Chapter 4

Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs

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 What Do I Need to Know?
LO 4-1 Summarize the elements of work flow analysis.
LO 4-2 Describe how work flow is related to an organization’s structure.
LO 4-3 Define the elements of a job analysis, and discuss their significance for human resource
management.
LO 4-4 Tell how to obtain information for a job analysis.
LO 4-5 Summarize recent trends in job analysis.
LO 4-6 Describe methods for designing a job so that it can be done efficiently.
LO 4-7 Identify approaches to designing a job to make it motivating.
LO 4-8 Explain how organizations apply ergonomics to design safe jobs.
LO 4-9 Discuss how organizations can plan for the mental demands of a job.

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 1
POLLING QUESTION What is most motivating to you in a job?
A. A raise
B. A promotion
C. Verbal recognition
D. Job security

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 Work Flow in Organizations 1

Work Flow Design

• Process of analyzing tasks necessary for the production of a product or service.
• Tasks assigned to specific jobs and positions.

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 Automated Fulfillment Systems
Walmart’s Alphabot automated
fulfillment system has helped
the company stay competitive
and introduced a new kind of
work for Walmart employees.

© McGraw Hill Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe/Getty Images 6

 Work Flow in Organizations 2

Work Flow Analysis

Outputs: the products of any work unit.
• May be tangible or intangible.

Work processes: activities work unit’s members engage in to produce a given

output.
Inputs: raw inputs (materials and information), equipment, and human
resources (knowledge, skills, and abilities) needed to carry out the work
processes.

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 Figure 4.1 Developing a Work Flow Analysis

Access the text alternative for slide images.

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 Work Flow in Organizations 3

Work Flow Design and an Organization’s Structure

The organization’s structure brings together people who must collaborate to
efficiently produce desired outputs.
Different organizational structures include:
• Centralized.
• Decentralized.
• Functional groups.
• Divisional groups.

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 Job Analysis 1

Job Analysis
• The process of getting detailed
information about jobs.
• Provides essential knowledge for
staffing, training, performance
appraisal, and many other HR activities.
Careful job analysis makes it possible to define
what a person in a certain position does and what
qualifications are needed for the job. Firefighters
use specific equipment to extinguish fires, require
physical strength to do their jobs, and must
possess the ability to make decisions under
pressure.

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 Job Analysis 2

Job Descriptions
A job description is a list of tasks, duties, and responsibilities (T DRs) that a
particular job entails.
Key components:
• Job title.
• Brief description of the TDRs.
• List of essential duties with detailed specifications of tasks involved in carrying out
each duty.

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 Job Analysis 3

Job Specifications
A job specification includes:
• Knowledge: factual or procedural information necessary for successfully performing
a task.
• Skill: individual’s level of proficiency at performing a particular task.
• Ability: general enduring capability an individual possesses.
• Other characteristics: job-related licensing, certifications, or personality traits.

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 Job Analysis 4

Sources of Job Information

• Incumbents: people who currently hold the position.
• Supervisors.
• Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT): published by U.S. Department of Labor.
• Occupational Information Network (O*NET): an online job description database
developed by the Labor Department.

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 Job Analysis 5

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) Key sections:

1. Information input.
• A standardized job analysis
questionnaire containing 194 questions 2. Mental processes.
about work behaviors, work conditions, 3. Work output.
and job characteristics that apply to a
4. Relationships with other persons.
wide variety of jobs.
5. Job context.
• Considers the entire work process.
6. Other characteristics.
• Completed by job analysts.

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 Job Analysis 6

Fleishman Job Analysis System

• Job analysis technique that asks subject-matter experts to evaluate a job in terms of
the abilities required to perform the job.
• Especially useful for employee selection, training, and career development.

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 Job Analysis 7

Analyzing Teamwork
Skill differentiation.
• Degree of specialized knowledge or functional capacities in team.

Authority differentiation.
• Allocation of decision-making authority among team.

Temporal (time) stability.

• Length of time team members must work together.

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 Job Analysis 8

Importance of Job Analysis

Building block of all HRM functions.
• Work redesign.
• Human resource planning.
• Selection.
• Training.
• Performance appraisal.
• Career planning.
• Job evaluation.

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 Job Analysis 9

Competency Models
• A competency model identifies and describes all the competencies required for
success in a particular occupation or set of jobs.
• Organizations may create competency models for occupational groups, levels of the
organization, or even the entire organization.

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 Table 4.1 Example of Competencies and a Competency Model
PROJECT MANAGER COMPETENCIES PROFICIENCY RATINGS
Organizational & Planning Skills 1—Below Expectations: Unable to perform basic tasks.
Ability to establish priorities on projects 2—Meets Expectations: Understands basic principles and performs routine
and schedule activities to achieve results. tasks with reliable results; works with minimal supervision or assistance.
3—Exceeds Expectations: Performs complex and multiple tasks; can coach,
teach, or lead others.
Communications 1—Below Expectations: Unable to perform basic tasks.
Ability to build credibility and trust 2—Meets Expectations: Understands basic principles and performs routine
through open and direct communications tasks with reliable results; works with minimal supervision or assistance.
with internal and external customers. 3—Exceeds Expectations: Performs complex and multiple tasks; can coach,
teach, or lead others.
Financial & Quantitative Skills 1—Below Expectations: Unable to perform basic tasks.
Ability to analyze financial information 2—Meets Expectations: Understands basic principles and performs routine
accurately and set financial goals that have tasks with reliable results; works with minimal supervision or assistance.
a positive impact on company's bottom 3—Exceeds Expectations: Performs complex and multiple tasks; can coach,
line and fiscal objectives. teach, or lead others.

Source: Based on R. J. Mirabile, “Everything You Wanted to Know about Competency Modeling,” Training and Development (August 1997): pp. 73–77.
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 Job Analysis 10

Trends in Job Analysis

The pace of change in jobs is accelerating.
• Robotics, AI, applications of information technology are becoming more widely
available.

Job analyses must define jobs and detect changes in jobs over time.
Must balance need for flexibility with need for legal requirements and put
greater emphasis on job design.

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 2
POLLING QUESTION Adding more tasks to an existing job is called job
while adding more decision-making authority to jobs is called job

A. extension; rotation
B. rotation; enrichment
C. enlargement; enrichment
D. enlargement; rotation

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 Job Design 1

Job Design
• Defining how work is performed and which tasks are required.
• Job redesign involves changing an existing design.
• Effective design requires thorough understanding of job through job analysis and
work flow analysis.

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 Figure 4.4 Approaches to Job Design

Access the text alternative for slide images.

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 Job Design 2

Designing Efficient Jobs

Industrial engineering is used to reduce complexity in work.
• Allows almost anyone to be trained quickly to easily perform job.
• Used for highly specialized and repetitive jobs.

Most organizations combine industrial engineering with other approaches to job

design.

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 Job Design 3

Designing Jobs That Motivate

Important to ensure workers have a positive attitude.
• Workers with positive attitudes are motivated.

The Job Characteristics Model includes characteristics that boost motivation:

• Skill variety.
• Task identity.
• Task significance.
• Autonomy.
• Feedback.

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 Figure 4.5 Characteristics of a Motivating Job

Access the text alternative for slide images.

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 Job Design 4

Designing Jobs That Motivate continued

Job Enlargement Job Extension Job Rotation

• Broadening tasks • Enlarging jobs by • Enlarging jobs by

performed in a job. combining several moving employees
relatively simple jobs among several different
to form a job with a jobs.
wider range of tasks.

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 Job Enlargement

Hospitals have begun to enlarge

patient access jobs such as
admissions to include financial
counseling, in an effort to
increase patient satisfaction
levels.

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 Job Design 5

Designing Jobs That Motivate continued

Job Enrichment Self-Managing Work Teams

• Empowering workers by adding more • Have authority for an entire work
decision-making authority to jobs. process or segment.
• Based on Herzberg’s theory of • Team members motivated by
motivation. autonomy, skill variety, and task
• Individuals motivated more by intrinsic identity.
aspects of work.

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 Job Design 6

Designing Jobs That Motivate continued

Flexible work schedules:
• Flextime allows full-time employees to choose starting and ending times within a set
of guidelines.
• Job sharing allows two part-time employees to carry out tasks associated with single
full-time job.
• Compressed workweeks allow employees to work 40 hours within less than 5 days.
• Telework allows employees to do work away from a centrally located office.

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 Figure 4.6 Alternatives to the 8-to-5 Job

Access the text alternative for slide images.

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 Job Design 7

Designing Ergonomic Jobs

• Ergonomics: study of the interface between individuals’ physiology and
characteristics of work environment.
• Goal is to minimize physical strain of worker by structuring physical work
environment around individuals’ physiology.
• Leads to increased efficiency in workplace.
• Increase in use of mobile devices are causing repetitive-stress injuries (RSIs).

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 Job Design 8

Designing Ergonomic Jobs continued

OSHA four-pronged strategy:
1. Issue guidelines for specific industries.
2. Enforce violations of its requirement that employers have a general duty to protect
workers from hazards, including ergonomic hazards.
3. Work with industry groups to advise employers in those industries.
4. National Advisory Committee on Ergonomics.

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 Job Design 9

Designing Jobs That Meet Mental Capabilities and Limitations

Technology can cause information overload.
Goal is to simplify mental demands of jobs to limit mistakes.
• Limit amount of information and memorization required.
• Provide adequate lighting.
• Give simple instructions and easy-to-read gauges and displays.
• Use software for tracking progress.

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 Technology and Job Demands

Technological advances can

sometimes increase job
demands. Some employees may
be required to juggle
information from several
sources at once, which may
distract them from their primary
job task.

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 End of Chapter 4

© 2022 McGraw Hill. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom. No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill. 36