Job Analysis: The Position Analysis Questionnaire?

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In the modern world, there are hundreds of thousands of career options and new jobs are being created every day. This abundance of options makes the decision difficult for those in search of a career path. Luckily for those who are lost and unsure, there are a few techniques that can be used to narrow down the broad possibilities. Individuals interested in certain positions can choose to observe employees in their natural work environment, interview the employee about their job, ask the employee to keep a job diary that the individual can read, et cetera. However, the most commonly researched method is the Position Analysis Questionnaire which is a job analysis technique that uses a structured list of questions to analyze jobs (Riggio, 2013).…show more content…
The individual then needs to conduct a job analysis which helps determine whether the job is a right fit for him or her. The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) was designed to help define the job’s tasks and responsibilities and the qualities necessarily obtained by the potential employee in order to provide increased understanding of the position. The PAQ was created with the use of 187 job statements, grouped into six specific categories. The first of which is information input, which is the origin of where the employee gathered the information necessary to perform the job. The second is work output which is the tasks that the employees must complete and the machinery and tools necessarily used to complete them. The third is unobservable mental processes which are the thoughts and reasoning that take place in order to perform the task. The fourth is the types of relationships formed with other people required in…show more content…
This study stemmed from the feminist movement, facilitated in emphasizing the appreciation that homemakers deserved. Researchers gathered 48 homemakers (all female) and asked them to complete the PAQ. The overall results showed that the scoring was similar among all of the participants; the descriptions given by the 48 homemakers were consistent with one another. This shows that the questionnaire was accurate and could be made a standardized questionnaire that could be used as a reliable instrument. The results showed that the job of a homemaker required sensitivity to oneself and environment, and variable schedule; if it were a paid position, it was calculated that homemakers should get paid approximately $740 per month as opposed to providing their work unpaid. All in all, it was found that a homemaker’s job is most similar to the jobs of a police officer, firefighter, and airport maintenance chief (Arvey & Begalla,

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