answer key for internal assessment test

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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)

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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)

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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

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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)

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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)

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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

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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)

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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

LinkedIn

(3 Marks)

(4 Marks)

(3 Marks)

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Newspaper advertisement

Head hunters

* * * * * * * *

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