Saturday, January 30, 2010
Vague Instructions
I think the reason why a lot of instructions from foreign companies are vague and have no pictures because the company is trying to keep their costs down to maintain their competitive edge. However, I think this is an area where a company really shouldn't be skimping. It sounds like they are just running the instructions they wrote in their native language through some kind of translation software program. In my experience those type of translators often make mistakes because they translate too literally and don't recognize a lot of commonly used phrases. Good pictures are another item that cost more to include in a set of instructions. Figure into the cost either an artist to draw it or a photographer to take pictures of it, as well as possibly even a graphic designer to wrangle the images around so they look best and make the most sense. Without taking the extra steps to make sure the instructions are clear and have good illustrations, the overall satisfaction that the customer has with the product suffers as they become frustrating trying to figure out how to use and or assemble it. Once all of this is figured in, that fabulous cost savings doesn't seem like such a value anymore, does it?
Friday, January 29, 2010
Job Analysis Methods
The Observation Method is implemented by sending a trained observer to watch and record the actions of a job. Its advantages are that the observer can easily gather first hand information, it is simple, it verifies data from other sources, and is good for evaluating manual tasks. Its disadvantages are that it is time consuming, and therefore expensive especially if the observer is being paid a high hourly wage. Because of the time and expense involved, only a small number of jobs or people can be taken into observation. Additionally, when a worker knows they are being watched, they may modify their performance to skew the observed data. The observer must have high levels of observation skills to effectively gather data and if the job is one that is primarily mental, little to no data may be available to observe since internal mental processes are not visible.
The Diary Method involves requiring workers to keep a journal of daily activities. The advantage of this method is that it allows data to be gathered about jobs that aren't easily observable. It's disadvantages are that it relies on the writing skills of the workers, the workers may have conflicts of interests such as making themselves look good or the desire to not have extra work added to their job that will cause them to skew the data, and that they may have difficulty remembering what they did especially if the log is made at the end of a long day.
In the Interview Method, workers who have been doing the job are questioned about it. It's advantages are that it can lead to the acquisition of data that might be difficult to observe because it is of a cognitive nature and it works well for jobs with long job cycles. Its disadvantages are that it requires the questions that are to be asked to be well constructed to uncover the data sought, there may be difficulties meshing data gathered from various interviews as each interview may produce different and even conflicting data, the interviews may produce more data than was sought, and the data is colored by the perceptions, beliefs and preferences of the interviewee.
Like the Interview Method, the Questionnaire Method gathers data by asking the employees a series of questions, except the questions are asked in a written rather than verbal medium. Its advantages are that since it does not require a trained interviewer it is less expensive, data may be drawn from a larger sample population since questionnaires are easily distributed among the workforce, and the data gathered by this method is standardized and structured. The disadvantages are that effective questionnaires are challenging to create, workers may be reluctant to complete them or may only partially complete them. If the questions are open-ended (allowing the workers to write whatever they like instead of using a rating scale or other multiple choice option) the answers may be difficult to interpret.
The Checklist Method is similar to the Questionnaire Method in that is paper administered and therefore carries some of the same advantages of cost effectiveness and ease of administration. It's disadvantage is that it might not gather data in enough detail to encompass all critical components of a job.
-Resources-
University of Minnesota, Office of Human Resources (May 8, 2008) "Advantages and Disadvantages of Job Analysis Methods" Retrieved January 19, 2010 from
http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/compensation/classification/jobanalysis/advantages/index.html
Ngo (January 2, 2009) HR Management. "Diary Method" Retrieved on January 19, 2010 from http://www.humanresources.hrvinet.com/diary-method/
The Diary Method involves requiring workers to keep a journal of daily activities. The advantage of this method is that it allows data to be gathered about jobs that aren't easily observable. It's disadvantages are that it relies on the writing skills of the workers, the workers may have conflicts of interests such as making themselves look good or the desire to not have extra work added to their job that will cause them to skew the data, and that they may have difficulty remembering what they did especially if the log is made at the end of a long day.
In the Interview Method, workers who have been doing the job are questioned about it. It's advantages are that it can lead to the acquisition of data that might be difficult to observe because it is of a cognitive nature and it works well for jobs with long job cycles. Its disadvantages are that it requires the questions that are to be asked to be well constructed to uncover the data sought, there may be difficulties meshing data gathered from various interviews as each interview may produce different and even conflicting data, the interviews may produce more data than was sought, and the data is colored by the perceptions, beliefs and preferences of the interviewee.
Like the Interview Method, the Questionnaire Method gathers data by asking the employees a series of questions, except the questions are asked in a written rather than verbal medium. Its advantages are that since it does not require a trained interviewer it is less expensive, data may be drawn from a larger sample population since questionnaires are easily distributed among the workforce, and the data gathered by this method is standardized and structured. The disadvantages are that effective questionnaires are challenging to create, workers may be reluctant to complete them or may only partially complete them. If the questions are open-ended (allowing the workers to write whatever they like instead of using a rating scale or other multiple choice option) the answers may be difficult to interpret.
The Checklist Method is similar to the Questionnaire Method in that is paper administered and therefore carries some of the same advantages of cost effectiveness and ease of administration. It's disadvantage is that it might not gather data in enough detail to encompass all critical components of a job.
-Resources-
University of Minnesota, Office of Human Resources (May 8, 2008) "Advantages and Disadvantages of Job Analysis Methods" Retrieved January 19, 2010 from
http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/compensation/classification/jobanalysis/advantages/index.html
Ngo (January 2, 2009) HR Management. "Diary Method" Retrieved on January 19, 2010 from http://www.humanresources.hrvinet.com/diary-method/
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