Overview Study Material Human Resource Management (Literature Supplement) 2017-2018

Preface

This is the supplement of the literature summary of Human Resource Management.

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 Overview Study Material Human Resource Management (Literature Supplement) 2017-2018

A. Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs

It is important for organizations to pay attention to their structure. In order to gain

competitive advantage, the organization should create a fit between its environment,
competitive strategy, philosophy, and its jobs and organizational design. This chapter
will focus on how organizations should analyze and design jobs. Traditionally, job
analysis emphasizes the study of existing jobs in order to make decisions such as
employee selection, training and compensation. On the other hand, job design focuses
on making jobs more efficient or more motivating. Nevertheless, the two activities are
interrelated.

Work flow in organizations

Work flow design is the process of analyzing tasks necessary for the production of a
product or service. It thereby helps managers to assign tasks to specific jobs (a set of
related duties) and positions (a set of duties (job) performed by a particular person).

Work Flow Analysis

The organization first needs to analyze what work has to be done before it designs its
work flow and organization structure. A representation of what the work flow analysis
includes is provided below:

Source: Noe et al. (2018)

For each type of work, the analysis identifies the output of the process, the
activities/work processes used to generate the output and the three categories of inputs
(materials and information, equipment and human resources) required to carry out the
work processes:
• Output: Product or service produced by any work unit (e.g. a department, team,
or individual). These outputs can be either tangible or intangible. The work flow
analysis considers not only the quantity of the products, but also their quality.
• Activity/Work process: All tasks performed by each person in a work unit in
order to generate outputs. They are defined in terms of operating procedures for
each task performed. This specification helps HR professionals to design efficient
and clear work systems. Additionally, when work is automated, outsourced or
restructured, the knowledge of activities can guide the staffing changes.
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 Overview Study Material Human Resource Management (Literature Supplement) 2017-2018

• Inputs: Can be divided into subcategories: raw inputs (materials and

information), equipment and human resources (skills, knowledge and abilities).
These are the inputs used in the development of the work units’ products.

Work flow design and an organization’s structure

Besides analyzing the work flow, it is important to see how the work fits within the
organization’s structure. It is important to understand that, in order to use different
human resource techniques effectively, a single job, the overall work flow, structure and
strategy should complement each other. Ideally, the structure brings together the people
who must collaborate together to efficiently create the desired outputs. This can be done
either in a centralized (one with high authority concentrated in a few people at the top
of the organization) or decentralized way (one with authority spread among many
people). Additionally, the organization may decide to group jobs based on functions (e.g.
welding, painting, packaging) or to set up divisions, which focus on products or customer
groups. If the structure is based on function, employees tend to have low authority and
to work alone at highly specialized jobs. However, if the structure is divisional, then it is
highly likely that the jobs involve teamwork and broad responsibility. When the goal is to
empower workers, companies should set up structures and jobs that enable broad
responsibility.

The organization’s structure also has an effect on the managers’ jobs. Management of a
division responsible for a product or customer group usually tends to require more
experience and cognitive abilities (because of managers’ exposure to a range of
individual differences between workers) than the management of a department that
handles a specific function. Contrarily, controlling a functional department requires skills
in managing conflicts and aligning employees’ efforts with higher-level goals.

All those approaches can succeed, but each one of them focuses on one isolated job at a
time. They do not consider how a single job fits into the overall work flow or structure of
the organization. Therefore, to use those techniques effectively, HR personnel should
understand their organization as a whole.

Job analysis
To ensure high-quality performance, organizations have to understand and match job
requirements and people. A job analysis is the process of getting detailed information
about jobs. It provides essential knowledge for staffing, training, performance appraisal,
work redesign, career planning, job evaluation, and human resource planning (e.g. a
supervisor’s evaluation of an employee’s work should be based on performance relative
to job requirements). Usually, job analysis is carried out by an HR professional.
Exceptions are the small organizations, in which line managers can do the job analyses.
Also, contracts with other firms who perform that activity is an option.

Job descriptions
An essential part of job analysis is the creation of a job description and job
specifications. A job description is a list of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDRs)
that a job entails. TDRs are observable actions and detailed information about them is
laid down in the job description. This information allows the manager to evaluate the job
performance of an employee and determine how well he/she is meeting each job
requirement. Job descriptions usually include the job title, a brief description of the TDRs
and a list of essential duties with detailed specifications of the tasks involved in carrying
out each duty. This format can vary across companies, but it should be constant for jobs
within one company. This ensures consistency in decisions regarding pay and promotions
and fairness regarding HR decisions made. To create a good job description, data about
the job and its tasks are gathered from the people already on that position, their
supervisor and/or the managers creating the position. Based on that, the key duties of
the job are identified (both mental and physical tasks) and the methods and resources
required to carry it out as well.
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 Overview Study Material Human Resource Management (Literature Supplement) 2017-2018

Afterwards, job description should be reviewed periodically and updated if needed.

Performance appraisals are a good way to update job descriptions. Many job descriptions
include the phrase “and other duties as requested” so that employees are not fully
restricted and are motivated to go above and beyond the listed duties.

Job specifications
A job specification looks at the qualities or requirements the person applying or doing
the job has to possess. It is a list of Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other characteristics
(KSAOs) a person must have in order to perform the job. Knowledge refers to factual or
procedural information that is necessary to successfully perform the task. A skill entails
how good a person is at performing a certain task (the capability to perform it well),
while an ability is a more general enduring capability of that person. Other
characteristics include personality traits and legal requirements, such as certification or
licensing. Similar to job descriptions, the creation of job specifications stems from
combined data from people performing the job, supervisors and planners of the job and
trained job analysts. Unlike TDRs, KSAOs are not observable. They are observable only
when individuals are carrying out the TDRs of the job. Accurate information about KSAOs
is especially important when deciding who to assign to a certain job, and therefore
interviews and selection decisions should be focused on these criteria.

Sources of job information

Background information for analyzing jobs can be gained from people who currently
have the position, namely incumbents. They are the most acquainted with the details of
the job and should be able to provide very accurate information. However, relying solely
on incumbents can backfire since sometimes they tend to exaggerate what they do in
order to seem more valuable to the organization. Therefore, their information should be
supplemented with some information from supervisors as well. Research suggests that
supervisors may provide the most accurate estimates of the importance of job duties,
while incumbents can provide the most accurate information about the actual time spent
performing job tasks and safety-related risk factors. External job analysts provide the
most accurate information about skill levels. The government also provides information
for job analyses. For instance, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) helps the new
public employment system to link the demand for skills and the supply of skills in the
U.S. workforce by providing description of 12,000 jobs. However, this system was
replaced by O*NET, which instead of relying on fixed job titles and narrow task
descriptions, it uses a common language that generalizes across jobs to describe the
abilities, work styles, work activities and work contexts of 1,000 standard jobs. Even
though it has been developed for jobs in the U.S., its ratings tend to be the same for
jobs located in other countries.

Position Analysis Questionnaire

After gathering information from job descriptions and specifications, a job analyst can
use it for analyzing the job. One of the broadest and best-researched instruments for
analyzing jobs is the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) is a standard job
analysis questionnaire, containing 194 items that represent work behaviors, work
conditions, and job characteristics that apply to a wide variety of jobs. These items are
organized into six sections concerning different aspects of the job:
1. Information input: where and how a worker gets information needed to
perform the job;
2. Mental processes: the reasoning, decision making, planning and information-
processing activities involved in performing the job;
3. Work output: the physical activities, tools and devices used by the worker to
perform the job;
4. Relationships with other people: the relationships required in performing the
job;
5. Job context: the physical and social contexts where the work is performed;

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 Overview Study Material Human Resource Management (Literature Supplement) 2017-2018

6. Other characteristics: the activities, conditions and characteristics other than

those previously described that are relevant to the job.

The person analyzing the job determines whether each item on the questionnaire applies
to the job being analyzed, and if yes, rates the item on six scales: extent of use, amount
of time, importance to the job, applicability, possibility of occurrence, and special code.
PAQ aids organizations to compare jobs even when they are dissimilar, and it considers
the whole work process including context, inputs and outputs. However, it requires that
the person filling it in has college-level reading skills and that is why it is meant to be
completed only by job analysts trained for this process. Moreover, the PAQ reports
provide an abstract characterization of jobs and they might not be useful for writing job
descriptions or redesigning jobs.

Fleishman job analysis system

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 and
thus gathers information about worker requirements. The survey is based on 52
categories of abilities, ranging from written comprehension to deductive reasoning,
manual dexterity, stamina and originality, and it uses a 7-point scale for the answers.
When completed, the survey provides a picture of the ability requirements of a job. This
is useful for employee selection, training and career development.

Analyzing teamwork
Work design relies on teams to accomplish an organization’s objectives, so HR managers
must identify the best ways to handle jobs that are highly interdependent. There are
standard ways to measure the nature of teams and the three most critical dimensions
are:
1. Skill differentiation: the degree to which team members have specialized
knowledge or functional capacities;
2. Authority differentiation: the allocation of decision-making authority among
individuals, sub-groups and the team as a whole;
3. Temporal (time) stability: the length of time over which team members must
work together.

Importance of job analysis

Job analysis is the building block of everything that personnel does. Almost every HR
management program requires some type of information that is gathered from job
analysis:
1. Work redesign: this is done in order to improve efficiency and quality of work.
The redesign requires detailed information about the existing job. This process is
similar to job analysis.
2. Human resource planning: since HR needs and ways to meet those needs are
analyzed, planners must have accurate information about the levels of skill
required in order to determine what kinds of human resources are needed.
3. Selection: the KSAs and tasks performed should be known so that decision-
makers can identify the most qualified applicants for the positions.
4. Training: any training program requires knowledge of tasks performed in a job
so that the training is related to the necessary knowledge and skills.
5. Performance appraisal: requires information about how well each employee is
performing in order to reward employees who perform well and to improve their
performance if needed.
6. 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 job.
7. Job evaluation: this process involves assessing the relative dollar value of each
job to the organization in order to set up fair pay structures. Therefore,
information about different jobs is necessary in order to compare them.
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 Overview Study Material Human Resource Management (Literature Supplement) 2017-2018

Job analysis is also important from a legal aspect. Detailed, accurate, objective job
specifications help decision makers comply with the regulations by keeping the focus on
tasks and abilities. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces the
requirements and the compliance with regulations with the help of job descriptions.
Nevertheless, job descriptions and job specifications are not a substitute for fair
employment practices.

Competency models
Traditional approaches to job analysis may be too limited for some HRM needs. When
HRM is engaged in talent management as a way to support strategy, organizations have
to think beyond skills for a specific job. They should identify the capabilities they need to
acquire and develop in order to promote the organization’s success. This is why
competency models are developed. 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 sets
of jobs (e.g. leadership strength, skill in coaching others, ability to bring out the best in
each team member). Those models can be created for occupational groups, levels of the
organization or the entire organization. While job analysis focuses on work tasks and
outcomes, competency models focus more on how people work. They help HR
professionals to ensure that all aspects of talent management are aligned with the
organization’s strategy. Hiring based on competencies associated with job success
promotes diversity and lowers risk of selecting people who will be dissatisfied with the
job. Furthermore, information about employees’ competencies can guide the training and
development processes and provide a fair basis for defining performance measures. An
example of a competency model is provided below:

Project manager competencies Behaviors used to determine the person’s level

of proficiency
Organizational and planning 1. Below Expectations: Unable to perform basic
skills tasks.
Ability to establish priorities on 2. Meets Expectations: Understands basic principles
projects and schedule activities to and performs routine tasks with reliable results;
achieve 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
Ability to build credibility and trust tasks.
through open and direct 2. Meets Expectations: Understands basic principles
communications with internal and and performs routine tasks with reliable results;
external customers. works with minimal supervision or assistance.
3. Exceeds Expectations: Performs complex and
multiple tasks; can coach, teach or lead others.
Financial and quantitative 1. Below Expectations: Unable to perform basic
skills tasks.
Ability to analyze financial 2. Meets Expectations: Understands basic principles
information accurately and set and performs routine tasks with reliable results;
financial goals that have a positive works with minimal supervision or assistance.
impact on company’s bottom line 3. Exceeds Expectations: Performs complex and
and fiscal objectives. multiple tasks; can coach, teach or lead others.

Trends in job analysis

Organizations have realized the need to analyze jobs in the context of the organization’s
structure and strategy. They are also recognizing that today’s workplace and jobs are
not stable and are constantly subject to change. Jobs tend to change and evolve over
time and job descriptions and specifications must therefore be adjusted as time passes.

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 Overview Study Material Human Resource Management (Literature Supplement) 2017-2018

Additionally, with global competitive pressure, automation and weak demand growth,
one corporate change that has affected many organizations is downsizing. Successful
downsizing efforts entail changes in the nature of jobs, not just their number. Those jobs
that survive downsizing tend to have a broader scope of responsibilities coupled with less
supervision. These changes in the nature of work and the expanded use of “project-
based” organizational structures require the types of broader understanding that comes
from work flow analysis. Even though job descriptions and job specifications must be
flexible and adaptable, legal requirement may discourage companies from writing them
in a flexible way. Therefore, organizations must balance the need for flexibility with the
need for legal documentation. Many professionals are overcoming this challenge with a
greater emphasis on job design.

Job design
When a company is expanding, supervisors and HR professionals must help plan for new
or growing work units. When it is trying to improve quality or efficiency, a review of work
units and processes may require a look at how jobs are designed. Job design is the
process of defining how work will be performed and what tasks will be required in a
given job. Job redesign is the process of changing the tasks or the way work is
performed in an existing job. To design jobs effectively, a person must understand the
job itself (through job analysis) and its place in the larger work unit’s work flow process
(through work flow analysis).

The available approaches for designing a job emphasize different aspects of the job and
they include:
1. Design for efficiency (industrial engineering);
2. Design for motivation (job enlargement, job enrichment, teamwork and flexibility);
3. Design for safety and health (ergonomics);
4. Design for mental capacity (filtering information, clear displays and instructions
and memory aids).

Designing efficient jobs

An efficient job means lower costs, greater output per worker and less fatigued workers.
This perspective has formed the basis of classical industrial engineering that looks for
the simplest way to structure work in order to maximize efficiency. Typically, it reduces
the complexity of the work. This approach focuses on specialization, skill variety, and
work methods autonomy. Therefore, the jobs tend to be highly specialized and
repetitive. One of the mechanistic approaches is the scientific management
approach: identify one best way to perform a job through performing time-and-motion
studies, identify workers that can do this job best, and train them. Companies should
also offer pay structured to motivate workers to do their best. Industrial engineering
provides measurable and practical benefits. Organizations are less dependent on high-
ability workers as tasks are simple and individuals are thus easily replaceable. However,
a focus on efficiency alone can create jobs that are too simple and repetitive that
workers get bored and demotivated. Thus, companies should combine industrial
engineering with other approaches to job design.

Designing jobs that motivate

When organizations must compete for employees, depend on skilled knowledge workers
and need a workforce that cares about customer satisfaction, only focussing on efficiency
will not be enough to achieve the HR objectives. As opposed to the mechanistic
approach, the motivational approach focuses on the attitudinal variables of a job in order
to increase the employees’ enthusiasm, commitment and creativity. This approach
focuses on decision-making autonomy, interdependence, and task significance.
Organizations need to create jobs that take into account certain factors that make jobs
motivating and satisfying for employees.

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 Overview Study Material Human Resource Management (Literature Supplement) 2017-2018

Such a model is the Job Characteristics Model, developed by Richard Hackman and
Greg Oldham, which shows how to make jobs more motivating. The model describes five
characteristics:
• Skill variety is the extent to which a job requires a variety of skills to carry out
the tasks involved;
• Task identity is the degree to which a job requires completing a ‘whole’ piece of
work from beginning to end;
• Task significance is the extent to which the job has an important impact on the
lives of other people;
• Autonomy represents the degree to which the job allows an individual to make
decisions about the way the work will be carried out;
• Feedback is the extent to which a person receives clear information about
performance effectiveness from the work itself.

The characteristics of a motivating job are shown in the figure below. The more of each
one of them, the higher the motivation will be. This in turn will increase the employee’s
satisfaction from the job and the quantity and quality of his/her work. However,
employees’ individual differences also affect how much they are motivated by job
characteristics.

Source: Noe et al. (2018)

Applications of the job characteristics approach to job design include:

1. Job enlargement: the broadening of the types of tasks performed. Its aim is to
make jobs less repetitive and more interesting. Job enlargement also occurs when
the company adds new goals or requests fewer workers to accomplish work that
has been previously spread among more workers. However, companies should be
careful not to cross the line from making jobs interesting to making jobs in a way
that make employees burn out. Organizations that use job enlargement to make
jobs more motivational employ techniques such as job extension and job
rotation:
- Job extension: enlarging jobs by combining several relatively simple jobs
to form a job with a wider range of tasks. For instance, combining the jobs
of a receptionist, a typist and a file clerk.
- Job rotation: this approach doesn’t actually redesign the jobs themselves
but moves employees among several different jobs. It is common among
production teams. However, as with job extensions, the enlarged jobs may
still consist of repetitive activities, but with greater variation among those
activities.

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 Overview Study Material Human Resource Management (Literature Supplement) 2017-2018

2. Job enrichment: enlarging jobs by moving employees among several different

jobs. This approach adds more decision-making authority to the employees’ jobs.
Its roots are from Herzberg’s two-factor theory, which states that individuals are
motivated more by the intrinsic aspects of work (e.g. meaningfulness of a job)
than by extrinsic rewards (e.g. pay). He further identified five factors associated
with motivating jobs: (1) achievement, (2) recognition, (3) growth, (4)
responsibility and (5) performance of the entire job. That type of jobs is suitable
for workers who are flexible and responsive to others.
3. Self-managing work teams: 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. They typically have the authority
to schedule work, hire team members, resolve issues related to the team’s
performance and perform other duties that are usually handled by management.
Teamwork can give a job such motivating characteristics such as autonomy, skill,
variety and task identity. The team members’ jobs are broadly defined and
include sharing of work assignments. However, as they might need to perform
every task of the team at some point, companies need to make sure to provide
them with the necessary skill trainings. Research suggested that when teams are
self-managed and team members are highly involved in decision making, teams
are more productive, employees are more satisfied, and managers are more
pleased with performance.
4. Flexible work schedules: depending on the requirements of the organization
and the individual jobs, organizations may be able to be flexible about when
employees work and give them some say in how their work is structured. There
are two types of flexibility:
- Flextime: scheduling policy in which full-time employees may choose
starting and ending times within guidelines specified by the organization.
The flextime policy may require that employees are at work between
certain times of the day. It also may enable workers to adjust a particular
day’s hours in order to make time for other tasks. A work schedule that
allows time for community and family interests can be motivating for some
employees.
- Job sharing: a work option in which two part-time employees carry out
the tasks associated with a single job. the job requirements in such an
arrangement include the ability to work cooperatively and coordinate
details of one’s job with another person.
- Compressed workweek: a schedule in which full-time workers complete
their weekly hours in fewer than five days. Employees might appreciate
the extra days available. However, employees may become exhausted on
the longer workdays. Also, if the arrangement involves working more than
40 hours per week, the Fair Labor Standards Act requires the payment of
overtime wages to non-supervisory employees.
- Telework: doing one’s work away from a centrally located office. The
benefits for employers include less need for office space and ability to offer
greater flexibility to employees who are disabled or need to be available
for children or elderly relatives. The employees using telework
arrangements may have fewer absences from work than the ones who
have to commute to work. Also, telecommuting supports a strategy of
corporate social responsibility because these employees do not produce
the greenhouse gas emissions. This type of work is easiest to implement
for people in managerial, professional or sales jobs. It is most common
among management and business professionals, with the fastest growth
occurring in computer-, engineering- and science jobs.

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 Overview Study Material Human Resource Management (Literature Supplement) 2017-2018

Designing ergonomic jobs

Ergonomics refers to the study of the interface between individuals’ psychology and the
characteristics of the physical work environment. 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. This involves lighting, space, hours worked, and reducing
physical demand of certain jobs so that anyone can perform them. Therefore, it focuses
on outcomes such as reducing physical fatigue, aches and pains, and health complaints.
Additionally, it aims to redesign machines and technology in such a way that
occupational illnesses are minimized (e.g. adjusting the height of a computer keyboard
to minimize carpal tunnel syndrome). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) has a “four-pronged” strategy for encouraging ergonomic job design:
1. OSHA issues guidelines (rather than regulations) for specific industries;
2. OSHA enforces violations of its requirement that employers should have a general
duty to protect workers from hazards, including ergonomic hazards;
3. OSHA works with industry groups to advise employers in those industries;
4. OSHA established a National Advisory Committee on Ergonomics to define needs
for further research.

Designing jobs that meet mental capabilities and limitations

This approach focuses on human mental capabilities and limitations. In these simpler
jobs, workers may be less likely to make mistakes or have accidents. However, they can
also become less motivated due to the simplicity. Research suggests that employees
enjoy the challenges of a difficult job when they have some control over the situation
and social support. However, if they lack the support and the control, employees become
more fatigued and dissatisfied and become only motivated to avoid errors. Because of
this, simplifying jobs can be most beneficial where employees will most appreciate
having the mental demands reduced or where the costs of errors are severe.

There are several ways to simplify a job’s mental demands. A company can limit the
amount of information that should be processed and the memorization a job requires. It
should provide simply-to-operate equipment, clear instructions and easy-to-understand
gauges. Furthermore, companies can provide checklists, charts or other aids. Even
though technological changes sometimes reduce job demands and errors, they can also
make things worse. For instance, if an employee is trying to multi-task (while surfing the
web for information, he/she starts speaking on the phone), the call is a distraction from
the primary task of the employees. This may break the train of thought, which will
reduce the performance and increase the likelihood of errors. Also, a big part of the
information overload problem is recovery time since it takes way longer to switch back
from an interruption to the task at hand than the distraction time itself. To try to
overcome this issue as much as possible, companies can design jobs that empower
workers to manage their time (e.g. allowing them to schedule blocks of time when they
concentrate on work and don’t answer calls, e-mails or text messages). When simplifying
mental demands in jobs where people value the chance to apply their judgment and
expertise, employers use technology to nudge rather than dictate actions.

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