Download Job design

RESOURCING &
TALENT
MANAGEMENT
Job Analysis and Job Design
Objectives:
By the end of the session all learners should be capable
of:
• Undertaking job analysis.
•
Debating the merits of competing approaches to
job design.
•
Arguing the cases for and against job sculpting.
Managing vacancy scenarios
Effective job analysis has long been considered to be
the essential foundation of any ‘good practice’
approach to the recruitment and selection of staff. It is
the first in a series of defined stages that culminates
in employee induction.
Critics of the traditional approach advocate different
approaches based on competency frameworks that
are person-focused rather than job-focused giving
greater flexibility.
Job analysis is prominent in recruitment and
selection; identifying training needs; determining pay
differentials; setting performance targets; and
drawing up new organisational structures.
Provides information on which to base two popular
documents: the job description (used by 82% of
organisations) and the person specification (used by
72%).
The ‘Position Analysis Questionnaire’ gathers
six distinct classes of information:
• Source of information used to perform the job.
• Kind of mental processes used.
• Output expected and methods used.
• Types and levels of relationships with others.
• Physical and social context.
• Other job characteristics and activities.
Methods of gathering job analysis data:
• Observing the job-holder at work.
• Individual interview. The most effective interviews will use the
‘critical incidents technique’.
• Group interview.
• Repertory grip approach -WHAT IS IT? RESEARCH IT!
• Administering a prepared job analysis questionnaire such as
the Work Profiling System or the Position Analysis
Questionnaire.
• Asking individuals to complete work diaries.
• Using documentary evidence such as performance appraisal
results and training manuals.
• Consultation with experts.
Problems with the job analysis approach
1. It is difficult to gather objective data from exercises such as
observation and interviews - they are not therefore an
appropriate use of organisational resources.
2. Jobs often change in terms of their content, character or
complexity – rendering job analysis data quickly obsolete.
Documents developed on the back of such data therefore need
to be updated regularly or kept rather ‘fuzzy’ in nature.
3. Job descriptions may be used by employees as part of a case
for refusing to follow reasonable management instructions.
4. The perspective is job-based, which doesn’t fit easily with the
growing emphasis on flexibility in organisations.
Competency frameworks
Competency = ‘an underlying characteristic of a person
which results in effective and superior performance in a
job’.
Competency frameworks are similar to person
specifications in terms of their broad appearance and
function. What makes them different is the way that they
are developed, and that they can be generic to an
organisation rather than specific to a defined job.
The starting point for a competency framework is an
analysis of people and what attributes account for their
‘effective and superior performance’.
The most commonly sought competencies in UK
organisations are:
• Communication.
• Achievement/results orientation.
• Customer focus.
• Teamwork.
• Leadership.
• Planning and organising.
• Commercial/business awareness.
• Flexibility/adaptability.
• Developing others.
• Problem solving.
• Analytical thinking.
• Building relationships.
Criticisms of the competency approach:
• It can lead to a form of cloning – with new recruits
tending to be similar types of people to those already
employed. This can restrict innovative thinking.
• Frameworks tend to reflect the attributes that were
needed to be effective in the past, rather than those that
the organisation needs to move forward in the future.
Job design
Concerned less with what is in a job or what its
purpose is, and more with what duties should make it
up. When a vacancy occurs an opportunity is often
created to re-organise duties among a team, thus
redesigning the vacant job.
Job design/redesign tends to occur more frequently
when a business environment is more volatile and
unpredictable.
Cordery and Parker (2007) identify six core features of
work content which have to be determined for each job,
and which can be altered from time to time:
• Scope (breadth and level of tasks).
• Discretion (amount of control).
• Variability.
• Demands.
• Feedback (speed and effectiveness).
• Interdependence.
.
There are two distinct traditions to job
design, based on totally opposing principles
Scientific management or Taylorist approach
•. This approach is systematic and very logical. It involves
examining all the individual tasks that need to be carried out by a
team of workers in order to achieve an objective. The time it
takes to achieve each task is calculated, and jobs are then
designed so as to maximise the efficiency of the operation.
•The workforce is deployed with machine-like efficiency – each
employee playing a very defined role in a bigger process that is
overseen and controlled by managers.
•- Humanist approach
Humanist principles
Stems from the idea that scientific management is
dehumanising and therefore, ultimately bad for business
– disengaged workforce.
This approach draws on notions of intrinsic motivation
and involves designing jobs that engage employees –
leading to higher levels of performance and commitment.
Techniques include job rotation, job enlargement, job
enrichment and teamworking.
Hackman and Oldham (1980) developed the ‘job
characteristics model’ – this proposes that job
satisfaction occurs when five ‘core job characteristics’
are present:
• Skill variety.
• Task identity.
• Task significance.
• Autonomy.
• Job feedback.
Whilst job satisfaction has a huge impact on employee
performance, note that the presence of these five characteristics
will not guarantee high performance – employees must also
possess the knowledge and skills required; be psychologically in
a position to appreciate the opportunities provided; and be
satisfied with the work context.
Job sculpting
A fairly new, and still uncommon approach involves
designing jobs around the needs, ambitions and
capabilities of people rather than expecting people to fit
themselves into a job designed for them by the
organisation.
A common technique involves identifying which of eight
‘life interests’ motivate individual staff/job applicants, and
then trying to incorporate them into job roles:
- Application of technology
- Quantitative analysis
- Theory development
- Creative production
- Counselling & mentoring
- Managing people & relationships
- Enterprise control
- Influence via language and ideas
Research Today
• Repertory grip approach -WHAT IS IT?
• Working together – prepare a presentation for next
week explaining the approach, what the
benefits/limitations are and set it all in the context of
an example,
• You can lead the first part of the session next week
with this topic.
• Good Luck!