Job analysis

The process of job analysis involves the analyst gathering information about the duties of the incumbent, the nature and conditions of the work, and some basic qualifications.

This list contains the functional or duty areas of a position, the related tasks, and the basic training recommendations.

The outcomes of job analysis are key influences in designing learning, developing performance interventions, and improving processes.

[6] Job analysis was also conceptualized by two of the founders of I-O psychology, Frederick Winslow Taylor and Lillian Moller Gilbreth in the early 20th century.

However, evidence shows that the root purpose of job analysis, understanding the behavioral requirements of work, has not changed in over 85 years.

[8] The human performance improvement industry uses job analysis to make sure training and development activities are focused and effective.

[3] In the fields of human resources (HR) and industrial psychology, job analysis is often used to gather information for use in personnel selection, training, classification, and/or compensation.

During the tour the analyst may collect materials that directly or indirectly indicate required skills (duty statements, instructions, safety manuals, quality charts, etc.).

Incumbents, considered subject matter experts (SMEs), are relied upon, usually in a panel, to report elements of their work to the job analyst.

Using incumbent reports, the analyst uses Fine's terminology to compile statements reflecting the work being performed in terms of data, people, and things.

[12] Worker-oriented procedures aim to examine the human attributes needed to perform the job successfully.

Since the end result of both approaches is a statement of KSAOs, neither can be considered the "correct" way to conduct job analysis.

Because worker-oriented job analyses tend to provide more generalized human behavior and behavior patterns and are less tied to the technological parts of a job, they produce data more useful for developing training programs and giving feed back to employees in the form of performance appraisal information.

Also, the volatility that exists in the typical workplace of today can make specific task statements less valuable in isolation.

Newer methods and systems have brought I-O psychology back to an examination of the behavioral aspects of work.

The DACUM process developed in the late 1960s has been viewed as the fastest method used, but it can still can take two or three days to obtain a validated task list.

Near the end of World War II, Morris Viteles studied the job of navigator on a submarine.

In fact, this is what happened in Los Angeles in September 2005 when half the city lost power over a period of 12 hours.

The second method, a work diary, asks workers and/or supervisors to keep a log of activities over a prescribed period of time.

Unlike the results of observations and interviews, the questionnaire responses can be statistically analyzed to provide a more objective record of the components of the job.

[2] The PAQ was designed to measure job component validity of attributes presented in aptitude tests.

[25] For many years, the U.S. Department of Labor published the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), which was a comprehensive description of over 20,000 jobs.

Task-based statements describing the work performed are derived from the functional job analysis technique.

These six domains and categories within them include: Over the past years, the concept of job analysis has been changing dramatically.

One observer put it: "The modern world is on the verge of another huge leap in creativity and productivity, but the job is not going to be part of tomorrow's economic reality.

Job enlargement means assigning workers additional same-level tasks, thus increasing the number of activities they perform.

Organizations need to grapple with trends like rapid product and technological changes, and a shift to a service economy.

In turn, the organizational methods managers use to accomplish this have helped weaken the meaning of a job as a well-defined and clearly delineated set of responsibilities.