USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
ANSWER KEY FOR INTERNAL ASSESSMENT TEST – 1 Date : 16/08/16 Max Marks: 50 Subject & Code : RECRUITMENT & SELECTION -14MBAHR302 Section: III Sem MBA Name of faculty : Ravi Urs Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Note: Answer all questions
1(a) Define Job analysis?
Job analysis is a purposeful, systematic process for collecting information on the
important work-related aspects of a job
Some of the job related information can be:
a. Work activities - What a worker does; how, why, and when these activities are
conducted
b. Tools and equipment used in performing work activities
c. Context of the work environment, such as work schedule or physical working
conditions
d. Requirements of personnel performing the job, such as knowledge, skills, abilities
(KSAs), or other personal characteristics (like physical characteristics, interests, or
personality)
(3 Marks)
(b) What are structured and unstructured interviews?
A structured interview is one in which specific questions are
asked and means are available for recording answers to these
questions
It is more suitable because of the technical and legal issues
involved in job analysis
It provides the kind of job analysis data that can be used
effectively in selection application
An unstructured interview consists of a job analyst collecting
(3 Marks)
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
information about a job without a specific list of questions
developed prior to the interview
2 (a)
Explain the Position Analysis Questionnaire.
Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) is one of the leading off-
the-shelf, or prefabricated, measures of job
It is a standardized, structured job analysis questionnaire
containing 195 items or elements
Of this total, 187 items concern work activities and work
situations, seven relate to compensation issues and one item
deals with the exempt or non-exempt status of the position being
analyzed
The elements are not task oriented, but represent general work
behaviors, work conditions or job characteristics
For the items which are relevant to an job, a rating scale is used
to indicate the degree to which that item applies to the job under
study
The items are organized into six basic divisions or sections
a) Information input
Where and how a worker gets information needed to perform
the job
b) Mental processes
The reasoning, decision making, planning, and information-
processing activities that are involved in performing the job
(7 Marks)
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
c) Work Input
The physical activities, tools, and devices used by the worker to
perform the job
d) Relationship with other persons
The relationship with other people that are required in
performing the job
e) Job context
The physical and social context in which the work is performed
f) Other job characteristics
The activities, conditions, and characteristics other than those
already described that are relevant to the job
Process of applying PAQ
i. Selecting and training agents to analyze jobs
ii. Selecting persons to provide job information
iii. Analyzing the jobs selected
iv. Analyzing PAQ data
Advantages of PAQ
It provides a standardized means for collecting quantitative job
data across a wide spectrum of jobs
Standardization helps to ensure that different jobs are assessed in
a similar fashion
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
Due to standardization, comparisons across many jobs can be
made
It provides reliable and valid job data
Estimation of worker requirements necessary for jobs can be
obtained from the PAQ, leading to creating employee
specifications for selection purpose
Disadvantages of PAQ
The instrument requires the reading level of a college graduate
It scores the basic work behaviors rather than the specific tasks of
a job. Hence other methods of job analysis would be required in
order to develop job descriptions
(b) What is Subject Matter Expert (SME) Workshops? Explain its methodology.
Subject Matter Expert (SME) Workshops consists of groups or panels of
10 to 20 job incumbents who work with a group leader to produce job
analysis
Participants are selected for their knowledge of the job, hence they are
referred to as subject matter experts or SMEs
Steps in conducting workshops
a) Selecting and preparing SMEs to participate in the workshop
Some of the characteristics a panelist needs are a willingness to
participate, have a minimum of six months tenure in the job,
possess reading, writing and speaking skills, etc.
Once selected the panelists are oriented in the workshops’
purpose and procedures, and are trained in how to develop and
rate task and KSA statements
(7 Marks)
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
b) Identifying and rating job tasks
The group describes the major tasks performed on the job
These descriptions are recorded by the group leader (facilitator)
to enable the group to understand what is being recorded
This helps in capturing the job descriptions accurately
The task statements are then assembled into a rating booklet
c) Identifying and rating KSAs associated with these job tasks
KSAs required for successful performance of the tasks are
identified
The process similar to that used to generate task statements are
used for generating KSAs also
The panelists then rate these KSAs using rating scales
The rating of KSAS help in identifying the most essential KSAs that
must be possessed by those applying for the job
d) Judging Selection Measure – Job content relevance
It is undertaken when content validation is needed
A rating scale is used to indicate the relevance of selection
measure content
3 (a) Explain briefly Critical Incident Technique of job analysis. State its merits and demerits.
Critical Incidents Technique method was originally developed to
(10 Marks)
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
gather information to determine training needs and develop
performance appraisal forms
The process is designed to generate a list of especially good and
poor (critical) examples of performance (incidents) that job
incumbents exhibit
The objective of this method is to gather information regarding
specific behaviors that actually have been observed
These behaviors are then grouped into job dimensions
The final list of job dimensions and respective critical incidents
provides a great deal of qualitative information about a job and
the behaviors associated with job success or failure
It is a work-oriented procedure
Each critical incident consists of:
o A description of a situation
o The effective or ineffective behavior performed by a job
incumbent
o The consequence of that behavior
Steps in using the method
a) Selecting the method for critical incidents collection
i. The critical incidents can be gathered from job experts
o In a group setting
o Here a group of experts share their incidents
o It helps as each member can prompt others to recall more
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
incidents
o It is less time consuming
ii. In individual interview
It is suitable when incumbents cannot express in writing
Here the incumbents are interviewed to make the
incumbents recall the incidents
It is suitable when the incidents to be shared are
confidential
iii. By administering a questionnaire
This method should only be used with individuals who
are very skilled at expressing themselves in writing and
are exited about participating in the process
b) Selecting a panel of job experts
Individuals should be chosen who have had the
opportunity to observe others’ performance on the
job
Supervisors and job incumbents who have been in the
position for a long period of time would be suitable
c) Generating critical incidents
Structured format should be used to collect the critical incidents
Job experts write statements describing effective and ineffective
performance
The incident should meet the following four characteristics:
It should be specific (a single behavior)
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
It should focus on observable behaviors that have been, or could
be, exhibited on the job
It should describe the context in which the behavior occurred
It should indicate the consequence of the behavior
d) Defining job dimensions
Job dimensions are determined by analyzing the content of the
critical incidents and identifying common themes among the
incidents
One method of doing this is to write each incident on a separate
card
The cards are then sorted by a judge into piles representing
common themes
Each pile should be of reasonable size
A very large pile may indicate more than one theme being
combined
Each theme is given a label that names the dimension
Other experts may also be asked to resort all the incidents to
recheck the themes and dimensions
Advantages/Merits of Critical Incident Technique
It results in a interesting, specific and job related information
The information got will be behavioral in nature
The behaviors can be translated into specific job tasks
Since the information is about “critical” incidents, it represents
important aspects of the job
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
Disadvantages/Demerits of Critical Incident Technique
The incidents reported may not represent the full scope of the
job
The dimensions based on the critical incidents may not be
representative of the entire job
The dimensions may not be stable, as they are a result of
analyst’s judgments
The process is labour intensive and results are very situation
specific
The information may not be transferable from one setting to
another
(b)
Explain the application of Job Element Method (JEM). What are its advantages and
disadvantages?
a) Selecting a panel of raters
Success of JEM depends on judgments provided by a panel of
experts
The panel members will be working together
This panel will generally consists of about six incumbents or
superiors working as raters or subject matter experts
b) Developing Job Elements and Subelements
Panel members are told to identify KSAs and other characteristics
that are needed by workers to perform the job under study
Questions such as “If you had to pick out one person to get a
special bonus for outstanding work, what might you look for?”
(10 Marks)
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
are asked to aid this process
A comprehensive list of job elements and subelements are
developed
c) Rating Job Elements and Subelements
Each panel member independently rates the elements and
subelements
The rating is done based on the following four scales or worker
characteristics:
o The degree to which barely acceptable workers have the
element or subelement (2=All have, 1= some have,
0=Almost none have)
o The importance of the element or subelement in
identifying superior workers (2=Very important, 1=
Valuable, 0=Does not differentiate)
o The extent to which trouble would be likely if the element
or subelement were ignored in selecting workers (2=Much
trouble, 1= Some trouble, 0=Safe to ignore)
o By requiring applicants to have an element or subelement,
the practicality of expecting applicants to have the
characteristics and then use the characteristics to fill job
openings (2=Fill all openings, 1= Fill some openings, 0=Fill
no openings)
d) Analyzing JEM data
After the ratings are done, quantitative scores are computed for
each of the elements and subelements
These are developed from specific scoring formulas that
incorporate that ratings made in previous step
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
Decisions as to which elements and subelements should be
included in a selection measures are based on the computed
scores
e) Amplifying subelement definitions
Once the subelements are identified and chosen for inclusion in
the selection measures, the SMEs are asked to furnish work
examples of each subelement
This will help in being specific in defining a KSA or some other
characteristics that reflects the nature of the subelement
Advantages of JEM
JEM is aimed towards directly identifying those employee
characteristics that should be assessed by selection measures
It identifies important employee specifications and constructs
measures for them
It has a 30-yesr history
It is widely used in public sector to develop selection measures in
various trades and labor occupations
It is being continuously modified for improvements
Disadvantages of JEM
JEM is considered to be unwieldy and unstructured in the initial
stage of soliciting preliminary job elements for subject matter
experts
There is logistics problem in assembling a panel of experts
Taking key members away from their job for the necessary
amount of time may create some organizational problems
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
It ignores specifications of job tasks
The absence of task data makes it difficult to show that an
element is job-related if it cannot be demonstrated that the
element is necessary to do a specific job
It may not be the best job analysis method to use for some types
of validation studies (such as content validation)
4
4 (a)
(b)
(c)
Raghu, the CEO of Impex Corporation, was in deep thinking about the falling sales when he was interrupted by his secretary who said that the Smitha, General Manager, Human Resources was waiting to meet him. Smitha appraised Raghu of the efforts being made by her department to find a suitable replacement for the Country Sales Head who had left the company just last month. Raghu told Smitha about the challenges they were facing in the sales team due to frequent changing of the Country Sales Heads which was de-motivating the entire sales team. He wanted a robust system in place that would ensure that the right person would be selected as the Country Sales Head. As Smitha moved out of Raghu’s cabin she was thinking about how to create a system to ensure a suitable selection as the Country Sales Head. Questions: What were the challenges faced by Impex Corporation?
There is no proper system of job analysis
Right people are not being recruited as Country Sales Head
High de-motivation in the sales tem Design a process to help Smitha to select a suitable Country Sales Head?
Job analysis to be done for all jobs in the company
A recruitment process to be initiated which will test the various skill needed for a job
An initiation into the organization system to be introduced to help the new recruits get acclaimed with the culture and working of the organization
Exit interviews to be done for all people who leave the organization What are the recruitment sources that Smitha can tap into to ensure better quality applications?
Online portals like Naukri.com
(3 Marks)
(4 Marks)
(3 Marks)
USN
PESIT Bangalore South Campus Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
MBA III SEMESTER - HR
Newspaper advertisement
Head hunters
* * * * * * * *