Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Job Analysis

Copyright Paul E. Spector, All rights reserved, March 15, 2005

 Learning Objectives

List the uses of job analysis information.

Describe the sources and ways of
collecting job analysis information.
Discuss the different job analysis methods.
Describe the evidence for reliability and
validity of job analysis methods.
Explain how job evaluation is used to set
salary levels for jobs.
 What is Job Analysis?
Family of formal methods for describing jobs and
human attributes necessary for jobs
Process should be systematic
Job is broken into smaller units
Results in some written product
Two major approaches
Job-oriented
Person-oriented
Unit of analysis is the job not the individual
 Person-Oriented Job Analysis
Provides a description of the characteristics
(KSAOs) necessary for a person to be successful
in a particular job
KSAOs
Knowledge: Know to do a task
Skill: Can do a task
Ability: Capability to learn to do a task
Other personal characteristics: Other attributes needed
 Examples Of KSAOs For Different
Occupations
Job Knowledge Skill Ability Other

Lawyer Constitutional Writing Communica- Willingness to
rights clearly tion work long
hours
Nurse Surgical Drawing Remain calm Lack of
procedures blood in a crisis squeamishness
in the sight of
blood
Plumber Pipe design Soldering Hand-eye Willingness to
joints coordination get dirty
Teacher Learning Writing Relate to Commitment
principles clearly children to learning
 Purposes of Job Analysis
Career development
Legal defense
Essential functions: What tasks must be done?
Job relevance: Is KSAO necessary to do the job?
Performance appraisal
Recruitment and selection
Training
Vocational counseling
Research
Collecting Job Analysis Information
Who provides information?
Job analysts
Subject matter experts: SMEs
Job incumbents
Supervisors
Trained observers
How to collect information?
Perform job
Observe employees on the job
Interviews SMEs
Survey SMEs
 Methods of Job Analysis
Job Components Inventory (JCI)
Functional Job Analysis (FJA)
Dictionary of Occupational Titles: DOT
Occupational Information Network: O*NET
Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)
Task inventories
Combination Job Analysis Method (C-JAM)
Choosing method depends on purpose
Job analysis for work teams
Sample O*NET Information
 Reliability and Validity of Job
Analysis
Reliability
Test-retest of .83
Inter-rater agreement ranged .48 to .81

Validity
Evidence that job analyses are valid
Trained analysts and students?
 Job Evaluation
Formal, typically mathematical, means of
calculating value of a job (not individual) to an
organization.
Steps:
1. Job analysis to identify important compensable factors
2. Rate each job on compensable factors
3. Points are summed for each job to provide a score
Higher the number, higher salary should be
4. Plot actual salaries for each job against point totals for
jobs
Used to set salary levels for new and existing jobs
Comparable worth