What is Job Analysis?

Job analysis is a method for describing jobs and/or the human attributes necessary to perform them.

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It is important because it gives a clear idea about what the job is and what kind of person is needed to do it well. According to Brannick, Levine, and Morgeson (2007, p. 8), there are three elements of formal job analysis:

  1. The procedure must be systematic: This means that the analyst specifies a procedure before starting and follows it.
  2. A job is broken into smaller units: We describe components of jobs rather than the overall job.
  3. The results of the job analysis are written down, either on paper or electronically.

Depending on the purpose of job analysis, a job-oriented approach or person-oriented approach can be used to collect information.

Describe the purpose of Job Analysis

Job analysis information has many purposes. It can serve as a foundation on which many other activities and functions are built. Ash and Levine (1980) outlined uses of job analysis information. Some of them are discussed below:

❶ Career Development:

Many organizations have systems that allow employees to grow and move to higher positions. This is referred to as a career ladder.

For example: In the army/military, people move up through ranks:
Captain → Major → Colonel → General

But not everyone reaches the top because of limited promotion spots, and some people don’t gain necessary KSAOs. Nowadays, many organizations use competency systems to reward employees for acquiring the knowledge and skills that are needed for both improved performance and promotion.

Job analysis helps career development by:

  1. Showing the KSAOs needed for each level of the job
  2. Helping create training programs based on those KSAOs
  3. Telling employees what they need to learn to get promoted
  4. Helping organizations to have a group of trained candidates for higher positions

❷ Legal Issues:

Most industrialized countries have laws which protect people from dreaded unfairness. The basic idea is that decisions affecting people should be fair ones that should be universal. Fairness in employment means that decisions should be based on job performance or job potential, rather than irrelevant personal characteristics.

Job analysis gives a list of relevant KSAOs, which should be the basis for hiring rather than irrelevant personal characteristics. In U.S. employment, “essential function” is an important legal concept, which are actions that must be done on a job. This concept is important in deciding whether a disabled person is hired or not. In the U.S., an organization can legally deny a disabled person who cannot perform an essential function. But it is illegal to deny a disabled person who cannot perform a non-essential function.

Job analysis is used in legal issues to:

  1. Identify essential functions and KSAOs
  2. Help employees and applicants feel they were treated fairly
  3. Reduce the chances for lawsuits for discrimination

❸ Performance Appraisal:

A well-designed performance appraisal system will be based on job analysis. One important part of performance appraisal is criterion development. Criterion development determines the major parts of a job to evaluate performance. 

Job analysis provides a list of those parts for fair review. The behavior-focused performance appraisal methods are based on job analysis. Job analysis is used to determine critical incidences of a job. These critical incidences help to show how well someone is doing their job.

  1. A poor incident shows a poor performance, such as a police officer arguing with a citizen and making things worse.
  2. A good incident shows effective performance, such as a police officer calming a tense situation by listening to the other person.

❹ Selection:

The first step in selecting the right person for a job is determining the KSAOs necessary for the job. To do this, a person-oriented job analysis should be conducted. Once KSAOs for a job are identified, we can use interviews and psychological tests to see how well job applicants match the job’s needs.

A person-oriented job analysis lists the KSAOs of the job for a particular job. Some of these are expected before hiring, and others are learned through training and experience on the job.

❺ Training:

The KSAOs for a job indicate the areas where training is needed. An effective training program should be based on an analysis of KSAOs requirements for a job. Training should be focused on those areas where employees or applicants have deficiencies.

❻ Research:

Another use of job analysis is in research. In research, we use job analysis information to study things like motivation, performance, health, and safety in the workplace. For example: Elovainio et al. (1999) used job analysis data in their study of individual differences in job stress.

Readings:
Spector, P. E. (2006). Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc..