Industrial Psychology: Job Analysis - Coursework Example

Industrial Psychology: Job Analysis Introduction I-O that is industrial psychology is defined as a context of scientific study of human conduct in relation to the workplace or organization. The task of an industrial psychologist is to optimize, thus maintain and improve the performance of an organization’s employee by monitoring their well-being, satisfaction, health, and safety to ensure that they favour their comfort at the workplace. An industrial psychologist carries out the above mentioned tasks by conducting researches on the employees’ attitudes and behaviours, which can be made better through management systems, good hiring processes, providing feedback, and availing training programs. However, for the psychologist to execute these mentioned duties, they need to conduct a job analysis of the workplace or organization where they need to work. The process of conducting a job analysis will form the basis of this text, in which it shall go into details of what it takes to have an effective analysis done. Chmiel (2009) defines a job analysis as the analyzation after collection of any information related to a specific job, for any purpose. A job analysis consists of two main parts. The first is the description of the job, giving all the details there can be in it. The second part is specification of the person(s) executing the job, giving all the detail regarding ability, skills, knowledge or any other quality required to do the job. This text will create a job analysis of an Information Technology technician job, existing in an IT firm to illustrate the above definition of a job analysis. An information Technology organization is one that is associated with supply, stocking, servicing and supporting all aspects associated with technology, and these might be both hardware and software. Within an IT firm, there are numerous jobs that may exist, such as software engineers, hardware engineers, web developers, or IT technicians amongst others. The job analysis to be carried out of these is an IT technician. An IT technician is that person in an IT organization who takes responsibility of maintaining and installing computer networks, software and hardware. In addition to these, he provides consultation, training, and recommends what should be done to address future IT developments. The technician works under the Senior Administrative Office, to whom he reports. The main activities of an IT technician can be categorized into two; the first category entails ensuring that IT is equipped with updated hardware and software so that it is easily accessible and effective. The second category involves the maintenance and monitoring of IT to support maximum and effective performance. The firm hires employees whenever there is a need, and advertises for employees with specific skills and knowledge in the posts available. During the recruitment process, applicants are expected to present proof of prior experience and then subject to an interview preceded by a practical evaluation. The applicant is expected to execute some IT tasks allocated to them, which they must pass before they are officially hired. In IT, the skill is what matters, and experience usually is an added advantage. When it comes to job segregation, there are three levels in the firm. The highest is the Senior Administrative Manager, who oversees the processes and running of all the firm’s activities from purchasing to delivery, and overseeing all firm projects. It is this manager to whom the Supervising Officers report to. The Supervising officers identify the invoiced (clients’) demands and determine who makes them, and also dictate how they are done. They pass these jobs and commands onto the technicians who execute the actual jobs. The pay for the Senior Managers is highest, followed by that of the Supervising officers, then the technicians. However, the technicians can earn extra wages when they are hired out to take on other firms’ contracts. As Sandler & Keefe (2003) recommend, it is crucial and very important to measure in any scale the value of job performance in keeping track of an employee’s, or general organization’s worth and performance. The IT firm adheres to this, and conducts appraisals twice a year to keep track with the fast changing IT world. At the firm, the appraisals are done by establishment of specific tasks that the employees are subjected to. Depending on their performance on the given tasks, employees’ worth is determined and noted. The Senior Administrative Manager conducts it on the Supervising Officer who in turn conduct the appraisal process on the IT Technicians. The data recorded from the appraisals is stored for further reference, and is used when there is a need for promotion or salary reviews. From this, the management can also tell who needs any assistance or training. Similar to all other organizations, the employees at the IT firm receive training. The training involved in this particular context comes in two forms. The first being job-oriented trainings. The trainings they receive is irregular in that it is not fixed or specific, rather, it is conducted as per the need. The reason for this is that the IT sector is ever varying and training to keep up with the emerging trends in the competitive fraternity. By so doing, the firm provides effective and up-to-date products and services, which is a demand for business when dealing with IT. The second type of training is for the workers’ quality in terms of living and socialization. This is because they spend a lot of time indoors interacting with machines, and this may affect their social life negatively. For instance, sitting all day might lead to health problems such as obesity. To avoid such the firm organizes quarterly health/ lifestyle trainings. These two varieties of trainings ensure the employees are productive by having the most current know-how, and that they are physically and mentally fit. This combination translates to the firms’ success in obtaining its objectives. Rao and Chandraiah (2012) reveal the common stressors that might affect employees who work with IT firms. The first one, they write, is spending long hours at the workplace which is a demand of the sector. The reason for this is that the systems need human supervision twenty four hours, thus the overtime working. The second potential stressor, closely related to the first is developing antisocial personality disorder brought about by long interaction periods with machines. The long exposure to computers is likely to brainwash them, and weaken their social lives. Motivation at workplaces is paramount if an organization aims at maintaining and improving outputs in terms of performance. In the IT firm, the management applies certain motivational mechanisms. The first is maintaining a trustworthy and loyal leadership that gives an ear to the employees. This kind of leadership motivates them to work and achieve for the organization. On that note of leadership, the senior administrators believe in, and apply the Trait Theory, which states that it is the intellectual, social, and physical attributes of a person that makes them leaders. As such, they conduct evaluations such as the appraisals and choose who to reward, based on their attributes. A two-way communication channel is necessary in technological contexts since nobody has all the information or skill, thus sharing is bound to better the firm. The other strategy is maintaining relevance in the IT systems in that they are updated and up to the task in providing customers’ solutions. It is obvious that any employee will be happy to work in a highly competitive place. Lastly, the firm motivates its employees by reciprocating their input and rewarding them accordingly. Concisely, the firm reviews the performance and attributes of its employees and when one qualifies for an increment or promotion, no hesitation occurs; they give credit where due. This in turn keeps the workers in high spirits since they know that somebody will analyse their performance and conduct, for which there will be a reward. From these evaluations, it is evident that the motivation theory in use is the intrinsic, reason being it aims at motivating employees through enjoying their work, and not relying on any external factors. There are three dominant groups in the firm, namely the technicians, supervisors and senior officers. These three groups differ in their intensity of tasks, but at their working levels, the tasks are similar in intensity and operation. The performance of each group at the firm depends on the other group since their relationship is hierarchal; the seniors control the supervisors who control the technicians. This division of labour into collective groups is inspired by Max Ringelmann’s theory of rope-pulling. In the theory, Max realized that by making people to pull a rope together, each individual person applied less effort in doing it than they did while pulling it alone. This translated; Max implied that when people work together, they exert less effort in achieving a goal or objective than it does to strive towards it alone. From this insight into the IT firm, and given the opportunity to change any aspect of it, I would address the issue of work overload which seems to haunt the employees more. This I would achieve by further sub-dividing the existing groups into smaller units so that they work in shifts when need be. By subdividing the groups and making them to work in shifts, the workload stressor would disappear, thus add to the comfort of the working environment. Conclusion In conclusion, the above discussion illustrates the process of conducting a job analysis the industrial psychologists’ way. It illustrates by breaking down the process into constituent bits, then elaborating it using an Information Technology firm’s perspective. The elaboration of the process supports the definition of the job analysis as one that identifies the content of a specific job, with regards to what activities are involved, and who qualifies to execute the said activities. By conducting a job analysis, an industrial psychologist can devise means of improving, maintaining and inventing the performance thus achievement of an organization’s success. References Chmiel, N. (2009). An introduction to work and organizational psychology: A European perspective. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. Rao, J., & Chandraiah, K. (2012). “Occupational stress, mental health and coping among information technology professionals”. National Center for Biotechnology Information, 1, 22-26. Sandler, C., & Keefe, J. (2003). Performance Appraisal Phrase Book: The Best Words, Phrases, and Techniques for Performance Reviews. Adams Media. Read More