Who should conduct the job analysis?
The steps spelled out in exhibit 6-2 suggest that care and planning are important features of any job analysis. Part of that planning should involve carefully choosing the people who will conduct the analysis. If an organization has only an occasional need for job analysis information, it may hire a temporary job analyst from outside. Other organization will have job analysis experts employed full time. Still other organizations will use supervisors, or some combination of these to collect jon analysis information.
Each of these choices has strengths and weakness. For example, job incumbents are a good source of information about what work is actually being done rather than what work is supported to be done. In addition, involving incumbents in the job analysis process might increase their acceptance of any work changes stemming from the results of the analysis. On the other hand, job analysis should describe the work activities of a job independent of any personal attributes of a given job incumbent. Because incumbent tend to exaggerate the responsibilities and importance of their work, this objectivity might be difficult to achieve when incumbents conduct the job analysis. Thus, the choice of who should analyze a job depends on many factors, including the location and complexity of the jobs to be analyze, how receptive incumbents might be to an external analyst, and the ultimate intended purpose of the results of the analysis.
Regardless of who collect the information, the individuals should thoroughly understand people, jobs, and the total organizational system. They should also have considerable knowledge about how work is expected to flow within the organization.
The use of charts
The job analyst has to select the best methods and procedures available to conduct the job analysis. However, even before this selection is made, an overview of the organization and its jobs is required. An overview provides the job analyst with an informed picture of the total arrangement of departments, units, and jobs. Additionally, this overview will provide the job analyst with a better understanding of the flow of work through the organization.
To gain these useful insights about the structure and process of the organization, two types of charts are especially helpful. An organization chart presents the relationship among departments and units of the firm. The line functions (the individuals performing the work duties) and staff functions (the advisers) are also spelled out. A typical organization chart will yield information about the number of vertical levels in the organization, the number of different functional departments, and the formal reporting relationship that exist.
A second type of chart, the process chart, shows how a specific set of jobs are related to each other. Thus, rather than simply showing the structural relationships among job titles ( as in a typical organizational chart ), the process chart shows the flow of activities and work necessary to produce a desired product or service.