PSY 270 Module 2 Job Analysis Report example

Job Analysis of the Grow Technician Role at Brightleaf Growers

[Student Name]

Southern New Hampshire University

PSY 270: Introduction to Industrial Organizational Psychology

Module Two Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.

Job Analysis of the Grow Technician Role at Brightleaf Growers

Why the Analysis Was Needed

Brightleaf Growers employs 140 grow technicians across its two indoor farms, and last year 38 percent of them left. The current job posting was written when the company had one farm and twelve technicians, and it describes the role as general farm work requiring "a passion for fresh food." Supervisors say new hires are often surprised by the precision and monitoring the job demands. Before the company can improve hiring, training or appraisal, it needs an accurate picture of what grow technicians actually do and what it takes to do it well. Job analysis provides that foundation, since every later personnel decision depends on it.

Methods

Four methods were combined so that each could check the others. Observation covered six complete shifts, two day, two evening and two night, across both farms, with notes on each task and how long it took. Structured interviews were held with 12 subject matter experts: eight technicians with at least two years' experience, rated as strong performers, and four supervisors. From these, a list of 24 task statements was drafted and sent as a survey to all technicians, 96 of whom rated each task for how often they performed it and how important it was to crop success on a scale from 1 to 5. Finally, the analysis compared the results with the Occupational Information Network, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor database that describes occupations through standardized worker requirements, experience requirements and occupation-specific tasks (Peterson et al., 2001). The closest O*NET matches are agricultural technicians and greenhouse crop workers, though neither captures the technology-heavy environment of an indoor farm.

Core Tasks

Table 1 shows the eight tasks with the highest combined importance and frequency ratings.

Table 1

Core Grow Technician Tasks Rated by Incumbents

Note. Composite ratings. n = 96 technicians.

What the Tasks Show

The ratings reveal a different job from the one in the posting. The most important tasks are monitoring, measuring and diagnosing, not physical farm work. Responding to system alarms is infrequent, but it is rated among the most important tasks because a failed climate system can destroy a room of crops in hours, and on night shifts a technician may be the only person on site to respond. Shift handoff also rated highly; several interviewees described crops lost because an issue noticed on one shift was not passed on. The job is closer to a laboratory technician's than a farmhand's, and the hiring materials have been attracting the wrong applicants.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other Characteristics

Subject matter experts then identified the KSAOs needed for the core tasks and rated whether each was needed at entry or could be learned on the job. Table 2 summarizes them.

Table 2

KSAOs for the Grow Technician Role

Note. Composite results from subject matter expert panels.

Protecting Accuracy

Job analysis information is gathered from people, and people introduce error. Morgeson and Campion (1997) identified social sources of inaccuracy, such as conformity to group views and self-presentation that inflates the importance of one's own duties, and cognitive sources, such as information overload and careless responding when rating long task lists. Several steps addressed these risks. Interviews were held individually rather than in groups to reduce conformity. Observation provided a check on self-reports; for example, technicians rated harvesting as more frequent than observation showed, possibly because it is the most visible part of the job. The survey was kept to 24 tasks, and two repeated items were included to identify careless responders, leading to the removal of five surveys. Ratings from technicians and supervisors were compared, and the few disagreements, mostly about the importance of data recording, were resolved in a follow-up panel.

Role Description

Grow technicians keep indoor crops healthy through a continuous cycle of measuring, diagnosing and adjusting. They monitor and adjust nutrient solutions, inspect plants for disease and deficiencies, record growth and environmental data, seed and transplant crops, respond to climate system alarms, and pass complete information to the next shift. The role requires accurate measurement and record keeping, strict adherence to food safety procedures, calm response to equipment problems and willingness to work rotating nights and weekends. Knowledge of plant nutrition and Brightleaf's systems is taught during a 90-day training period; no prior farming experience is required.

Uses and Next Steps

The analysis supports several decisions. Hiring should screen for measurement accuracy, attention to detail and procedure following, rather than interest in farming. Training should emphasize plant nutrition and alarm response in the first 90 days. Appraisal should include data accuracy and shift handoff quality, which are currently not measured. Because indoor farming technology is changing quickly, the role should be reviewed each year; Sanchez and Levine (2012) argued that analysis of work should look beyond fixed task lists toward the broader roles and requirements that shift as work evolves, which suits a job where new automation may soon take over routine dosing and leave technicians with more diagnosis and problem solving.

References

Morgeson, F. P., & Campion, M. A. (1997). Social and cognitive sources of potential inaccuracy in job analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82(5), 627-655. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.82.5.627

Peterson, N. G., Mumford, M. D., Borman, W. C., Jeanneret, P. R., Fleishman, E. A., Levin, K. Y., Campion, M. A., Mayfield, M. S., Morgeson, F. P., Pearlman, K., Gowing, M. K., Lancaster, A. R., Silver, M. B., & Dye, D. M. (2001). Understanding work using the Occupational Information Network (O*NET): Implications for practice and research. Personnel Psychology, 54(2), 451-492. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2001.tb00100.x

Sanchez, J. I., & Levine, E. L. (2012). The rise and fall of job analysis and the future of work analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 397-425. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100401