Technical Affairs

Mike Aamodt, Associate Editor

This month's technical affairs column answers a reader's question about job descriptions and summarizes the recent IOOB Graduate Student Conference.

Question:

Our city attorney wants us to have detailed job descriptions but our supervisors prefer the shorter, less detailed, ones. Who is right?

Answer:

The answer to your question, a common one by the way, is that your attorney is probably right (I never thought I would say those words!). Though supervisors often do prefer shorter job descriptions, their reasoning is usually based on faulty assumptions. Their typical argument is that if a job description is too detailed, employees will refuse to do anything that is not in their job description. This is seldom the case, and their concern can be easily alleviated by adding the line "Performs any other job-related duties assigned by supervisor" to the job description.

Some organizations have a policy that employees can be temporarily assigned any duty for a period of time (e.g. 6 weeks, 3 months). If employees are still performing the duty after that period of time, their job becomes eligible for reevaluation. Of course, most additional duties are trivial in nature, and the job evaluation results will not change.

Why spend the time and effort on a detailed job description? A job analysis and the resulting job description form the basis for every important human resource function: selection, training, job design, performance evaluation, and job evaluation and compensation. If a job description is written properly [see Aamodt, M. G. (1996) Applied Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing - pages 74-81], it saves time when these other functions are performed.

For example, suppose that an employee is responsible for preparing and writing five different reports. A job description listing each of these reports (rather than one line "prepares reports") can serve as a training needs check-list for new employees and as a basis for asking structured interview questions (e.g. "An important part of this job is preparing OSHA reports, tell me about your experience with these types of reports").

The "ideal" job description will be 3-5 pages in length and contain a job title, DOT or organizational code, brief summary of the job (4-5 lines), an exhaustive list of tasks performed (categorized by dimension), a list of tools and equipment used, working conditions (e.g. temperature, stress, work schedule, physical aspects, safety risks), and KSAO's needed to perform the job (these should be separated into those needed upon hire and those that can be obtained after being hired).

The exact format and content of the job description should be determined by an organizational committee. The members of the committee should represent all functions that anticipate using job description information (e.g. supervisors and representatives from the employment, training, wage and salary, safety, and engineering departments). A detailed, well-written job description takes a lot of work. But, the long-term payoffs greatly exceed the short-term costs.

If you have a university near by, you may want to explore the possibility of student interns writing your job descriptions. At Radford University, our I/O Psychology graduate program and student SHRM chapter operate what we call the Community Human Resource Center. The center provides free consulting services to public agencies and non-profit organizations. Through the Center, out students gain valuable experience and the public agencies get high quality products at a reasonable cost (free). Over the past few years our students have written job descriptions for the towns of Christiansburg and Pulaski, the City of Radford, the counties of Pulaski and Roanoke, and the Radford City and Montgomery County School Systems. Most I/O psychology programs or business schools would probably love to form a similar partnership with your agency.

Sources for Further Information

Unfortunately, it is not easy to obtain simple (but accurate) information about job analysis. The best book available is the 1,300 page, two-volume set edited by Sidney Gael (1988) The Job Analysis Handbook for Business, Industry, and Government and published by Wiley (ISBN 0-471-87237-7). However, this book is expensive and is not a great book for the job analysis novice. The best easy-to-read book is Ed Levine's Everything you always wanted to know about job analysis published by Mariner Publishing (ISBN 0-936166-16-9).

In the IPMA News I noticed an ad from the Job Analysis Training Group that has a video training program on job analysis for $275. I don't know if it is any good, but it may be worth exploring. Their number is (888) 526-5284. In HR News there was an ad from Workscience Corporation in Richmond, Virginia regarding some sophisticated job analysis software. If it is any improvement on their version that I saw six years ago, it looks to be a nice product. Their number is (800) 347-5627.

A Conference Report and Thank You

The 18th Annual Graduate Conference in I/O Psychology and Organizational Behavior was held March 7-9, 1997 at the historic Patrick Henry Hotel in Roanoke, Virginia. The conference was hosted by Radford University and had more student paper presentations (94) and students attending (over 150) than any previous conference.

In addition to student presentations, students attending the conference were motivated by outstanding keynote addresses by Dr. Rick Jacobs of Penn State, Dr. Paul Muchinsky of the University of North Carolina - Greensboro, and Mr. Victor Cardwell of the law firm of Woods, Rogers, and Hazlegrove in Roanoke, Virginia. Professional workshops by Dr. Roseanne Foti of Virginia Tech, Dr. Darnell Lattal of Context Management, Inc., Dr. Stephane Brutus of the Center for Creative Leadership, and Dr. Mike Aamodt of Radford University provided the students with a chance to learn new HR related skills.

This year's conference started a new tradition by having the various schools compete for the Johnson Cup - a trophy awarded to the university winning the IOOB Jeopardy game. The trophy is named after the late Daniel L. Johnson who received his Ph.D. from Bowling Green and taught at Radford University for over 25 years. Dr. Johnson believed that learning should be fun and the Jeopardy competition is certainly representative of that philosophy. George Mason University was the winner of this year's competition.

On behalf of my students who organized the conference, the conference speakers, and the students who attended the conference, I would like to thank SIOP, Personnel Decisions International, the Roanoke Valley and New River Valley chapters of SHRM, the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management, Procter and Gamble, Center for Creative Leadership, Brooks/Cole Publishing, and Radford University for their more than generous financial support. I would also like to thank Lawrence Erlbaum and Brooks/Cole Publishing for contributing books that were used as door prizes and Jeff Lintner of the Institute for Personality and Ability Testing (IPAT) for attending the conference and providing free tests to students conducting research using IPAT instruments.

This conference is the premier graduate student conference in the nation and is invaluable in developing research and presentation skills in graduate students interested in the HR area. Each year the conference relies on the loyal support of sponsors such as those mentioned above. Though IPMA and IPMAAC were not asked to provide financial support this year, contributions to future conferences (the 1998 conference will be hosted by the California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego) might be an excellent way to show our support for the future professionals in our field.

HR Humor

As mentioned above, Radford University recently hosted the 18th annual Graduate Conference in I/O Psychology and Organizational Behavior (IOOB Conference). A group of graduate students and faculty developed a list of 20 "Top IOOB Pick-up Lines" to put on the back of their conference t-shirts. Some of them were quite good but because of the questionable taste of some of the lines this is not an appropriate forum for sharing them. If you are interested in obtaining the list get in touch with me at the address below or see me at the conference this summer.

Mike Aamodt is a Professor at Radford University and has graciously agreed to continue his excellent work as our Associate Editor for Technical Affairs. If you have a technical question you want answered please send it to Mike by email (maamodt@runet.edu), phone [(540) 831-5513)] or fax [(540) 831-6113].