Friday, October 9, 2009

Methods Of Job Analysis

1. QUESTIONNAIRE: This method is usually used to obtain information about occupations via a mail survey. The job incumbent is asked to provide data about himself/herself and his/her job in their own words. The method is good for people who write easily but not so good for collecting data from low-level workers who have little facility for self-expression. It is often time-consuming and a laborious process to analyze the data obtained in this manner.
Two types of questionnaires are used in job analysis: the unstructured questionnaire and the structured questionnaire. In the unstructured or open-end approach, the subject matter experts describe in their own words the components of the job and the tasks performed.
When the structured questionnaire is used, the people being interviewed are provided with descriptions of tasks, operations and working conditions and are asked to rate the items or to select those items that characterize the job.
A widely used questionnaire is the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ).
Job analysis questionnaires can be administered online as well as in printed versions.

2. CHECK-LIST: This technique requires the workers to check the tasks he performs from a long list of possible task statements. However, in order to prepare the check-list, extensive preliminary work is required in collecting appropriate task statements. While Check-Lists are easy for the incumbent to respond to, they do not provide an integrated picture of the job in question. They are easily administered in large groups and are easy to tabulate.

3. INTERVIEW METHOD: The use of interviews for job and work analyses involve extensive meetings with the persons directly connected with the job. These include the workers performing the job, their supervisors and the instructors who trained the workers for the job. Job analysts may supplement interviews with questionnaires. The person being interviewed must be told the purpose of the interview and why it is necessary to answer all questions fully and honestly. The questions should be carefully planned and clearly worded to elicit as much information as possible.

4. OBSERVATION METHOD: This method involves direct observation of workers as they perform their jobs. The interviewer must collect data from the incumbent using normal interview methods as the incumbent performs his work. The interviewer observes and questions the worker in an attempt to get complete job description data. It is a slow and costly method and it may interfere with normal work operations. However, it generally produces a good and complete job description.

5. TECHNICAL CONFERENCE METHOD: This method uses 'experts' rather than actual job incumbents as a source of information. These experts are usually supervisors who have extensive knowledge of the job in question. They meet with the job analyst and try specifying all the characteristics of the job. The problem with this method is that experts may not actually know as much about the job as an analyst would hope as they do not actually perform the task themselves. Thus their judgements are only estimates based on their background experience.

6. DIARY METHOD: Here, job incumbents are asked to record their daily activities each day in a logbook or diary. The method is good as it systematically gathers a lot of information but it is time-consuming for the worker, especially if the recording forms are not kept simple.

7. WORK PARTICIPATION METHOD: In this procedure, the job analyst actually performs the job himself in order to gain first-hand information about what characteristics comprise the job in question. It is fairly effective for simply jobs but complex jobs usually require the analysts to be extensively trained prior to the session of work activity. This method is costly and time-consuming

8. CRITICAL INCIDENT METHOD: It is a means of identifying specific activities or behaviours that lead to desirable or undesirable consequences on the job.

1 comments:

Adele said...

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