HRM textbook

CHAPTER 4 JOB ANALYSIS AND THE TALENT MANAGEMENT PROCESS 109
As another example, one bank reengineered its mortgage approval process by
replacing the sequential operation with a multifunction mortgage approval team.
Loan originators in the field now enter the mortgage application directly into wireless
laptop computers, where software checks it for completeness. The information then
goes electronically to regional production centers. Here, specialists (like credit
analysts and loan underwriters) convene electronically, working as a team to review
the mortgage together at once. After they formally close the loan, another team of
specialists takes on the task of servicing the loan.
As at Atlantic American and at this bank, reengineering usually requires redesigning
individual jobs. For example, after creating the loan approval teams, the bank could
eliminate the separate credit checking, loan approval, and home-inspecting departments
from its organization chart. Reengineering also required delegating more authority to
the loan approval teams, who now did their jobs with less supervisory oversight. Since
loan team members may share duties, they tend to be more multiskilled than if they only
had to do, say, loan analysis. Changes like these in turn prompt changes in individual jobs
and job descriptions.
JOB REDESIGN Early economists wrote enthusiastically of how specialized jobs (doing
the same small thing repeatedly) were more efficient (as in, practice makes perfect ).
But soon other writers were reacting to what they viewed as the dehumanizing aspects
of pigeonholing workers into highly repetitive jobs. Many proposed job redesign
solutions such as job enlargement, job rotation, and job enrichment to address such
problems. Job enlargement means assigning workers additional same-level activities.
Thus, the worker who previously only bolted the seat to the legs might attach the back as
well. Job rotation means systematically moving workers from one job to another.
Psychologist Frederick Herzberg argued that the best way to motivate workers is
through job enrichment. Job enrichment means redesigning jobs in a way that
increases the opportunities for the worker to experience feelings of responsibility,
achievement, growth, and recognition. It does this by empowering the worker for
instance, by giving the worker the skills and authority to inspect the work, instead of
having supervisors do that. Herzberg said empowered employees would do their jobs
well because they wanted to, and quality and productivity would rise. That philosophy,
in one form or another, is the theoretical basis for the team-based self-managing jobs
in many companies around the world today.
STEP 3: SELECT REPRESENTATIVE POSITIONS Whether or not the manager
decides to redesign jobs via workforce analysis, process redesign, or job redesign, he or she
must at some point select which positions to focus on for the job analysis. For example,
it is usually unnecessary to analyze the jobs of 200 assembly workers when a sample of
10 jobs will do.
STEP 4: ACTUALLY ANALYZE THE JOB BY COLLECTING DATA ON JOB
ACTIVITIES, WORKING CONDITIONS, AND HUMAN TRAITS AND
ABILITIES NEEDED TO PERFORM THE JOB In brief, analyzing the job involves
greeting participants; briefly explaining the job analysis process and the participants
roles in this process; spending about 15 minutes interviewing the employees to get agreement
on a basic summary of the job; identifying the job s broad areas of responsibility,
such as calling on potential clients ; and identifying duties/tasks within each area interactively
with the employees. 13
workflow analysis
A detailed study of the flow of work from job
to job in a work process.
business process reengineering
Redesigning business processes, usually by
combining steps, so that small multifunction
process teams using information technology
do the jobs formerly done by a sequence of
departments.
job enlargement
Assigning workers additional same-level
activities.
job rotation
Systematically moving workers from one job
to another.
job enrichment
Redesigning jobs in a way that increases the
opportunities for the worker to experience
feelings of responsibility, achievement,
growth, and recognition.