies)
,Hoofdstuk 3: Job Analysis
Job analysis is a method for describing jobs and/or the human attributes necessary to
perform them. There are many methods to do one. They are used to collect information. A
formal job analysis consists of 3 elements:
1. A systematic procedure; this means that the analyst specifies a procedure in advance
and follows it.
2. A job is broken down into smaller units.
3. The analysis results in a written product.
The job-oriented approach provides information about the nature of tasks of the job. There
are also different methods for this approach. The tasks can be divided into a hierarchy.
Brannick et al made up this hierarchy for 5 levels of specificity:
1. Position: collection of duties that are performed by an individual. Most of the time an
individual has 1 position, but they can have more. Example: patrol officer.
2. Duty: major component of a job, it means performing one or more associated tasks.
Most jobs have several duties. Example: for a police offer, it would be to enforce the
law.
3. Task: a complete piece of work that accomplishes a particular objective. Example: for
a police officer, it would be to arrest suspects who violate the law.
4. Activity: tasks can be divided into activities, activities thus are the individual parts
that make up a task. Example: for a police officer, it would be to drive to a suspect’s
house to perform the arrest.
5. Element: to accomplish activities, a number of very specific elements are involved.
Example: for a police offer, it would be to turn the key to start the car.
The person-oriented approach gives a description of the KSAO’s (Knowledge, Skill, Ability
and Other personal characteristics) that are necessary for an individual to successfully
perform a job.
- Knowledge: what an individual needs to know in order to perform the job.
- Skill: what an individual needs to be able to do on the job.
- Ability: an individual’s aptitude/capability to do job tasks; their potential to develop a
skill.
- Other personal characteristics: anything that is relevant to the job that isn’t covered
by the other 3 characteristics. For example willingness.
A job analysis has many purposes, it can be a foundation on which other activities and
functions are built. Ash and Levine (1980) made up 11 common uses of job analysis
information:
1. Career development: many organizations have a career ladder, which is a
progression of positions where employees can move up if they have the necessary
skills and a good job performance. Recently, competency systems have been used a
lot, these are systems that reward employees for acquiring knowledge and skills, for
example by promoting them. Job analysis contributes to career development by
providing KSAO information at each level of the career ladder, which tells employees
, everything they need to know or do to move up the ladder. And organizations can
develop more candidates for upper-level positions.
2. Legal issues: the basic idea is that decisions that affect people should be fair. Fairness
mans that decisions should be based on job performance/potential and not on
irrelevant personal characteristics. Job analysis provides a list of relevant KSAO’s. 1
important legal concept is essential functions: which are actions that must be done
for a job. In the US, organizations are legally able to deny persons that cannot
perform essential functions under certain conditions. Job analysis is used to identify
essential functions and KSAO’s.
3. Performance appraisal: this is also based on job analysis, it provides a list of the
major components of a job, which can be used for performance evaluation. The
behaviors are collected with critical incidents (instances of behavior that represent
different levels of job performance from outstanding to poor). A poor incident means
that a person did something that was ineffective. A good incident means that a
person did something that worked well.
4. Selection and recruitment: deciding who to hire for a job consists of different steps.
The first step is to determine human attributes/KSAO’s that are necessary for success
on that job. Then, procedures can be chosen to determine how well job applicants fit
the requirements. A person-oriented job analysis produces a KSAO for a job.
5. Training: the KSAO for a job determines in which areas training is needed. An
effective training program should be based on the KSAO’s.
6. Setting salaries: determine salary levels for jobs.
7. Efficiency/safety: design jobs for efficiency and safety.
8. Job classification: place similar jobs into groupings.
9. Job description: write the brief descriptions of the jobs.
10. Job design: design the content of the jobs.
11. Planning: forecast future need for employees with specific KSAO’s.
There are also 2 other common uses of job analysis information:
1. Vocational counseling: vocational counseling tools can help individuals match their
KSAO’s to the KSAO requirements that are needed for the job. Job analysis can be
used to determine KSAO requirements for specific occupations.
2. Research: many researchers are interested in determining the role of job
requirements/task characteristics.
Job analysis information is collected in different ways
- Job analysts and trained observers: observe employees doing the job and then
translate those experiences.
- Job incumbents and supervisors: they are subject matter experts (SMEs), which is
people that have detailed knowledge about jobs, like the requirements of the job.
The 4 most common used approaches to collecting job analysis information
- Perform job: let the analyst perform the actual job, which helps the analyst gain
insight and gives more appreciation for the job. It is not used often because it can be
costly and time consuming.
, - Observe employees working: gives insight into the context in which job tasks are
performed, but can also be expensive and time consuming. And it might be biased,
since the employees know that they are being watched.
- Interview employees: let SMEs interview the employees, often used to generate a
list of tasks and activities that the employee performs.
- Administering questionnaires: most efficient way, because it provides a lot of
information with little effort.
Each of these approaches has its advantages and limitations (page 64)
Methods for job analysis
1. Job components inventory (JCI): address the need to match job requirements to
worker characteristics. The KSAO’s are listed and then the degree of correspondence
to that KSAO list is used to see if someone is suited for the job. There are 5
components of job features represented in this method:
- Use of tools and equipment
- Perceptual and physical requirements
- Mathematics
- Communication
- Decision making and responsibility
2. Functional job analysis (FJA): uses observation and interviews to provide a
description of a job and the scores concerning the job and potential workers, so you
can compare jobs. It was used to produce the Dictionary of Occupational Titles
(DOT), which contains job analysis information for more than 20.000 jobs. The
O*NET (Occupational Information Network) was also launched, this contains job-
related information. It provides information about content of the jobs and the KSAO.
You can look up information in 6 different domains: experience requirements, worker
requirements, worker characteristics, occupation requirements, occupation specific
information, occupation characteristics.
3. Position analysis questionnaire (PAQ): contains 189 items dealing with task
requirements or elements of a job, and a KSAO can be made from these elements.
The elements are divided into 6 main categories: information input, mediation
processes, work output, interpersonal activities, work situation and job context,
miscellaneous aspects.
4. Task inventory: a questionnaire that contains specific tasks that might be done on a
job that is being analyzed. It also rates each task. Task inventory ratings vary a lot
among people, it really depends on whether an individual likes the job or not. To
make it easier, tasks are often put in dimensions that represent the major
components.
When choosing a job analysis method, several factors need to be taken into consideration,
including costs and purpose. All of the above methods are suited for the job analysis of an
individual. But people also work in teams, and for teams it is necessary to make specific
KSAO’s and tasks for communication and coordination among team members.
Reliability of job analysis: 0.83 consistency in making job analysis ratings. Correlations
among ratings by different raters ranged from 0.48 to 0.81.
