Job Analysis and Performance

Job Analysis and Performance

1. The ratio of the productivity of the highest performer to the lowest performer in jobs of low difficulty ranges from 2:1 to 4:1, while in jobs of high difficulty this ratio can be as much as 10:1

2. Campbell’s Model of Job Performance

   • Variables used as measurements: Time to complete a training course (how much time the worker can be away from the workplace), Number of pieces produced (affected by the technology and equipment used by that worker), Total days absent, Total value of sales and Promotion rate within an organization
   • Performance is behavior. In its ideal form, it is something that people actually do and that can be observed. It is what the organization hires an employee to do and to do well.
   • Productivity: ratio of effectiveness (output) to the cost of achieving that level of effectiveness (input)
   • Effectiveness: evaluation of the results of performance. The variation in a mea- sure of effectiveness is often controlled by factors beyond the actions of an individual
   • Determinants: basic building blocks or causes of performance.
     • Declarative Knowledge (DK), Procedural Knowledge and skill (PKS), and Motivation (M)
   • Performance components (8): components that may appear in different jobs and result from the determinants of performance
     • 1. Job-specific task proficiency: An individual’s capacity to perform the core substantive or technical tasks central to the job.
     • 2. Non-job-specific task proficiency: An individual’s capacity to perform tasks or execute performance behaviors that are not specific to his or her particular job.
     • 3. Written and oral communication task proficiency
     • 4. Demonstrating effort:: willingness to keep working under adverse conditions.
     • 5. Maintaining personal discipline: The extent to which an individual avoids negative behavior
     • 6. Facilitating peer and team performance: supports, helps peers, acts as a role model
     • 7. Supervision/leadership: Proficiency at influencing the performance of subordinates through face-to-face interpersonal interaction and influence.
     • 8. Management/administration
   • Maximum performance: can be thought of as the very best a person can do. Controlled largely by abilities.
     • Typical performance: controlled by a combination of ability and motivation.

3. Criterion Deficiency and Contamination

   • Criterion deficiency: situation that occurs when an actual criterion is missing information that is part of the behavior one is trying to measure.
   • Criterion contamination: situation that occurs when an actual criterion includes information unrelated to the behavior one is trying to measure.
   • The differences between the ultimate criterion and the actual criterion represent imperfections in measurement—contamination and deficiency.
   • Campbell’s model of performance protects against criterion contamination and criterion deficiency

4. Task Performance vs. Organizational Citizenship Behavior

   • Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB): behavior that goes beyond what is expected.
   • Organ developed questionnaires to assess that behavior in workers:
     • Altruism (helpful behaviors directed toward individuals or groups within the organization, such as offering to help a co- worker who is up against a deadline)
     • Generalized compliance Behavior that is helpful to the broader organization, such as upholding company rules.
   • Task performance: proficiency with which job incumbents perform activities that are formally recognized as a part of their job.
   • Peterson: measures of cognitive ability are most closely associated with task performance, measures of personality do a better job of predicting OCB.
   • technical task performance is determined by cognitive ability (knowledge, skills, and habits)
   • OCB appeared more frequently among indi- viduals with a longer-term time horizon.
   • OCB: causes and correlation
     • Hunt: in very structured jobs where employees are expected to follow formal and rigid rules for job performance, “initiative” might actually increase the risk of an accident.
     • Gellatly and Irving: jobs high in autonomy were more likely to be associated with the appearance of OCB.
     • Witt, Kacmar, Carlson, and Zivnuska: the less likely it was the OCB would appear. Individuals high on the agreeableness dimension of the Big Five are likely to display OCB in both positive and negative environments.

5. Counterproductive Work Behaviors

   • Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) : voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and threatens the well-being of the organization, its members, or both.
   • Robinson and Bennett divided CWB into two separate aspects: deviance directed toward the organization and deviance directed toward other individuals.
   • Sackett proposed a hierarchical model of CWB: broad factor of counterproductive behavior at the top level, two less broad factors of organizational deviance and interpersonal deviance in the middle level, and individual counterproductive behaviors such as theft, absence, sabotage, and substance abuse at the lowest levels
     • Vardi and Weiner distinguish three types: ● S, behavior done for self-gain (e.g., theft) ● O, behavior done for organizational gain (e.g., misstating profit or overbilling) ● D, behavior that is destructive (e.g., sabotage, assault)
   • 1. Dishonesty: employee theft of goods and theft of time (arriving late, leaving early, taking unnecessary sick days) or dishonest communications with customers, co-workers, or management.
     • 2. Absenteeism: type of counterproductive behavior that involves failure of an employee to report for or remain at work as scheduled.
     • 3. Sabotage: intention to damage, disrupt, or subvert the organization’s operations for personal purposes of the saboteur by creating unfavorable publicity, damage to property, destruction of working relationships, or harming of employees or customers
       • Lordstown syndrome: act of sabotage named after a General Motors plant plagued with acts of sabotage.
   • Test of Conditional Reasoning (James): appears to assess reasoning but in fact is a hidden or implicit test of aggressive tendencies.

6. Adaptative Performance

   • Performance component that includes flexibility and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
   • Circumstances that favor this adaptability (Pulakos): Changing technologies alter work tasks, Mergers, downsizing, and corporate restructuring require employees to learn new skills and Globalization.
   • Adaptive performance can be further divided into eight types of adaptive behavior. (Pulakos)
     • 1. Handling emergencies or crisis situations
     • 2. Handling work stress
     • 3. Solving problems creatively
     • 4. Dealing with uncertain and unpredictable work situations
     • 5. Learning work tasks, technologies, and procedures
     • 6. Demonstrating interpersonal adaptability
     • 7. Demonstrating cultural adaptability
     • 8. Demonstrating physically oriented adaptability
   • "The great eight" (Bartram)
     • Leading and deciding = need for power and control and extraversion
     • Supporting and cooperating = Agreeableness
     • Interacting and presenting = Extraversion and general mental ability
     • Analyzing and interpreting = General mental ability and openness to experience
     • Creating and conceptualizing = openness to experience and general mental ability
     • Organizing and executing = Conscientiousness and general mental ability
     • Adapting and coping = emotional stability
     • Enterprising and performing = need for achievement and negative agreeableness
   • Expert performance Performance exhibited by those who have been

7. Types of Performance Measures

   • Three different categories have been suggested:
     • Objective performance measure: quantitative count of the results of work (sales volume, complaint letters, and output)
     • Judgmental measure: evaluation made of the effectiveness of an individual’s work behavior; judgment most often made by supervisors
     • Personnel measure: measure typically kept in a personnel file, including absences, accidents, tardiness, rate of advancement, disciplinary actions, and commendations of meritorious behavior.

8. Job analysis: Properties and Practices

   • Job analysis Process that determines the important tasks of a job and the human attributes necessary to successfully perform those tasks.
   • Uses of job analysis
     • Job Description
     • Recruiting
     • Selection
     • Training
     • Compensation
     • Promotion/Job Assignment
       • Job ladder / job family: cluster of positions that are similar in terms of the human attributes needed to be successful in those
     • Job Design
     • Workforce Reduction/Restructuring
     • Criterion Development
     • Performance Evaluation
     • Litigation
   • The purpose of a job analysis is to combine the task demands of a job with our knowledge of human attributes and produce a theory of behavior for the job in question.
     • Task-oriented job analysis: this approach begins with a statement of the tasks the worker actually performs, the tools and machines used, and the work context.
     • Worker-oriented job analysis: approach that focuses on the attributes of the worker necessary to accomplish the tasks.
   • KSAOs: Individual attributes of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that are required to successfully perform job tasks.
   • How Job Analysis Is Done
     • Subject matter expert (SME) Employee (incumbent) who provides information about a job in a job analysis interview or survey.
     • Observation
     • Interviewa
     • Critical incidents and work diaries.
       • Critical Inciden Technique: approach in which subject matter experts are asked to identify critical aspects of behavior or performance in a particular job that led to success or failure.
       • Work diary: Job analysis approach that requires workers and/or supervisors to keep a log of their activities over a prescribed period of time.
     • Questionnaires/surveys
   • Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) developed by McCormick

9. Job Analysis: Newer Developments

   • Electronic performance monitoring: monitoring work processes with electronic devices; can be very cost effective and has the potential for providing detailed a
   • Cognitive task analysis: is a process that consists of methods for decomposing job and task performance into discrete, measurable units, with special emphasis on eliciting mental processes and knowledge content.
   • Think-aloud protocol: is an approach used by cognitive psychologists to investigate the thought processes of experts who achieve high levels of performance; an expert performer describes in words the thought process that he or she uses to accomplish a task.
   • In cognitive task analysis, the focus is on the cognitive operations employed: how behavior occurs rather than on what is accomplished.
   • Worker-oriented approach to job analysis
   • Guion--> Personality-Related Position Requirements Form (PPRF) to identify personality predictors of job performance.
   • Advantages of a Computer-Based Job Analysis: time and convenience to the employer, efficiency with which the expert system can create reports and easier understanding of job similarities and career paths, facilitating vocational counseling and long-term strategic HR planning in the form of replacement charts for key positions.
   • Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) Document that includes job analysis and occupational information used to match applicants with job openings; a major purpose of the DOT was, and still is, for use in occupational counseling.
   • Occupational Information Network (O*NET) Collection of electronic databases, based on well-developed taxonomies, that has updated and replaced the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT).
     • 2 different approaches (Goldstein and Ford): to identify outstanding performers and analyze their performance and competencies and using mission statements and corporate goals as the foundation for competency modeling.
   • Competency modeling Process that identifies the characteristics desired across all individuals and jobs within an organization; these characteristics should predict behavior across a wide variety of tasks and settings, and provide the organization with a set of core characteristics that distinguish it from other organizations.

10. Job evaluation and the law

    • Job evaluation: Method for making internal pay decisions by comparing job titles to one another and determining their relative merit by way of these comparisons.
    • 2 perspectives: the external perspective, that is, what the marketplace is paying for people who hold particular job titles and an internal one where t he organization has a fixed amount of money to distribute to its employees. How will that fixed amount be divided?
    • Compensable factors Factors in a job evaluation system that are given points that are later linked to compensation for various jobs within the organization; factors usually include skills, responsibility, effort, and working conditions.
    • Comparable worth Notion that people who are performing jobs of comparable worth to the organization should receive comparable pay.
    • Equal Pay Act of 1963 Federal legislation: prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in the payment of wages or benefits, where men and women perform work of similar skill, effort, and responsibility for the same employer under similar working conditions. "Equal pay for equal work"
    • The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) identifies certain organizational jobs that do not require overtime pay, including jobs in “management.”
    • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Federal legislation that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, which define what are known as protected groups. Prohibits not only intentional discrimination but also practices that have the unintentional effect of discriminating against individuals because of their race, color, national origin, religion, or sex.