Conduct interview and administer your job analysis survey

This week you will be conducting your interview and administering your job analysis survey. This is a sequential process in that you will use the qualitative data collected in your interview to further refine your task statements and KSAO statements that will be incorporated into your survey. Thus, you need to schedule your interview first, and your survey administration later (with enough time in between to make these refinements).

Instructions

This week you will be submitting your final interview questions (which may have been revised from Week 2) and responses, observation notes (if applicable), and survey response data. Importantly, this will include a table showing the task ratings, KSAO ratings (on importance, frequency, and/or other metrics you chose), as well as a matrix indicating the importance rating given for each KSAO as it pertains to each task (i.e., your completed task x KSAO matrix).

During your interview, you will notice you may need to probe for more information using follow-up questions. As a reminder, if you do not understand a technical term or name of equipment your interviewee uses, be sure to ask them to explain. It is absolutely imperative that the interview and observation (if applicable) conducted as part of this assignment be conducted in an ethical manner consistent with the basic practices used in human subjects research. In other words, although this is a class project and not a research endeavor, your interviewees should be informed of the basic procedures, guaranteed complete confidentiality, given the opportunity to withdraw from the interview at any time without consequence, and be debriefed regarding the purpose of the interview.

If you carry out an observation,¹ notice any tasks the SME may not have mentioned, how incumbents perform the tasks, with whom incumbents interact, and what equipment is used. You may find that some positions are harder to “observe.” In that case, write about that in your notes. . Please follow best practices for observation and do not interfere or intrude with the incumbent during this time. Also, be aware that some positions may be confidential and may not allow  observation to take place. That is okay; just note this in your report.

Deliverable

Your Week 3 report should include:

1. Final interview questions (which may have been revised from Week 2) and responses
2. Observation notes (if applicable)
3. Survey response data, including table showing the task ratings, KSAO ratings (on importance, frequency, and/or other metrics you chose), as well as a matrix indicating the importance  rating given for each KSAO as it pertains to each task (i.e., your completed task x KSAO matrix)
4. A paragraph explaining what decision rules you have applied to decide on the final set of task statements and KSAO statements (see Gatewood et al., Chapter 3 for examples)
5. The final task statements and KSAO statements that will populate your job description in Week 4

You might consider preparing this in a professional manner, so there is less to do when you assemble the final, full report in Week 4. Your final project deliverable should be written as if you are a consultant delivering to your client (the organization where your job analysis is taking place). Thus, it should include full context (e.g., a cover letter/executive summary, your name and contact information, the date, your client organization, the job you are analyzing, etc.), and should be written in a professional manner that is easily digestible by the client. You are encouraged to use graphics and other means of illustrating results, and keep overly cumbersome or technical material in the appendix. APA style can be a guide, but it is perfectly acceptable to modify to provide a professional and accessible client deliverable.