Job Analysis Essay Samples

Representing the industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology, job analysis, which was introduced by Morris Viteles in 1934, makes the process of finding employees easier for a company or vice versa, an applicant receives a clear picture of the labor market situation having possibility to choose the job of his/her dream.
Being job analyst, I would first ask an employer of a company to assist me in conducting the test confidentially, so that the workers wouldn’t know about it and work as during any regular day of the week. The first technique I would choose among the work-oriented methods is observation in order to identify the rules employees have to follow and receive an outline of their duties and responsibilities. After making some conclusions, it would be rather effective to choose participation in the process of work rather than conducting questionnaires or asking employees questions face-to-face because the probability of receiving wrong information in such case increases which may be as a result of the employee’s fear of the employer or other factors. Participation in the work process would give me true imagination of the nature of the process in which the stuff is involved (McCormick, 1979).
Among the worker-oriented methods I would rather prefer Critical Incident Technique with the purpose of determining knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics needed for successful fulfillment of the duties of the position. Here, I also would use a questionnaire, I am inclined not to believe in the faithfulness of its results but it would be helpful when making analysis of combination of all applied methods during conducting job analysis. I would compound a list of questions based on the background information about the job details and particular sphere to get understanding about the knowledge of an employee; I would also ask the incumbent about his/her work experience and accomplishments during the work-time in the position to determine skills and abilities of an employee; finally, with respect to getting imagination of an incumbent’s other characteristics, I would also ask regular questions asked usually during the interview for a job, for example, “Could you describe yourself in three words only?”. The speed of reaction and the selection of words would give me possibility to judge about truthfulness of his/her answer. All together, these methods will allow me to make a comprehensive job analysis and get thorough and true results which will create credible grounds for making conclusions about the employer or employee.

References

McCormick, E. (1979). Job analysis: Methods and applications. New York: Amacom.
Viteles, M. (1934). The science of work,. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.