Industrial and Organizational Psychology

¶ … job analysis is a vital part of any organization. It provides not only a clear description of what employees should be doing during their work hours, but also offers a clear guideline when hiring new employees and determining where the organization should be heading in its operations.

A job analysis has various goals, including the writing of a job description, selection of employees, performance evaluation, and training requirements. When the tasks of employees and the condition under which these tasks are performed are clearly analyzed and presented, it enables a company to identify problems and make improvements where necessary. It is also a means for a company to determine its needs and potential redundancies within the organization. Ultimately, job analyses helps a company to maintain the effectiveness of its workforce and its ability to maintain profitable operations.

Conducting a thorough job analysis entails a variety of steps, the first of which is identifying which tasks are being performed for the job concerned. The first step in this is to examine existing information, such as job descriptions, task inventories, and training manuals. This would be followed by conducting interviews with subject-matter experts such as job incumbents, managers, customers, and so on. A further step in this component is also to observe incumbents. Finally, job participation is a further way of identifying the tasks involved in it, where the analyst actually performs the job being analyzed.

The second major step is to use the list of tasks identified to write task statements in the form of a task inventory. After this, task statements are rated, by means of a task analysis. This rating is based upon the frequency or importance of the task involved. Ratings usually range between 0, for a task that is not very important or performed very frequently, and 2 or 3, for tasks that are performed frequently or are vital to the organization.

After the rating, the analyst has a list of tasks that are essential for proper job performance and hence for the proper functioning of the organization. The next step is to determine the KSAO (knowledge, skill, ability, other characteristics) of each task. The knowledge component is the information the individual needs to determine a task. The skill refers to the proficiency a person needs to perform the task. The ability, on the other hand, is the individual's capacity for performance a range of tasks, acquiring knowledge, or developing certain skills. Other characteristics may include personality, willingness, interest, motivation, and other factors like licenses, degrees, experience, and so on. These factors concern the level at which the individual is able and willing to perform well at the task involved. KSAOs are also known as competencies.

Finally, tests are need to be selected to tap KSAOs. Such test methods can then be used to select employees during the hiring process. Methods identified might include interviews, samples of work, testing of abilities, personality tests, reference checks, and so on.

In this way, KSAO identification and testing can be usefully applied to determine what is needed from new employees, what skills and competencies can be learned via training, and which can be learned as the employee becomes more experienced in the job being conducted.