Job Analysis, Performance Management, and High Performance Work Systems

1
Job Analysis, Performance Management, and High
Performance Work Systems
2
General Issues

• The role of job analysis in HRM
• Contemporary performance management systems
• Reflection on and evaluation of HPWS and other
  forms of employee involvement

3
Job Analysis

• A purposeful, systematic process for
  collecting information on the important
  work-related aspects of a job
• Work activities
• Tools and equipment
• Work environment
• Employee KSAOs

4
Uses of Job Analysis

• Produce job descriptions and specifications
• Recruitment and selection
• Performance standards
• Training and development
• Compensation
• Others?

5
Why Job Analysis is Important

• Meet legal obligations
• Understand the required tasks and employee
  specifications needed on a job
• Troubleshoot performance problems
• Design effective training programs
• Identify safety problems

6
Implementation of a Job Analysis

• Planning and Organizing the Analysis
• Who should perform it?
• How will project be managed and coordinated with
  other activities?
• What resources are available (i.e., time, money,
  people, computer support)?

7
Implementation of a Job Analysis

• Choosing the jobs to be studied and doing some
  research
• What jobs should be examined?
• What internal and external data should be
  examined?
• Who should be involved in the analysis?

8
Implementation of a Job Analysis

• Conducting the Analysis
• Choose methodology (custom made vs.
  prefabricated)
• Use of interviews, questionnaires, panels of
  SMEs, focus groups, observations, worker
  diaries, etc.
• Use ONet to get started

9
Implementation of a Job Analysis

• Developing the Job Descriptions and
  Specifications
• Series of inferences are made from the data to
  the list of KSAOs
• Get input from SMEs before finalizing
• Maintain and update as changes occur

10
Link between Job Analysis and Employee KSAOs
Job Analysis
Employee Specifications
Job Analysis Results Tasks, work
behaviors, functions, equipment, conditions under
which job is performed
Identification of Employee Specifications Knowl
edge, skills, abilities, and other employee
characteristics
(Inference) Point 1
11
Link between Employee KSAOs and Selection
Instruments
Selection Instrument Development
Employee Specifications
Identification of Employee Specifications Kno
wledge, skills, abilities, and other employee
characteristics
Content of Selection Instruments Test items,
employment interview questions, application form
questions, or contents of any other selection
instrument
(Inference) Point 2
12
Is job analysis still relevant to HRM?

• Consider how these factors affect job analysis
• Cross-functional responsibilities and blurred
  boundaries between jobs
• Continuous change in job responsibilities
• More team-based jobs
• Accountability to customers and other
  stakeholders beyond managers
• Technological changes in jobs
• Cost containment limiting job analysis studies

13
What changes we will see in job analysis?

• Broader group of SMEs will provide information
  about jobs
• HRIS will collect and store data on jobs
• Future-oriented or strategic job analysis
• Competency modeling
• Cognitive task analysis
• Personality and organizational culture analysis

14
Strategic Job Analysis

• Analysis of current tasks and KSAOs
• SMEs meet to discuss how changes are likely to
  affect job
• Information on expected future tasks and KSAOs
  is collected from knowledgeable people
• Isolate tasks and KSAOs where greatest changes
  are anticipated and select on these

15
Competency Modeling

• Competency is defined as a high level of
  (successful) performance on certain tasks or
  activities or adequate knowledge of domain or
  skill
• Modeling is determining the levels of performance
  and adequacy of knowledge required of certain
  tasks and activities
• May unveil common competencies required across
  several jobs in organization

16
Competency Modeling

• Current practice lacks technical rigor
• Lot of variation in how it is being done among
  consultants
• Establishes link between analysis of work and
  business goals and strategies
• Focuses on broad applications, such as
  determining person-organization fit
• More useful for training, rather than selection

17
Is there a future for job analysis?

• Integration of competency modeling and job
  analysis techniques
• More emphasis on analyzing requirements for
  teamwork, cross-functional responsibilities, and
  customer accountability
• More emphasis on analyzing personality
  requirements of jobs and cross-cultural competence

18
Performance Measurement vs. Performance Management

• Performance measurement - evaluating an
  employees current and/or past performance
  relative to his or her performance standards
• Performance management - process through which
  managers insure that employees are working toward
  organizational goals ongoing communication and
  feedback are critical features

19
Performance Measurement Process
Job Analysis
Develop Valid Measures
Develop Performance Criteria
Establish Performance Standards
Measure Actual Behavior
Compare Performance With Standards
Give feedback and rewards
20
Types of Performance Measurement Systems

• Graphic rating scale
• Essays
• Rankings
• Paired comparison
• Forced distribution
• Critical incidents
• Behaviorally-Anchored Rating Scale

21
Graphic Rating Scale

• Dimension Punctuality
• This teller is always on time for work and
  promptly opens her/his window as scheduled

1 2 3 4
Strongly Disagree Agree Strongly Disagree
Agree
22
BARS for Specialty Store Manager Inventory
Control
6
Always orders in the right quantities at the
right times
Almost always orders at the right time, but
occasionally orders too much or too little of a
particular item
5
4
Usually orders at the right time, but almost
always in the right quantities
3
Often orders in the right quantities at the right
times
Occasionally orders at the right time, but
usually not in the right quantities
2
1
Occasionally orders in the right quantities, but
usually not at the right time.
23
Move from Performance Measurement to Performance
Management

• Content of performance dimensions
• Job requirements are not static but dynamic
• Job, job context, organizational and cultural
  factors
• Who is providing input into the process?
• Those who observe performance (which may not be
  managers)
• Integrated into daily work processes rather than
  as one-time administrative duty
• Ongoing communication process with continuous
  feedback, and not exclusively tied to
  wages/salaries

24
360 Degree Performance Evaluation System

• Multiple raters evaluate employee supervisor,
  coworkers, subordinates, customers
• Assumption these people see different aspects
  of persons behavior on variety of dimensions
• Problems combining ratings, truth-telling,
  paperwork, competitive context, accountability

25
High Performance Work Systems (HPWS)

• Current systematic attempt to enrich jobs and
  involve workers all across the organization
  through
• Flexible work assignments and cross-training
• Self managed teams involved in recruitment,
  selection, training, promotional decisions,
  reward allocations
• Pay for performance (often team-based) or skills
  pay
• Organizational learning processes
• Job security and supportive HRM

26
Assumptions of HPWS and other forms of Employee
Involvement (EI)

• People support what they help create (commitment)
• People most knowledgeable about operations are
  those that do the job (quality)
• Teamwork motivates employees (motivation)
• Pay for performance aligns employee and
  managerial interests (cooperation not conflict)
• Training and supportive HRM practices builds
  competency and long-term commitment (strategic
  organizational goals met)

27
Unstated Assumptions

• Managerial approach assumes employees and
  managers interests are not in direct conflict
• If organization gains, employees gain
• Unions still have role to play by ensuring the
  practices are implemented and helping to reform
  labor law such that these systems are not in
  violation of collective bargaining

28
Critical Evaluation of HPWS

• Godard Delaneys (2000) evaluation of HPWS
• Principled pragmatism or idealized workplace?
• The way of the future in American employment
  relations?
• Why have so few firms adopted comprehensive HPWS?
• Do the practices have the predicted effects and
  do they last over time?
• Do the practices benefit managers, employees, and
  unions or are there costs associated with them?
• What can the British critical approach inform
  about HPWS?