Chapter 04 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
Chapter Four: Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
Welcome to your guide to teaching Chapter Four, Analyzing Work and
Designing Jobs!
This guide will provide you with a chapter summary, learning
objectives, lecture outlines, solutions to in-chapter case questions and
end of chapter discussion questions and possible responses.
Chapter Four Roadmap
We hope you find each chapter of your Instructor Manual practical and useful, but also,
exciting! You can adapt the chapter text, the PowerPoints, and the video to work in an online
class environment, a guided independent study environment, or a face to face or on-ground
environment.
When presenting Chapter Four, have the students first read the chapter and encourage
them to absorb the “big picture” of Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs.
Use the PowerPoint for Chapter Four to frame your lecture.
Have students read and discuss the Cases and their respective Questions.
Have students validate their knowledge of the chapter by working through the
Discussion Questions at the end of the Chapter.
Lastly, have students review, journal, or discuss the Key Vocabulary Terms at the end of
the chapter.
ROADMAP: THE LECTURE
ANALYZING WORK AND DESIGNING JOBS
Chapter Summary
This chapter discusses the analysis and design of work and, in doing so, lays out some
considerations that go into making informed decisions about how to create and link jobs. The
chapter begins with a look at the big-picture issues related to analyzing work flow and
organizational structure. The discussion then turns to the more specific issues of analyzing and
designing jobs. Traditionally, job analysis has emphasized the study of existing jobs in order to
make decisions such as employee selection, training, and compensation. In contrast, job
design has emphasized making jobs more efficient or more motivating. However, as this
chapter shows, the two activities are interrelated.
Learning Objectives
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Chapter 04 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
After studying this chapter, the student should be able to:
1. Summarize the elements of work flow analysis.
2. Describe how work flow is related to an organization’s success.
3. Define the elements of a job analysis and discuss their significance for human resource
management.
4. Tell how to obtain information for a job analysis.
5. Summarize recent trends in job analysis.
6. Describe methods for designing a job so that it can be done efficiently.
7. Identify approaches to designing a job to make it motivating.
8. Explain how organizations apply ergonomics to design safe jobs.
9. Discuss how organizations can plan for the mental demands of a job.
I. Introduction
The opening vignette of the chapter highlights Metro Guide Publishing and the problem they
have been dealing with regarding the best way to build customer relations. Most of their
new employees preferred to text or e-mail and the owner, Patty Baxter, noticed that sales
had gone down with the lack of personal customer contact. What she soon realized was
that many of the workers who grew up with a mobile device really didn’t understand how to
build a relationship via the phone. She hired a trainer to help build her employee phone
skills and confidence when using the phone. Other companies have run into the same
challenges and have found they have to do basic training around voice tone, first
impressions, and how to actually use a landline phone. Part of staying current is making
sure employees have skills needed to utilize all tools in an office, even if perceived as being
older technology.
Discussion Question and Suggested Response
1. How does the training described in this vignette tie to the concept of job design?
Training needs to be tied directly to the job requirements. In this situation, using a
telephone to build customer relations is a key part of the job, yet many new employees
didn’t have basic phone skills. So, although this may seem like an old fashioned skill, it
was needed for this job and therefore the training was warranted.
This chapter discusses the analysis and design of work and it lays out some
considerations that go into making informed decisions about how to create and link jobs.
II. Work Flow in Organizations
1. Through the process of work flow design, managers analyze the tasks needed to
produce a product or service.
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Chapter 04 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
2. A job is a set of related duties.
3. A position is the set of duties performed by one person.
A. Work Flow Analysis
1. Before designing its work flow, the organization’s planners need to analyze what
work needs to be done.
2. Figure 4.1, Developing a Work Unit Activity Analysis, shows the elements of a
work flow analysis.
3. For each type of work, the analysis identifies the output of the process, the
activities involved, and the three categories of input: materials and information,
equipment, and human resources.
4. Outputs are products of any work unit, say, a department or a team.
5. Work flow analysis considers the work processes used to generate the outputs
identified. They are described in terms of operating procedures for every task
performed by each employee at each stage of the process.
Work flow analysis identifies the inputs required to carry out the work processes.
B. Work Flow Design and an Organization’s Structure
1. Work flow takes place in the context of an organizations’ structure. It requires the
cooperation of individuals and groups.
2. The structure may do this in two ways:
a. Centralized: authority is concentrated in a few people at the top of the
organization.
b. Decentralized: authority is spread among many people.
3. The organization may group jobs according to functions or it may set up divisions
to focus on products or customer groups.
4. Some general observations about structure and work design include:
a. If the structure is strongly based on function, workers tend to have low
authority and to work alone at highly specialized jobs.
b. Jobs that involve teamwork or broad responsibility tend to require a structure
based on divisions other than functions.
c. When the goal is to empower employees, companies need to set up structures
and jobs that enable broad responsibility.
5. Work design often emphasizes the analysis and design of jobs.
III. Job Analysis
1. To achieve high-quality performance, organizations have to understand and match job
requirements and people. This understanding requires job analysis, which is the
process of getting detailed information about jobs. Analyzing jobs and understanding
what is required to carry out a job provides essential knowledge for staffing, training,
performance appraisal, and many other HR activities.
A. Job Descriptions
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Chapter 04 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
1. A job description is a list of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDRs)
that a job entails. TDRs are observable actions.
Figure 4.2, Sample Job Description, identifies the typical format of a job
description.
2. Whenever an organization creates a new job, it needs a new job description.
Preparation of a job description begins with gathering information about the
job from people already performing the task, the position’s supervisor, or the
managers creating the position. Job descriptions should then be reviewed
periodically and updated if necessary. Performance appraisals can provide a
good opportunity for updating job descriptions.
3. Organizations should give each newly hired employee a copy of his or her
job description. This helps the employee to understand what is expected. It
should not be presented as limiting the employee’s commitment to go above
and beyond the listed duties when the situation and their abilities call for that.
B. Job Specifications
1. Whereas the job description focuses on the activities involved in carrying out
a job, a job specification looks at the qualities of the person performing the
job.
2. A job specification is a list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
characteristics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform the job.
a. Knowledge: refers to the factual or procedural information that is
necessary for successfully performing a task.
b. Skill: is an individual’s level of proficiency at performing a particular task.
c. Ability: refers to a more general enduring capability that an individual
possesses.
d. Other characteristics: might be personality traits such as someone’s
persistence or motivation to achieve.
3. Some jobs also have legal requirements such as licensing or certification.
Figure 4.3, Sample Job Specifications, identifies a set of sample job
specifications.
4. In contrast to tasks, duties, and responsibilities, KSAOs are characteristics
about people and are not directly observable.
5. Accurate information about KSAOs is especially important for making
decisions about who will fill a job.
C. Sources of Job Information
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Chapter 04 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
1. Information for analyzing an existing job often comes from incumbents, that
is, people who currently hold the same position in the organization. They are
a logical source of information because they are most acquainted with the
details of the job.
2. A drawback to relying on incumbent’s information is that they may have an
incentive to exaggerate what they do to appear more valuable to the
organization. Information from incumbents should be supplemented with
information from observers such as supervisors.
3. Research suggests that incumbents may provide the most accurate
estimates of the actual time spent performing job tasks, while supervisors
may be more accurate in reporting information about the importance of job
duties.
4. The government also provides background information for analyzing jobs. In
the 1930s, the U. S. Department of Labor created the Dictionary of
Occupational Titles as a vehicle for helping the new public employment
system link the demand for skills and the supply of skills in the workforce.
This system served the U.S. well for over 60 years, but it became clear that
jobs in the new economy were different and the DOT no longer served the
purpose. A new system called the Occupational Information Network
(O*NET) came into use in 1998.
5. Instead of relying on fixed job titles and narrow task descriptions, the O*NET
uess a common language that generalizes across jobs to describe the
abilities, work styles, work activities, and work context required for 1,000
broadly defined occupations.
D. Position Analysis Questionnaire
1. One of the broadest and best-researched instruments for analyzing jobs is
the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ). This is a standardized job
analysis questionnaire containing 194 items to represent work behaviors,
work conditions, and job characteristics that apply to a wide variety of jobs.
The questionnaire organizes these items into six sections concerning
different aspects of the job:
a. Information input – where and how a worker gets information needed to
perform the job.
a. Mental processes – the reasoning, decision making, planning, and
information processing activities involved in performing the job.
b. Work output – the physical activities, tools, and devices used by the
worker to perform the job.
c. Relationships with other persons – the relationships with other persons
required in performing the job.
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Chapter 04 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
d. Job context – the physical and social contexts where the work is
performed.
e. Other characteristics – the activities, condition, and characteristics other
than those previously described that are relevant to the job.
2. Using the PAQ provides an organization with information that helps in
comparing jobs even when they are dissimilar. The PAQ also has the
advantages that it considers the whole work process, from inputs through
outputs.
3. The PAQ is meant to be completed by job analysts trained in this method.
The descriptions in the PAQ reports are rather abstract so the reports may
not be useful for writing job descriptions or redesigning jobs.
E. Fleishman Job Analysis System
1. To gather information about worker requirements, the Fleishman Job
Analysis System asks subject-matter experts, typically job incumbents, to
evaluate a job in terms of the abilities required to perform the job.
2. The survey is based on 52 categories of abilities ranging from written
comprehension to deductive reasoning, manual dexterity, stamina, and
originality.
3. Figure 4.4, Example of an Ability from the Fleishman Job Analysis
System, depicts how the survey items are arranged into a scale for each
ability.
4. When the survey has been completed in all 52 categories, the results provide
a picture of the ability requirements of a job. Such information is especially
useful for employee selection, training, and career development.
G. Importance of Job Analysis
1. Job analysis is so important to HR managers that it has been called the
building block of everything that HR does. This statement refers to the fact
that almost every HRM program requires some type of information that is
gleaned from job analysis.
a. Work redesign – often an organization seeks to redesign work to make it
more efficient or to improve quality.
b. Human resource planning – planners need information about the levels of
skills required in various jobs.
c. Selection – in order to select the most qualified, decision makers need to
know what tasks the individuals must perform.
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Chapter 04 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
d. Training – almost every employee hired by an organization will require
training.
e. Performance appraisal – job analysis helps in identifying the behaviors
and results associated with effective performance.
f. Career planning – matching an individual’s skills and aspirations with
career opportunities requires that those in charge of career planning know
the skill requirements of the various jobs.
f. Job evaluation – the process of job evaluation involves the relative dollar
value of each job to the organization in order to set up fair pay structures.
2. Job analysis supports several of these activities when it comes to automating
major job duties.
3. Job analysis is also important from a legal standpoint. Detailed, accurate,
objective job specifications help decision makers to comply with government
regulations. These documents also provide evidence of efforts to engage in
fair employment practices.
4. Besides helping human resource professionals, job analysis helps
supervisors and other managers carry out their duties:
a. Identify types of work in a unit.
b. Provide information about work flow processes.
c. Supports managers in hiring decisions, performance reviews, and reward
recommendations.
H. Competency Models
1. These traditional approaches to job analysis are too limited for some HRM
needs, however. When human resource management is actively engaged in
talent management as a way to support strategy, organizations need to think
beyond skills for particular jobs.
2. A competency is an area of personal capability that enables employees to
perform their work successfully. A competency model identifies and describes all
the competencies required for success in a particular occupation or set of jobs.
Table 4.1 shows an example of a competency model for a project manager.
3. Competency models help HR professionals ensure that all aspects of talent
management are aligned with the organization’s strategy. Not only can the
organization select those who can carry out a particular job today, but it can spot
those with competencies they can develop to assume greater responsibility in
the future. Competency models identify the important capabilities to measure in
performance evaluations and to reward with pay and promotions.
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Chapter 04 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
I. Trends in Job Analysis
1. Organizations have been appreciating the need to analyze jobs in the context
of the organization’s structure and strategy.
1. Organizations are recognizing that today’s workplace must be adaptable and
is constantly subject to change.
2. Job analysis must not only define jobs when they are created, but also must
detect changes in jobs as time passes.
3. Research suggests that successful downsizing efforts almost always entail
changes in the nature of jobs, not just their number.
4. Changes in the nature of work and the expanded use of “project-based”
organizational structures require the type of broader understanding that
comes from an analysis of work flows.
5. Organizations must balance the need for flexibility with the need for legal
documentation.
IV. Job Design
1. When an organization is trying to improve quality or efficiency, a review of work
units and processes may require a fresh look at how jobs are designed.
2. Job design is the process of defining how work will be performed and what tasks
will be required in a given job or job redesign, a similar process that involves
changing an existing job design.
3. Figure 4.5, Approaches to Job Design, looks at the how the available approaches
emphasize different aspects of the job, the mechanics of doing a job efficiently, the
job’s impact on motivation, the use of safe work practices, and the mental demands
of the job.
A. Designing Efficient Jobs
1. If workers perform tasks as efficiently as possible, not only does the
organization benefit from lower costs and greater output per worker, but also
workers should be less fatigued. This point of view has for years formed the
basis of classical industrial engineering. This approach looks for the
simplest way to structure work in order to maximize efficiency.
2. However, a focus on efficiency alone can create jobs that are so simple and
repetitive that workers get bored. Hence, most organizations combine
industrial engineering with other approaches to job design.
B. Designing Jobs That Motivate
A pure focus on efficiency will not achieve human resource objectives.
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Chapter 04 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
1. Job design should take into account factors that make jobs motivating to
employees.
2. A model that shows how to make jobs more motivating is the Job
Characteristic Model developed by Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham. This
model describes jobs in terms of five characteristics:
a. Skill variety – the extent to which a job requires a variety of skills to carry
out the tasks involved.
b. Task identity – the degree to which a job requires completing a whole piece
of work.
c. Task significance – the extent to which the job has an important impact on
the lives of other people.
d. Autonomy – the degree to which the job allows an individual to make
decisions about the way the work will be carried out.
e. Feedback – the extent to which a person receives clear information about
performance effectiveness from the work itself.
3. As shown in Figure 4.6, Characteristics of a Motivating Job, the more of
each of these characteristics a job has, the more motivating the job will be,
according to the Job Characteristics Model.
4. Job Enlargement: Job enlargement refers to broadening the types of tasks
performed. Methods of job enlargement include job extension and job rotation.
5. Job extension is enlarging jobs by combining several relatively simple jobs to
form a job with a wider range of tasks.Job rotation does not actually redesign
the jobs themselves, but moves employees among several different jobs. This
approach to job enlargement is common among production teams.
6. Job Enrichment: The idea of job enrichment, or empowering workers by
adding decision-making authority to their jobs, comes from the work of
Frederick Herzberg.
a. According to Herzberg’s two-factor theory, individuals are motivated
more by intrinsic aspects of work (for example, the meaningfulness of a job)
than by extrinsic rewards such as pay.
b. Herzberg identified five factors he associated with motivating jobs:
achievement, recognition, growth, responsibility, and performance of the
entire job.
Self-Managing Work Teams: Instead of merely enriching individual jobs,
some organizations empower employees by designing work to be done by
self-managing work teams. These teams have authority for an entire work
process or segment.
b. Teams typically have the authority to schedule work, hire team
members, resolve problems related to the team’s performance, and
perform other duties traditionally handled by management.
c. Teamwork can give a job such motivating characteristics as autonomy,
skill variety, and task identity.
d. Self-managing teams are most likely to accomplish their goals if they
involve 6-18 employees who share the same technology, location, and
work hours.
e. Teams tend to do better when each team member performs a variety of
tasks and when team members view their effort as significant.
7. Flexible Work Schedules: One way in which organizations can give
employees some say in how their work is structured is to offer flexible work
schedules.
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Chapter 04 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
8. Figure 4.7, Alternatives to the Eight-to-Five Work Job, illustrates
alternatives to the traditional 40-hour workweek.
9. Flextime is a scheduling policy in which full-time employees may choose
starting and ending times within guidelines specified by the organization.
10.Job sharing is a work option in which two part-time employees carry out the
tasks associated with a single job.
11.Another scheduling alternative is the compressed workweek. This is a
schedule in which full-time workers complete their weekly hours in fewer than
five days.
12.Telework: The broad term for doing one’s work away from a centrally located
office is telework or telecommuting. For employers, advantages of telework
include less need for office space and the ability to offer greater flexibility to
employees who are disabled or need to be available for children or elderly
relatives.
13.Given the possible benefits, it is not surprising that telework has been a
growing trend.
Did You Know?
Occasional Telework Dominates Flexibility Options
Most companies offer some type of flexible work arrangements but many are very limited and
only include an adjustment to quitting time or when to take breaks. Telework, on an occasional
basis is the most common option.
C. Designing Ergonomic Jobs
1. The study of the interface between individuals’ physiology and the
characteristics of the physical environment is called ergonomics.
2. The goal of ergonomics is to minimize physical strain on the worker by
structuring the physical work environment around the way the human body
works.
3. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a “four-
pronged” strategy for encouraging ergonomic job design:
a. First prong: Issue guidelines for specific industries.
b. Second prong: OSHA enforces violations of its requirements that
employers have a general duty to protect workers from hazards, including
ergonomic hazards.
c. Third prong: OSHA works with industry groups to advise employers in
those industries.
d. Finally, OSHA established a National Advisory Committee on Ergonomics
to define needs for further research.
4. A recent ergonomic challenge comes from the popularity of mobile devices.
As workers find more and more uses for these devices, they are at risk from
repetitive-stress injuries (RSIs). When using mobile devices or any computer,
workers can protect themselves by taking frequent breaks and paying attention
to their posture while they work.
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Chapter 04 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
D. Designing Jobs that Meet Mental Capabilities and Limitations
1. Just like the body, the mind too has capabilities and limitations.
2. There are several ways to simplify a job’s mental demands:
a. Limit the amount of information and memorization that the job requires.
b. Provide adequate lighting.
c. Provide easy-to-understand gauges and displays.
d. Provide simple-to-operate equipment.
e. Provide clear instructions.
3. Changes in technology sometimes reduce job demands and errors, but in
some cases, technology has made the problem worse. Research by a firm
called Basex found that a big part of the information overload problem is
recovery time, that is, the time that it takes a person’s thinking to switch back
from an interruption to the task at hand.
4. Organizations probably can’t design interruption-free jobs, but they can design
jobs that empower workers to manage their time. For example, allowing them
to schedule blocks of time when they concentrate on work and do not answer
phone, e-mail, or text messages.
ROADMAP: CASE STUDY
Thinking Ethically
How Can You Ethically Design a Dangerous Job?
Football is an incredible popular sport in the U.S. from flag football through the
National Football League (NFL). However, because of new found evidence regarding
safety and injury, the future of the sport and the NFL is uncertain. The sport requires
aggressive play and included head collisions. Scientist have found that the repeat
hits can cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which results in headache,
memory loss, episode of anger, and suicidal tendencies. A group of players and
families have sued the NFL for covering up the dangers of concussions. They are
seeking $5 billion to be paid out over 25 years to players who are disabled by brain
injuries sustained on the job. The NFL has already made changes to the players’ jobs
by creating new rules for the game. The changes may reduce injuries but some are
concerned the fans will find the game less appealing.
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