Functions of HRM 2

• Management position description questionnaire (MPDQ)

  • A checklist of 208 items related to the concerns and responsibilities of managers
  • A comprehensive description of managerial work
  • Intended for use across most industrial settings
• Sections of the latest version of the MPDQ


  • General information
  • Decision making
  • Planning and organizing
  • Administering
  • Controlling
  • Supervising
  • General information
  • Decision making
  • Consulting and innovating
  • Contacts
  • Coordinating
  • Representing
  • Monitoring business indicators
  • Overall ratings
  • Knowledge, skills, and abilities
  • Organization chart
• Common metric questionnaire (CMQ)

  • Another method of quantitative job analysis
  • Completed by a job incumbent
  • Questionnaire items require a lower reading level
  • More behaviorally concrete, making it easier for incumbents to rate their jobs
  • Applicable to both exempt and nonexempt positions, which may increase the number of intrajob skill-based comparisons that can be made
• Considerable research on job analysis is being conducted in Europe, focusing on alternative quantitative methods
• In Germany, several techniques have the goal of analyzing and describing work at the task level, independent of the incumbent's perceptions
• Job description


  • One of the primary outputs provided by a systematic job analysis
  • A written description of what the job entails
• Thorough, accurate, and current job descriptions are important to an organization
• Changes in recent years that have increased the need for job descriptions

  • The incredible number of organizational restructurings
  • The need to implement new and creative ways to motivate and reward employees
  • The accelerated rate at which technology is changing work environments
  • New, more stringent federal regulation of employment practices
• Elements of a well-written, useful job description

  • Job title
  • Summary
  • Equipment
  • Environment
  • Activities
• Job specification


  • Evolves from the job description
  • Addresses the question, "What personal traits and experience are needed to perform the job effectively?"
  • Especially useful for recruitment and selection
• Guidelines for arriving at the characteristics to include on a job specification

  1. All job tasks must be identified and rated in terms of importance, using sound job analysis techniques

  2. A panel of experts, incumbents, or supervisors should specify the necessary skills for performing each of the job tasks identified

  3. The importance of each skill must be rated

  4. Any other characteristics necessary for performing the job should be identified, such as physical requirements and professional certification

  5. Each skill that has been identified must be specifically linked to each job task

  6. Any trait or skill stated on the job specification should be required for performance of the job
• The Americans with Disabilities Act makes the job analyst's responsibilities even greater in this area
• Essential skills


  Skills for which alternative ways of accomplishing the job are not possible
• Nonessential skills


  Skills that can be accommodated by changing the structure or work methods of the job
• Job enlargement


  • Attempts to increase satisfaction by giving employees a greater variety of things to do
  • The expansion is considered horizontal because employees are only given a greater variety of tasks to do, no additional authority or responsibility
• Job enrichment


  • Tries to design jobs in ways that help incumbents satisfy their needs for growth, recognition, and responsibility
  • The job is expanded vertically; employees are given responsibility that might previously have been part of a supervisor's job
• Two-factor theory of work motivation


  Employees will be motivated by jobs that enhance their feelings of self-worth
• Job characteristics model


  • A job must possess "core job dimensions" to lead to desired outcomes: Skill variety, Task identity, Task significance, Autonomy, Feedback
  • These core dimensions produce three critical psychological states in job incumbents: Experienced meaningfulness, Experienced responsibility, Knowledge of results
  • The more these states are experienced, the more internal work motivation the job incumbent will feel
• After 20 years of research, there are no clear answers about the effectiveness of enrichment
• Studies support the expectation that jobs perceived to possess the core dimensions of the job characteristics model are more satisfying
• The relationships between the critical psychological states and employees' reactions to enrichment are not yet fully understood
• Increasing the scope of a job beyond certain levels can have detrimental effects on workers
• Work-family balance


  Organizations are directing more attention and resources toward helping employees balance their work and family demands
• Factors driving the work-family tension

  • The number of women and single parents entering the workforce
  • Dual-career couples
  • The aging population
• Flexible work arrangements


  • Job sharing
  • Flextime
  • Telecommuting
• Benefits of family-friendly work arrangements

  • Higher recruitment and retention rates
  • Improved morale
  • Lower absenteeism and tardiness
  • Higher levels of employee productivity
• Job sharing


  A work arrangement in which two or more employees divide a job's responsibilities, hours, and benefits
• Flextime


  Employees can choose when to be at the office, e.g. 5 days/8 hours, 4 days/10 hours, arrive later on Monday, leave earlier on Friday
• Flextime has a positive influence on employee performance, job satisfaction, and absenteeism
• Flexible work schedules that are too unstructured lose some of their effectiveness over time
• Telecommuting


  Allows employees to work in their homes part- or full-time, with communication maintained through the phone, fax, and computer
• Telecommuting is often resisted by managers who fear loss of control and subordinate accessibility
• Issues to consider when developing and implementing flexible work arrangement options

  • The program should be open to all employees, if possible
  • Train managers and reward them for encouraging subordinates to use flextime without fear of having their careers derailed
  • Be mindful of laws that impact flexible work arrangement policies
• Compensation


  The human resource management function that deals with every type of reward individuals receive in exchange for performing organizational tasks
• Types of financial compensation

  • Direct (wages, salaries, bonuses, commissions)
  • Indirect (benefits like insurance, vacation, childcare services)
• Non-financial rewards, such as praise, self-esteem, and recognition, also affect employee motivation, productivity, and satisfaction
• Objective of compensation


  To create a system of rewards that is equitable to both the employer and the employee
• Characteristics of effective compensation

  • Adequate
  • Equitable
  • Balanced
  • Cost-effective
  • Secure
  • Incentive-providing
  • Acceptable to the employee
• Groups used to set pay for a position

  • Group A: employees working on similar jobs in other organizations
  • Group B: employees working on different jobs within the organization
  • Group C: employees working on the same job within the organization
• Pay-level decision


  The decision to examine pay relative to Group A, to keep the organization competitive in the marketplace