Job Analysis Project Handout

MGT 643 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

JOB ANALYSIS PROJECT

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is to develop and demonstrate your skill at analyzing a job, which is a critical skill in HRM, as job analysis information is used throughout the selection and performance appraisal process.  Job analysis is also a critical piece that courts look for in justifying selection decisions.  This project will help you learn about a job, develop your researcher skills, interviewing skills, critical thinking and synthesizing skills, and report writing skills.  The product you put together should be professional and should be able to be used at a company today.

Description of Assignment

In groups, you will be required to complete a comprehensive job analysis. You will need to analyze the chosen job in terms of the tasks done on the job and the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other attributes (KSAOs) needed to complete the tasks.  You will also need to identify the materials/tools/equipment used, as well as the conditions of the work environment. You should provide a description of the organization as well as an executive summary of the entire job analysis and results written for the client organization. When doing a job analysis you always need a summary description of the results in the form of a Job Description as well. Your project should be a professional report written in single-spaced text.  The product will be a report that should look as professional as possible. It is also important that you reference relevant readings and other resources in appropriate places.  References should be cited using APA format.

You will find your Group page and assignment in the Tools section of the course.  You can use this space to discuss and exchange documents with your group members.  Groups must email the Professor their top three choices for a target job by no later than Friday at the end of Week 1.  You will need to identify at least three job incumbents to serve as Subject Matter Experts that you will interview to determine the critical tasks and KSAO’s.  One to two supervisors may also serve as SMEs, for a total of 3-5 SMEs. 

Product Components

The final product should consist of AT LEAST the following components:

Executive Summary. When the VP of Human Resources from your client company looks at your job description,he/she will only have moments to review the document, and will therefore need a summary of all of the pertinentpoints of your job analysis. This should be provided in a one-page executive summary. It should briefly review theposition, describe your methodology for conducting the job analysis, and give a brief description of your findings (i.e., key tasks and KSAOs or any other special requirements for the job).This section should also overview the agents, sources, and methods used to obtain the job information. Bydelineating the steps that were used to obtain the data, this portion also tells the reader what to expect and how thereport is organized.  Your executive summary should be organized in the same order that your paper is organized.

Introduction and Job Description and Job Specification. Your introduction to the job analysis should outline a brief narrative about the job and should contain two specific pieces of information. First, it should have a job description that describes the nature of the job and working conditions, the tasks that are performed, and any other pertinent job information such as (note this is not necessarily a complete list) the company name, job title, division, and classification. The job specification includes information regarding the qualifications for the job, i.e., the KSAOs that are needed for the job, education/work experience requirement, any other special requirements of the job (e.g., ability and willingness to travel, work overtime, have a valid driver’s license, etc.), and any special materials or equipment that need to be used.

Task List (first draft, draft with ratings, and final draft). You will need to develop a task inventory. This is really the backbone of the study. These task statements are carefully constructed and wording is important!  Your final draft should contain around 15-30 tasks in length (this will depend somewhat on the job itself).  You can use O*NET to begingenerating your first draft task list, and should then interview your SMEs (incumbents first) to generate additional tasks.  The outcome of this process will be a task-rating questionnaire which you will have each SME rate (at least 2 SMEs, and preferably ones who did not participate in your first draft interview).  Ratings should be given in terms of frequency that the task is performed, the criticality or importance of the task, and whether the task can be trained or if a new hire needs to know it from day one.  Other ratings and other job analysis methods may be used, with consultation from the Professor.  Once ratings are acquired from your SMEs, your final task list can be generated.  Be sure to include your decision making rules that you used (i.e., a certain number of tasks were kept, tasks with certain ratings were kept, etc.). This should be discussed in detail in your methodology section.  Include the results (with appropriate descriptive statistics) in your job analysis report and the actual inventory with the complete first draft items in an appendix. You will then need to determine the essential knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that are required for the job.

Worker Characteristics (first draft, draft with ratings, and final draft). The next component of your job analysis will be to develop descriptions of the important Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Attributes (KSAO’s).  As part of this process, you will need to answer these questions: 1) What knowledge does it take to perform these tasks? 2) What skills are required to perform these tasks? 3) What abilities and other characteristics are required to perform these tasks?A minimum of 8 and a maximum of 20 worker requirements should be appropriate.  As with the task list, you will need to obtain SME ratings to generate your final list of KSAOs (again, at least 2, and preferably ones who did not complete the interview).  With KSAOs, having SMEs rate their importance will be critical and whether or not they need to have those KSAOs prior to being hired is important, although your group may choose to rate KSAOs on other attributes as well.  Again, you may consult with the Professor on this section.  You may also use O*NET content, provided it is referenced and still rated by incumbents.  You will need to link the tasks and KSAO’s to ensure appropriate coverage of KSAOs.  A linkage matrix is a good way to accomplish this, creating a table that shows which KSAOs are covered by each task (make sure this is included in your report).  Empirically, you will want to look for agreement for the task-KSAO links and SME importance ratings. The resulting final draft KSAO’s should be reported along with the evidence of their importance.  Again, include all first drafts and rating forms as an Appendix.

Job Analysis Methodology. Details the methods, dates, and participants of the job analysis and description of all methods used for the project. It should overview how the Task and KSAOs listswere developed, how the final draft was created from the initial draft, etc.  Your report should also include a discussion of the method and process that you used to conduct background research on the job, interview SMEs, create your first draft of tasks and KSAOs, create your final draft of tasks and KSAOs, etc.  Any additional resources that were used should be identified here.When in doubt, include everything and be detailed about what you did, particularly how you got the ratings and how you determined your final task and KSAO list.  This section should be between 3-5 pages long (single spaced).

Suggested Deadlines

Please note that you can work at your own pace for this project.  The final product is due and must be submitted by the last day of class onFridayby 11:59 pm EST.  In order to keep up with the project, I recommend having at least the following done each week:

• Week 1 – Get to Know your Group Members, Read the Job Analysis Project Handout, Pick a Target Job, Begin Background Research and Recruiting SMEs.  Groups will be assigned at the latest by Day 3 of the course.  Each group will have its own Group Page, so get to know each other in this space. Groups will need to pick a target job and submit it to Blackboard (Job Analysis Project à Week 1: Pick a Target Job) no later than Friday at the end of week 1 by 11:59 pm EST.  Begin background research on your target job and begin setting up appointments to interview 3-5 Subject Matter Experts.  Design a timeline for the project and develop your team roles and norms.You are strongly encouraged to begin setting up interviews/job observations with your SMEs this week.
• Week 2 –Finish Background Research and Begin SME Interviews.  – Finish conducting background research on the job and conduct SME interviews/job observations.
• Week 3 –Finish Background Interviews / Job Observation, Analyze Data, and Write First Draft Tasks and KSAOs.  Analyze the data from all of your background research, interviews, observations, and create a first draft of tasks and knowledge, skills, and abilities.  Create a table with how many SMEs mentioned each task and KSAO as part of your first draft to go into the final report.
• Week 4 –Begin writing report (Introduction and first draft Tasks and KSAOs), Create Survey to Collect Ratings Drafted – Finish SME interviews, finish first draft of tasks and KSAOs, begin drafting the survey to get ratings from SMEs on the tasks and KSAOs.
• Week 5 – Collect Ratings on Tasks and KSAOs – Finalize and distribute survey to additional SMEs to collect ratings on the first draft task statements and KSAO lists.
• Week 6 – Analyze Data and Generate Final Draft Tasks/KSAOs, Write Job Description Draft – Analyze data from the SME ratings on tasks and KSAOs.  Interpret data and generate your final draft task and KSAO list.  Write the job description and begin report writing.
• Week 7 – Rough Draft Report – Generate a rough draft of the complete report.
• Week 8 – Finalize Report – Finalize job analysis project report which is to be submitted via blackboard and is DUE Friday at the end of Week 8 by 11:59 pm EST.*

Criteria	Excellent  A	Good  B	Average C	Poor  D-E
Professionalism	Product is professional, well-written, and completely without error.	Product is professional and well-written but may have a few minor errors.	Professionalism is not clearly evident and/or considerable errors.	Product is not at all professional, would be completely inappropriate to give to a client, riddled with errors.
Fidelity and Relevance	Product is relevant to the job and high-fidelity with realistic measures and thorough instructions.	Product is relevant to the job but is not completely realistic in the measures and/or is lacking in instructions.	Product is not relevant or does not contain realistic measures and instructions.	Product is not relevant to the job and does not contain realistic measures and instructions.
Evidence of incorporating the results from the job analysis and gathering background information on job	Makes reference to job analysis, has clearly linked KSAOs with measures employed, frequent reference to outside resources.	Makes reference to job analysis, evidence of having linked KSAOs with measures employed, occasional reference to outside resources.	Occasionally makes reference to a job analysis, does not link KSAOs with measures employed, few references to outside resources.	Does not make reference to a job analysis, has not clearly linked KSAOs with measures employed.
Products – Quality of measures (selection plan, assessment, etc.)	Products are high quality, realistic, and written with best practice standards in mind	Products are high quality, somewhat realistic, and some best practice standards applied	Products are of questionable quality, and/or not realistic, and/or not written with best practice standards in mind	Products are of low quality, are unrealistic, and do not have best practice standards in mind
Application of Course Concepts	Project demonstrates superior application of course concepts, terms used appropriately, product may be given to client with confidence.	Project demonstrates above average application of course concepts, terms used appropriately, product may be given to client with reservation.	Project demonstrates average application of course concepts, some terms used inappropriately, product may not be given to client in real-world setting.	Project demonstrates little or no application of course concepts, terms used inappropriately, product may not be given to client.