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STRUCTURE- OF WORKER FUNCTIONS*Data Pe ,It Things

0 Synthesizing 0 Mentoring 0 Setting-Up1 Coordinating 1 Negotiating1 Precisio.i Working2 Analyzing 2 Instructing 2 Operating-Controlling3 Compiling 3 Supervising 3 Driving-Operating4 Computing 4 Diverting 4 Manipulating5 Copying 5 Persuading 5 Tending6 Comparing 6 Speaking-Signaling 6 Feeding-Offbearing

7 Serving 7 handling8 Taking Instructions-Helping

Note: The hyphenated factors Speaking-Signaling, Taking Instructions-Helping, Setting-Up, Operating-Controlling, Driv-ingOperating, and Feeding-Offbearing are single functions.

The Department of Labor's definitions for these Workers Functions are given in apptndis B.

Work Fields

Work Fields are organizations of specific methods either(1) characteristics of machines, tools, equipment, or workaids, and directed at common technological objectives, or(2) characteristics of the techniques designed to fulfill socio-economic purposes. There are 99 Work Fields which havebeen organized for purposes of classifying all the jobs. . . .

The Work Fields have been organized into groupins (whichare) more or less similar technologically or socioeconom-ically in overall objectives, that is, the getting of materialsand making of products, the processing of information, andthe providing of services. . . .

Machines, Tools, Equipment, and Work Aids

These are the examples of the instruments and deviceswhich are used to carry out th.: specific methods. . . .

(Precise definitions are given for each of the separate partsof this category.)

Materials, Products, Subject Matter, and Services

These include. (a) Basic materials being processed, suchas fabric, metal. or wood; (b) final products being made,such as automobiles and baskets: (c) knowledge being dealtwith or applied, such as insurance or physics; (d) types ofservices, such as barbering or dental services. . . .

Worker Traits

The requirements made on the worker are expressed byWorker iraits factors. These are reflected in the followingLotnponents. (1) Training Time, (2) Aptitudes, (3) Tempera-ments, (4) Interests, and (5) Physical Demands. This bodyof job information provides a sharper focus on the type ofwork involved and the traits demands made on the indi-vidual worker concerned, and is extremely helpful in coun-seling, job development, training, and other activities directedtoward full manpower utilization. Following are the defini-tions of the Worker Trait Components:

Training Time is a combination of General EducationalDevelopment a ,-' )ecific Vocational Preparation requiredfor a worker .juire the knowledge and abilities neces-sary for average satisfactory performance in a specific job.

General Educational Development; This embraces thoseaspects of education (formal and informal) whichcontribute to the worker's: a) reasoning developmentand ability to follow instructions and b) acquisition of"tool" knowledge suLh as language and mathematicalskills.

Specific Vocational Preparation: This is the amount oflearning time specifically directed at a definite voca-tional goal. This training may be acquired in a school,work, military, institutional. or vocational environment.

Aptitudes. Aptitudes are the specific capacities or abilitiesrequired of an individual in order to facilitate the learningof some task or job duty. Following are the aptitudes osed:(1) Intelligence, (2) Verbal, (3) Numerical, (4) Spatial,(5) Form Perception, (6) Clerical Perception, (7) MotorCoordination, (8) Finger Dexterity, (9) Manual Dexterity,(10) Eye-Hand-Foot Coordination, (11) Color Discrimina-tion.

Temperaments. Since "temperament" has a wide rangeof meaning, this range has been limited to "Those per-sonality qualities which remain fairly constant and reveal aperson's intrinsic nature." For the purpose of collecting jobdata, these traits are evaluated in terms of job situationsthat require the worker to possess certain temperamentqualities or to be able to adjust to tests that require them.This consists of adjustment to situations involving:

(1) Variety of duties often characterized by frequentchange.

(2) Repetitive or short cycle operations carried out ac-cording to set procedures or sequences.

(3) Doing things only under specific instructions. allow-ing little or no room for independent action or judgment inw ,rking out job problems.*

(4) Direction, control, and planning of an entire activityor activity of others.

(5) Dealing with people in actual job duties beyondgiving and receiving instructions.

(6) Working alone and apart in physical isolation fromothers, although activity may be integrated with that ofothers.*

(7) Situations involving influencing people in their opin-ions, attitudes, or judgments about ideas or things.

*Temperaments 3 and 6 have been found to have limited utilityand have been deleted from the Handbook for Analyzing Jobs.

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U S DEPARTMENTOF HEALTH.

EDUCATION &WELFARENATIONAL INSTITUTE OF

EDUCATIONTHIS DOCUMENT HAS BtEN REPROOUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROMTHE PERSON ORORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT POINTSOF VIEW OR OPINIONSSTATED DO NOTNECESSARILY REPRESENT OFF'CIAL

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OFEDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY

Job Analysis forHuman Resource Management:A Rsidetv of SelectedResearch and Development

MANPOWER RESEARCHMONOGRAPH trio. 36

This report was prepared byMichael Wilson, of theManpower ManagementInstitute, under Grant No.21-11-73-40 with theManpower Administration,U.S. Department of Labor,under authority of theManpower Development andTraining Act. Researchersundertaking such projectsare encouraged to expresstheir own judgment. Theirinterpretations or viewpointsdo not necessarily representthe official position or policyof the Labor Department. Theorantee is solely responsiblefor the contents of the report.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABORPeter J. Brennan, Secretary

Filanixnver Administration

William H. KolbergAssistant Secretary for Manpower

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to extend his sincere appreciation to all the people whocontributed to the preparation of this document. Significant contributions weremade by Leon Lewis and other Department of Labor researchers and practi-tioners who read and commented on early drafts or provided additionalmaterial. Special thanks also go to Saul Parker, project officer on this grant; tothe project's research assistant, Sally O'Connell, for her aid in compressing muchof the material; and to other project staff for their assistance.

i i i

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CONTENTS

PageACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii

I. INTRODUCTION 1

What Is Job Analysis? 2Applications of Job Analysis Data 2Structure of This Report 4

II. MAJOR JOB ANALYSIS METHODOLOGIES 5

The Department of Labor Methodology 5Functional ill) Analysis 8Health Services Mobility Study 9Position Analysis Questionnaire 11

HI. SELECTED JOB ANALYSES PROJECTS 13

Alpha: A Case Study in Upgrading 13Psychological Assessment of Patrolman Qualifications in

Relation to Field Performance 14Career Opportunities Research and Development _ 14Farm Job Ladder

15Manpower Utilization and Cost Analysis Study of the

Fremont (Calif.) Police Department 15Job Task and Requirements Analysis _ ._ _______ __ 16Job Analysis

17Restructing Paramedical Occupations 18Task Analysis by Selected Criteria 19Task Analysis of Library Jobs in the State of Illinois __ _ _ 19Upward Mobility Through Job RestructuringU.S. Civil

Service Commission 20Vocational Education in Michigan 21

IV. APPLICATIONS OF THE TASK DATA 25Job Restructuring .. 25

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Page

Education and Training 29

Qualifications Examining 35

Performance Evaluation 39

V. NONTECHNICAL ASPECTS OF A JOB ANALYSIS STUDY _ 41

Establishing Goals and Objectives 41

Gaining Support for the Study 42

Staffing the Project 44

Task Analysis Survey 45

VI. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 47

Conclusions 47

Recommendations 48

APPENDIXES

A. The Task Description 53

B. Task Dimensions 57

C. Names and Addresses of Researchers in Job Analysis ___ __ 76D. Selected Listing of Projects Employing The W. E. Upjohn

Institute's Functional Job Adalysis Technique 78

BIBLIOGRAPHY 79

vi

I. INTRODUCTION

A considerable expenditure of funds has beenmade over the last several years by the FederalGovernment and others to research, develop, andapply techniques of job content determination andanalysis for the purpose of hiring, training, and up-grading the disadvantaged. The Manpower Admin-istration of the U.S. Department of Labor hasbeen a leader in this effort, but significant projectshave also been funded by other Federal agencies,particularly the Department of Health, Education,and Welfare, as well as by other governmental andprivate groups. Many, perhaps mos', of these proj-ects have been undertaken in isolation from oneanother. A body of knowledge and experiencenow exists which needs to be critically reviewed sothat the most appropriate and cost-effective use canbe made of it. Without such a review, the mostuseful aspects of this experience might fail to re-ceive the dissemination and close attention amongpractitioners and researchers which they deserve;and as a result, earlier mistakes might be repeated.

The purposes of this monograph are to summa-rize the various job analysis techniques that havebeen developed, to discuss their applications to se-lected human resource management activities, andto suggest priorities for further research and devel-opmental work. The primary focus is on projectsfunded by the Department of Labor's Manpower Ad-ministration through its Office of Manpower Researchand Development. Selected projects sponsored byother organizations are discussed when doing soserves to supplement or clarify the treatment of thebasic issues in job analysis. But thii report doesnot claim to represent a comprehensive discussionof all the significant research and development work

1

in the, field. For example, many projects employingthe Upjohn Institute's Functional Job Analysis(FJA) procedures were funded by the Departmentof Health. Education, and Welfare and are not in-cluded here. The basic components of FJA are de-scribed in this report, however. The primary in-tended audience consists of those practitioners inmanpower programs or personnel offices who mayfind job analysis useful in their efforts to developnew career opportunities and facilitate more effi-cient manpower utilization. Researchers should alsofind the document helpful, as will Federal and Stateofficials charted with responsibility for recommend-ing, approving, overseeing, or evaluating local proj-ects employing job analysis proccdures.

The approach taken here is largely descriptiveand comparative. The different techniques are dis-played as on a smorgasbord, and the reader is en-couraged to select for further study those whichseem best suited to his or her specific needs. Anattempt was made to make the descriptions detailedenough to do justice .o each method under reviewand to give the reader a basis for determiningwhether further inquiry is warranted. However, thismonograph is not a how-to-do-it manual. Personsconsidering using any of the analysis techniques dis-cussed here should contact the researchers directly.These techniques are still evolving and often eventhe most recent published documents contain meth-odological aspects which are outdated. A list ofresearchers' mailing addresses is included in ap-pendix C.

Interspersed throughout the text are comments in-tended to illuminate similarities and differencesamong the various methods of analysis, suggest ap-propriate uses for them, and identify their relative

strengths and weaknesses. No attempt was made,however, to evaluate these methods in any system-atic or scientifically rigorous way. Such an attemptwould have been beyond the resources of thisstudy. The determination as to which techniquesare most appropriate for each occupation, in vari-ous organizational settings and for each application,represents a logical next step in the developmentof job analysis as a human resource managementtool.

What Is Job Analysis?

Job analysis may be defined as any process ofcollecting, ordering, and evaluating work- or worker-related information. It is not an end in itself butrather a means to any of several ends. The pur-poses for which an analysis is conducted largely de-termine the types of information gathered and theways in which that information is arranged. Thus, astudy whose objective is to develop jobs for thephysically handicapped may use different scales,highlighting different aspects of the task data, fromone which is intended to assist in establishing a posi-tion classification system. The information may re-flect job content, expressed in terms of specific workactivities and procedures, or it may consist of theworker characteristics (skills, knowledge, aptitudes,tolerances, etc.) required for adequate job perform-ance. In some instances, both job-oriented andworker-oriented information may be useful.

An analysis may have either a narrow e- a broadfocus. In the first instance, for example, a studymay be conducted of single job classifications, or asmall group of related classifications, withir a spe-cific organizational setting such as a factory or anoffice. The results of such a study would be de-signed for implementation solely within the or-ganization in which the analysis was conducted. Aproject with a broader focus may involve the analy-sis of entire occupat ons, such as nurses or engineers,or functional areas, such as law ,enforcement. Thestudy would be conducted in one or more represen-tative organizations for t',1:: purpose of developingmodel staffing patterns, uealifications requirements,training programs, etc. These models could then beadapted for use in any crganization which employsworkers in one or more of the occupations analyzedor performs a function which has been studi,d.

2

Applications of JobAnalysis Data

The projects under consideration in this reporthave addressed themselves to several applicationsof job analysis. A large part of the author's con-cern is with the kinds cf information which the proj-ect staffs have sought to gather to accomplish their

objectives and the methodological tools whichthey have developed, adapted, or borrowed in or-der to obtain that information. The following arebrief discussions of seine of the uses to which jobanalysis data can be put.

Job restructuringA review and analysis of jobcontent data can illuminate situations in which em-ployees with given levels of expertise are perform-ing work significantly above or below those levels orhave been given duties which are essentially un-related to the primary content of their jobs. Thesesituations, which often develop gradually and inresponse to conditions which no longer exist, canresult in highly inefficient use of manpower. Jobrestructuring is also an effective procedure for elimi-nating dead end jobs which inhibit employee develop-ment, weaken employee morale, and contribute tohigh turnover rates. The task statements can iden-tify individuz.' worker activities that can be trans-ferred from one job to another. In addition, whenthe statements are rated on the appropriate scales,managers have valuable information concerning the

complexity of each task and its appropriateness forreallocation to another job.

Training program developmentToo often, thecontent of agency training programs is based on in-

tuitive perceptions, or misperceptions, of the skillsand knowledges required for adequ ate performancein a given job. With the rapidly changing nature of

many jobs, however, it is no longer possible to

assume that employees have the same trainingneeds they have always had. The task statementscan identify specific skill and knowledge require-ments for each job and aid the trainer in develop-ing behavioral objectives for his trainees.

Qualifications standards developmentSincemany administrators lack an adequate understand-ing of the precise nature of the work performed intheir organizations, they frequently rely on artificial,and largely irrelevant. criteria when preparing en-try and promotional requirements. These require-

8

ments often screen out applicants who would becapable of doing the job and allow inappropriatecandidates to slip by. Properly identified and ana-lyzed task data will give administrators a betteridea of precisely what kinds of work experienceand educational backgrounds should be required forboth entry into the organization and promotionwithin it.

Test developmentWritten tests have come un-der increasingly heavy criticism as being discrimina-tory and failing to predict employee performanceaccurately. In recent decisions, the courts have ruledthat a written test which cannot be proved to bejob related and which has a discriminatory impactis in violation of the law. In any event, an employer'sinterests are best served by selection procedureswhich identify those applicants most capable of do-ing the job, not simply those most adept at takingtests. Since the task data accurately reflect the workcurrently being performed in an organization, or theskills and knowler.:ge required to perform the work,tests or other selection procedures based on thesedata can readily be shown to be job related.

Performance evaluationThe evaluation of em-ployee performance can and should be used for agreat many personnel management purposes. Regu-lar evaluations can identify exemplary work to berewarded in the performer and encouraged in otheremployees. They can also identify substandard per-formance which may necessitate special training orcounseling Evaluation is thus a primary tool for in-suring that management decisions and policies areproperly implemented throughout the organization.Employee performance evaluation also plays a cen-tral role in the selection process. Without an accu-rate way of identifying the superior, the adequate,and the inadenuate worker, it is impossible to tellwhether an organization's entry examinations are infact selecting the best candidates. If the examina-tions are valid, they should correlate positively withsubsequent performance evaluation; i.e., unlessthose individuals with high initial test scores receivehigh performance ratings, the tests cannot be saidto be valid predictors of success on the job.

For all its importance to managers, performanceevaluation is often conducted in a highly perfunc-tory manner with results of dubious usefulness. Themajor problem, again, is the lack of job-relatedcriteria, In many cases. performance standards areexccssively vague and refer to personal characteris-tics felt to be in some way desirable. Such quali-

ties as "initiative" and "reliability" may or may notbe interpreted in the same way by different super-visors and, more important, may or may not be im-portant to adequate job performance. Accurate jobcontent identification and analysis, on the otherhand, can provide the groundwork for job-relatedand results-oriented evaluation criteria.

Preparation of accurate job descr;ptionsSincethe responsibilities and activities of most organiza-tions change over time, even job descriptionswhich were once accurate can easily become ob-solete and thus useless to managers. Data from ajob analysis, on the other hand, are based on recentobservations of, and interviews with, employees asthey perform on their jobs. Accurate job descrip-tions can help guarantee that employees, supervis-ors, and managers share a common understandingof the duties and responsibilities of each job.

Employee counselingWhen agency personnelofficials have detailed information concerning thebasic content, qualifications requirements, and skillrequirements of every job in the organization, theyart able to give comprehensive career counselingto agency employees. Both entry-level and senioremployees can benefit from information concern-ing the career alternatives open to them within theagency.

Identification of safety hazardsThe Occupa-tional Safety and Health Act reflects a growingnational concern for eliminating hazardous workingconditions. Job analysis can be used to identify cur-rent and potential dangers in job situations.

Other usesJob analysis data can also be usedin a number of additional areas. Among them arewage and salary administration, job developmentfor the disadvantaged or the physically handi-capped, affirmative action program planning and im-plementation, manpower planning, and establish-ment of management information systems.

It should be emphasized that the basic data froma job analysis will not automatically result in jobrestructuring, training program development, or theother applications discussed above. Often, the skillsof other personscurriculum specialists or psycho-metricians, for exampleare required. At the veryleast, the data must be reviewed by agency admin-istrato.s or their staffs, using commonsense and anunderstanding of special agency needs, constraints,or priorities.

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1

Also, the data will nut remain accurate and use-ful for an indefinite period. As agency goals, ob-jectives, and priorities are altered, as internalreorganizations are accomplished, as technologies re-quiring new skills and work procedures are devel-oped, the basic task structure of the irganizationwill change. Thus the task data must Le reviewedand revised periodically to insure against basing cru-cial personnel decisions on obsolete information.

Structure of This Rep :rt

The remainder of this introduction is designed toaid the reader who lacks the time to read the entirereport and wants to locate sections of particular in-terest.

Chapter II introduces the major job analysismethodologies, beginning with the approach devel-oped and used by the employment service of theU.S. Department of Labor. Also included are TheW. E. Upjohn Institute's Functional Job Analysis,the procedure developed by Eleanor Gilpatrick andher colleagues at the Health Services MobilityStudy, and the Position Analysis Questionnaire de-veloped by Ernest McCormick and others at Pur-due University's Occapational Research Cen'.:tr.

Chapter III summarizes several individu.:1 proj-ects employing job analysis for human resource man-agement purposes. Each is discussed in terms of itsgoals and objectives. its major methodological char-acteristics, and its significant results. Chapter IVdeals with four applications of job analysis datajob restructuring, education and training, qualifica-.ions examining, and performance evaluation. Thefindings and procedures of many of the research ef-forts described in the two preceding chapters arereviewed.

Chapter V covers some of the critical, nontechni-cal aspects of a job analysis. such as staffing the

study-and obtaining support for it. Also included arethe results of a poll conducted by the ManpowerManagement Institute of graduates of its job anal-ysis training sessions. These results provide in-sights into some of the problems faced by practi-tioners attempting to conduct analyses. Chapter VIdiscusses some of the major issues in job analysisand presents recommendations for future prioritiesin research and development

Appendixes A and B discuss in some detail cer-tain technical aspects of job analysisvarious for-mats for writing task descriptions and scales for usein analyzing the data. They should be reviewed bythe reader who is seriously contemplating a job anal-ysis in his or her organization. Appendix C con-tains mailing addresses of the researchers whosework was discussed in the report. Appendix D con-sists of a list, prepared by Ann Holi of The W. E.Upjohn Institute fcr Employment Research, givingbibliographic information on project, using Func-tional Job Analysis. The report concludes with abibliography.

The decision to place the discussions of task iden-tification, description. and analysis in appendixeswas made primarily to streamline the main body ofthe report, removing from it the more technical as-pects of job analysis. It was felt that the readerlooking for a general introduction to the fieldwould be most interested in overviews of the prin-cipal methodologies, summaries of significant proj-ects, and discussions of the ways in which jobanalysis data have been used to improve personnelmanagement and career development.

On the other hand, the reader faced with makingsome hard decisions on the most appropriate analy-tical procedures for his or her particular needs isadvised to read the technical appendixes carefully.Job analysis is a unitary process. It is impossibleto make valid judgments on the value of a study'sfinal product without understanding the ways inwhich the basic data were described and the di-mensions on which they were evaluated.

4-1.0

II. MAJOR JOB ANALYSIS METHODOLOGIES

This chapter ontains descriptions of four ap-proaches to job analysis. The Department of Labormethodology is discussed first bec tuse of its wide-spread use and bec ise an undLr..tanding of itsconcepts should be maul in learnin:; the principlesof the other techniques.

The Department of LaborMethodology (26, 50, 52)*

The most extensively researched and widely usedjob analysis methodology in the United States is

that develoned by the U.S. Department of Labor.It is used for various purposes and to varying de-grees in each of the State employment services andby several manpower programs funded by the LaborDepartment. Many State employment security agen-cies give training in the methodology to govern-mental and private sector personnel. Most of theresearch and development projects discussed in thisreport used either the Labor Department method-ology or a variation on it.

The definitive history of the development of thismethodology has yet to be written. However, a La-bor Department document prepared in 1970, "JobAnalysis in the United States Training and Employ-ment Service," traces the evolution of the method-ology, provides some rationale for the shape it tookover the years, and describes each of its compon-

The numbers in parentheses refer to items in the bibliog.raphy.

ents. The following paragraphs are excerpted :romthat document (26).

In the United States Training and Employment Service,job analysis is defined as the activity involved with dete,mining what the worker does in relation to Data, Pe 1ple. andThings: the methodologies and techniques employed; thematerials, products, subject matter, and services involved;machines, tools, equipment, and work aids used; and thetraits required of the worker for satisfactory performance.

With the passage of the Wagner-Peyser Act inJune 1933, there came into being an EmploymentService requiring the registration of individuals in theworking population according to their occupationalcharacteristics on a scale unprecedented in the historyof the country and probably in the history of theworld. The Act provided for the development of thepresent nationwide public employment service throughthe creation of the United States Employment Serviceand the establishment of the temporary National Re-employment Service.

From a broad point of view, the responsibilitiesimposed upon the public employment system by theWagner-Peyser Act have as their objective: (1) Thefa,ilitation of the movement of unemployed personsinto profitable employment. (2) the provision of occu-pational guidance to individuals seeking a vocationalfield and to employers having special recruitment prob-lems, and t3) reduction of the waste of trial and errorrecruitment through taking ;nto account, first, theworker qualifications that are necessary to successfuljob performance and, second, recruiting relationshipsbetween occupations.'

' William H. Stead and W. Earl Masincup. "The Occupa-tional Research Program of the United States EmploymentService." Public Administration, 1942.

It soon became apparent that. in order for such anationwide employment servii.e to arry out these missions,there was a specific and urgent need for a comprehensivebody of occupational information which could be used asbasic reference and operational data. To answer this need,the 0u-optional Researh Program of the U.S. Employment Service was initiated. A group of individuals with wideexperience in personnel and occupational research work inindustrial, governmental, and educational institutions were

5

4 4

Now the U.S. Employment Service.

invited to act in an advisory capacity to this new program.This group was designated as the Technical Board for theOccupational Research Program of the United States Em-ployment Service. From their experiences in the field ofoccupational analysis and the development of selectiontechniques, the members of the Board felt that two broadprinciples should govern the planning of such a project.

I. The Program should provide for an initial period ofvery extensive gathering and processing of data to providean overall pcture oC the occupations that exist in theAmerican economy together with a standardized concept ofthe nature of each oczunazion.

2. All data should be gathered from original sourcesthrough the obse,vatit 1 of workers in the working environ-ment in order to rer-ct occupational facts as they existrather than to build .0 an academic statement of an idealoccupational structur,.

In the initial stases if the Program. techniques weredeveloped fur identifying 4nd describing occupational anal>sus information significant in bringing together a persal anda job. These techniques evoked into a "job analysis methodulogy." which was presented in a series of instructionalmanuals fur internal use over approximately a 10 yearperiod. Finally. in 1944 a basic Ts-tuning and RrfcraitCManual fur Job Analysis was published. From that date,this manual and its revision in 1965 have screed as a basicguide for the collection and recording of source data fundamental to the development of occupational analysis informstion and the tools based upon it.*

The job analysis techniques developed durirg this periodreflected the job market situation of the times. that of asurplus of qualified workers and a shortage of jobs. Con-sequently, the data collected emphasized the tasks (the whathow. and who of the job) and placed little emphasis on thecharacteristics required of the worker. On the standard _lobAnalysis Schedule, the form for recording the data. c.n1three items--expenence, training, and performance requirements (responsibilities. jug knowledge. mental application.and dexterity and accuracy)referred to the qualif;cationsa worker must bring to the job.

By the 1940's the economy. includino the job market.had radically changed, rather than thc surplus of qualifiedwor!ters of the Depression years. there nuts was a scarcityof workers, and a surplus of jobs needing to be filled. whichdemanded a change an hiring practices The urgency wasfor recruiting fur defense jobs. Highly selectise recruitmenton the basis of experience had passed out of the picture.acceptance inexperienced workers with potential for thejobs became a Lummun practice. In order to utilize everyas adable manpower source. it became increasingly imp.rtant for recruitment and placement personnel its be

provided with es!mates of the characteristics or traits whichtoe applicant sh,uld possess in order to learn to performthe job. With the nut fully qualified (entry) worker becoming important as a manpower resource. thc necessity -.rosefor a system of evaluating jobs and workers' potential onthe basis of traits requirements.

The first attempt to meet this need was the expansion ofthe Job Analysis Schedule to include two attachments:(I) A form for recording the Physical Demands of jobsand (2) a Worker Characteristics Form for recording the"personal traits" required of the worker Each job analyzedwas analyzed in terms of significant items on these twoattachments, as well as those on the schedule itself

This manual was superseded by the Handbook for AnalyzingJabs, published in 1972. (52)

The next attempt to provide Worker Traits informationappeared in P-tri IV of the Dictionary of OccupationalTitles. 1944. This document was entitled "Entry Occupa-tional Classification" and was developed for use in counsel-ing and placing entry workers Part IV defined entry workersas "individuals who must find employment on some basis

other than prior work experience or fully qualifying train-ing." More specifically, they are those individuals who arenot fully qualified to compete with experienced applicantsfor reterral to specific occupations: and those who are fullyqualified in a specific occupation but who must or wish toenter some field of work in which they do not havecompetency.

This document contained groups of jobs which had beenanalyzed and were described in terms of "personal traits,"examples of which were. Ability to relate abstract ideas.ability to plan, memory for detail, facility with langt.age.dexterity and muscular control: persuasiveness; liking forpeople. etc. The information in Part IV proved so usefulthat in 1949 a project was as initiated fur do.eloc 'Tientof a new classification system for jobs that would Teacctall significant facts about a job. particularly the two bawhat the worker does and the requirements made on himOne of the first steps was to categorize. define, and stand-ardize traits required of the worker. and to provide manual-Ind techniques and Instructions for determining WorkPerformed and Worker Traits requirements. This activitybecame known as the Functional Occupational ClassificationProject. A later stage of the Project included the applicationof concepts and procedures in the manuals to the analysisof a selective sample of 4.000 jobs. Some of the resultingdata were released in our publication. Estimans of WorAcrTraits Requirements Jot ,.000 Jobs ns Defined an the Dit-:lunar% ot Otu,pauonul Talcs, 1956. his work was helpfulin the research and development of the ocutipatita al classification structure for the third edition of the Dictionary ofdcriipational Titles

The Functional Occupational Classification Project alsoprovided the data alum which to base a new methodologyfur job analysis. Fur the past 10 years this methodology hasbeen used expetimentally in the Occupational Analysis FieldCentert, and Occupational Analysis Speual Projects that arelocated in various parts of the country and function underthe direction of State Etoployment Security agencies with:ehnical direction from the Di ision of Occupational Analy-st-. and Career Information in the Manpower AdministrationOne of the basic nvissioris of these Centers and SpecialProjects is to collect current job analysis data fur all jobsin the economy. and the application of this "new" method()logy in this activity has provided for structuring the collection of the data as well as expanding the information onall facets of a job's makeup, At present there are finecategories of information that must be in orderto meet the requirements for a complete analysis of a job.t I Worker Functions, (2) Work Fields. (3) Machines. Tools.Equipment. and Work Aids, t4i Materials, Products. SubjectMatter. and Services, and (5) Worker Traits

Worker Functions

Ail jobs involve a relationship to Data. People, andThings in some degree. These relationships are expressedby 24 Worker Functions and a combination of the highestfunctions which the worker performs in relation to Data.People, and Things expresses the total level of complexityof the job.

6 12

STRUCTURE OF WORKER FUNCTIONSData Pt 'it Things

0 Synthesizing 0 Mentoring 0 Setting-Up1 Coordinating I Negotiating1 Precisio,i Working2 Analyzing 2 Instructing 2 Operating-Controlling3 Compiling 3 Supervising 3 Driving-Operating4 Computing 4 Diverting 4 Manipulating5 Copying 5 Persuading 5 Tending6 Comparing 6 Speaking-Signaling 6 Feeding-Offbearing7 Serving 7 handling

8 Taking Instructions-HelpingNote: The hyphenated factors Speaking-Signaling, Taking Instructions-Helping, Setting-Up,

ing- Operating, and Feeding- Offbearing are single functions.

The Denartment of Labor's definitions for these Workers Functions arc given in anytridix B.

Work Fields

Work Fields are organizations of specific methods either(U characteristics of machines, tools, equipment, or workaids, and directed at common technological objectives, or12) characteristics of the techniques designed to fulfill socio-economic purposes. There are 99 Work Fields which havebeen organized fel- purposes of classifying all the jobs. . . .

The Work Fields have been organized into groupings (whichare) more or less similar technologically or socioeconom-ically in overall objectives, that is, the getting of materialsand making of products, the processing of information, andthe providing of services. . . .

Machines, Tools, Equipment, and Work Aids

These are the examples of the instruments and deviceswhich are used to carry out the specific methods. . . .

(Precise definitions are given for each of the separate partsof this category.)

Materials, Products, Subject Matter, and Services

These include- (a) Basic materials being processed, suchas fabric, metal, or wood, (b) final products being made,such as automobiles and baskets: (c) knowledge being dealtwith or applied, such as insurance or physics; (d) types ofservices, such a', barbering or dental services. . . .

Worker Traits

The requirements made on the worker are expressed byWorker fraits factors. These are reflected in the followingcomponents. (I) Training Time, (2) Aptitudes, 13) Tempera-ments, (4) Interests, and (5) Physical Demands. This bodyof job information provides a sharper focus on the type ofwork involved and the traits demands made on the indi-vidual worker concerned, and is extremely helpful in coun-seling, job development, training, and other activities directedtoward full manpower utilization. Following arc the defini-tions of the Worker Trait Components:

Training Titne is a combination of General EducationalDevelopment a,' lecific Vocational Preparation requiredfor a worker ..juire the knowledge and abilities neces-sary for average satisfactory performance in a specific job.

Operating-Controlling, Driv-

General Educational Development: This embraces thoseaspects of education (formal and informal) whichcontribute to the worker's. a) reasoning developmentand ability to follow instructions and b) acquisition of"tool" knowledge such as language and mathematicalskills.

Specific Vocational Preparation: This is the amount oflearning time specifically directed at a definite voca-tional goal. This training may be acquired in a school,work, military, institutional, or vocational environment.

Aptitudes. Aptitudes are the specific capacities or abilitiesrequired of an individual in order to facilitate the learningof some task or job duty. Following are the aptitudes used:(1) Intelligence, (2) Verbal, (3) Numerical, (4) Spatial,(5) Form Perception, (6) Clerical Perception, (7) MotorCoordination, (8) Finger Dexterity, (9) Manual Dexterity,(10) Eye-I-land-Foot Coordination, (11) Color Discrimina-tion.

Temperaments. Since "temperament" has a wide rangeof meaning, this range has been limited to: "Those per-sonality qualities which remain fairly constant and reveal aperson's intrinsic nature." For the purpose of collecting jobdata, these traits are evaluated in terms of job situationsthat require the worker to possess certain temperamentqualities or to be able to adjust to tests that require them.This consists of adjustment to situations involving:

(1) Variety of duties often characterized by frequentchange.

(2) Repetitive or short cycle operations carried out ac-cording to set procedures or sequences.

(3) Doing things only under specific instructions, allow-ing little or no room for independent action or judgment inw irking out job problems

(4) Direction, control, and planning of an entire activityor activity of others.

(5) Dealing with people in actual job duties beyondgiving and receiving instructions.

(6) Working alone and apart in physical isolation fromothers, although activity may be integrated with that ofothers.

(7) Situations involving influencing people in their opin-ions, attitudes, or judgments about ideas or things.

*Temperaments 3 and 6 have been found to have limited utilityand have been deleted from the Handbook for Analyzing !ohs.

7

1.3

(8) Performing adequately under stress when confrontedwith the critical or unexpected or taking risks.

(9) Evaluation (of information, generalizations, value erdecisions) against sensory and/or judgmental criteria.

(0) The evaluation (of information, generalizations, stand-ards, or decisions) against measurable and/or verifiablecriteria.

(X) Interpretation of feelings, Ideas, or facts in termsof personal viewpoint.

(Y) Precise attainment of set limits, tolerances, or stand-ards.

Interests. The factors of this component are concernedwith situations involving a preference for activities dealingwith, concerned with, involving, or of:

1(a) Dealing with things and objects vs. 1(b) People andthe communication of ideas

2(a) Business contacts with people vs. 2(b) Scientific andtechnical nature

3(a) Routine, concrete, organized nature vs. 3(b) Abstractand creative natuie

4(a) Working for people for their presumed good as in thesocial welfare sense or for dealing with people andlanguage in social situations vs. 4(b) Nonsocial innature and are carried on in relation to processes,machines, and techniques

5(a) Prestige or esteem of others vs. 5(b) Tangible, produc-tive satisfaction

Physical Demands. Physical Demands analysis is con-cerned with the physical requirements made on a workerby the job. rather than the physical capacities which theworker may possess. These physical demands are made upof i l) the Physical Activities which the job requires and(2) the Environmental Conditions under which the job isperformed. They consist of the following six Physical Activ-ities factors and the seven Environmental Conditionsfactors:

Physical Activities Factors(1) Strength

(a) Lifting, Carrying. Pushing, and/or Pulling(b) Sedentary. Light, Medium. Heavy. Very Heavy

(2) Climbing and, or Balancing(3) Stooping. Kneeling, Crouching, ancPor Crawling(4) Reaching. Handling. Fingering, and/or Feeling(5) Talking and/or Hearing(6) SeeingEnyt.onmental Conditions Factors(1) Work Location(2) Extreme Cold With or Without Temperature

Changes(3) Extreme Heat With or 'W,thot't Temperature

Changes(4) Wet and/or HumidCO Noise and/or Vibration(6) Hazards(7) Atmospheric Conditions

The Labor Department publication, Handbookfor Analyzing lobs (52). contains the most com-prehensive and current description of the Depart-ment's approach to job analysis. It is all essentialdocument for anyone using this methodology.

8

Functional Job Analysis(11, 55)

Functional Job Analysis (FJA) is a technique de-veloped by Dr. Sidney Fine of The W. E. UpjohnInstitute for Employment Research. Key aspects ofFJA, such as the Worker Functions and GeneralEducational Development scales, are derived fromthe Department of Labor method, but there havealso been significant changes and additions. Theyinclude the integration of job analysis with systemsanalysis, the modification of the Worker Functionsscales, and the addition of new scales.

According to FJA, "the systems approach be-gins by examining the purpose or goal of the agencyin which the jobs occur." (55, p. 9) Once the goalsare known, the analyst determines what must bedone to achieve them. This process inciudes settingspecific objectives (defined as "a restatement of apurpose or a goal in relation to the realities of aspecific local situation, taking into considerationthe constraints of time, money, manpower geog-raphy, and consumer response"); identifying sub-systems ("a general grouping of procedures ortechnologies required to implement a specific ob-jective"); and identifying the specif tasks whichneed to be done to accomplish the objective of eachsubsystem.

FJA is concerned with identifying both the wayin which work is currently performed in an organi-zation and the tasks which serve to advance the or-ganization's objectives. regardless of whether theyare currently being performed in the organization.Thus, a data base is established which not only re-flects present realities but may also indicate newtasks.

In Functional Job Analysis, the Department ofLabor's Worker Functions scales have been modi-fied somewhat. The Department's People scale hasbeen expanded to include functions which are de-scriptive of work performed in the rapidly expand-ing human services fields. The Data scale has alsobeen expanded slightly, and certain levels in all threescales include more than one function each. Finally.the numerical coding system used for the WorkerFunctions scales has been reversed so that level 1

represents the least complex relationship. This cod-ing system is now in agreement with the GeneralEducational Development system. The FJA Worker

1.4

Functions scales are discussed further in appendixB of this report.

Functional Job Analysis uses a Scale of WorkerInstructions that indicates the level of discretion aworker has in the performance of a task. It is aneight-level scale and covers situations ranging fromthose in which "inputs, outputs, tools, equipment,and procedures are all specified" to those in which"information and 'or direction comes to the workerin terms of needs (tactical, organizational, strate-gic. financial) " The Scale of Worker Instructionsis highly correlated with MA's Data (Worker Func-tions) and reasoning (General Educational Devel-opment) scales; hence tasks rated high on one arealso given high ratings on the others.

Functional Job Analysis uses the Worker Func-tions scales to determine not only the level of com-plexity of a task but also its orientation to data,people, and things. Orientation is expressed in per-centages and provides a means of measuring theworker's relative involvement, when performing agiven task, in each of the three worker functions.Thus. a task which involves analyzing (Data level4), negotiating (People level 6), and handling(Things level 1) might have the following orien-tation: Data, 40 percent; People. 55 percent; andThings, 5 percent Since, according to FJA, everytask calls for the worker to function in relation todata, people, and things, the minimum orientationfor each primitive factor is 5 percent. Thus, for ex-ample, no task can be oriented completely to dataand people, to the exclusion of things.

Functional Job Analysis is described in severalpublications of The W. E. Upjohn Institute for Em-ployment Research The most recent and compre-hensive of these is An Introduction to FunctionalJob Analysis: A Scaling of Selected Tasks from theSocial Welfare Field by Sidney A. Fine andWretha W. Wiley (I I).

Health Services MobilityStudy (20, 23)

Since its inccption in 1967, the Health ServicesMobility Study (HSMS) has addressed itself to therelated problems of health manpower shortages,scarce educational resources, lack of career mobilityfor health workers, and redundancy in credentialing

9

requirements. Under the direction of Dr. EleanorGilpatrick, the study set as its long-range objectivethe solution of these problems through the design ofjob ladders which would build systematically onlearnable, related skills and knowledges. Other ob-jectives are to plan educational ladders parallelingthe job ladders and design performance evaluationinstruments. Since implementation of these laddersand use of the instruments are of primary impor-tance to the project staff, the work of the HSMS hasbeen conducted within operating health care de-livery institutions, and the full cooperation of prac-titioners has been sought.

Phase I of the study consisted of a literature re-view, a study of the occupational structure of theNew York City Municipal Hospital System, a sur-vey of the attitudes of Licensed Practical Nursesin the municipal system toward upgrading training,and initial work on a task analysis methodology.Phase II included further development of themethodology, along with 'kid testing and revising it.Methodological research and development continuedthrough phase II. In addition, a pilot study of theentire HSMS procedure was conducted at the Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr., Health Center in NewYork. The pilot study covered 12 job titles, rangingfrom professional positions such as Radiologist andObstetrician-Gynecologist to EKG Technician andDark Room Aide.

According to the HSMS analysis of personnel pat-terns in the health industry, the most serious ofmanpower shortages exist near the top of the vari-ous occupational ladders, in the jobs requiring highskill and knowledge levels. while the preponderanceof employees occupy lower level positions. Unfor-tunately, a variety of factors effectively bar theseemployees from a,:vancing to fill the upper levelvacancies. Among them are:

Credentialing requirements calling for for-mal, accredited training which mayor maynothe job related. These requirementsusu: : give no credit for previous exper-ien-, or training in lower level health careroi tions or in related health specialties.

A -hortage of educational and training op-p tuaities, generated in part by the execs-iv( demands caused by the aforementioned

narrow and 2xclusionary credentialing require-ments.

Preconceived notions about "appropriate"jobs for women, with the result that they are

1S

typically confined to certain occupational areassuch as nursing and food service work.

Early in the project, the HSMS staff conducted aliterature review of job analysis methodologies Sincethey concluded that no existing procedure was ca-pable of producing the basic data required for ac-complishing project objectives, they began work ondeveloping a new technique.

The HSMS methodology was designed to identifythe skill and knowledge requirements for a largenumber of health jobs so that similarities in theserequirements could be used to construct job lad-ders which minimized reliance on education andtraining. Such training as was required, as well asperformance standards, would also be based onthe skill and knowledge data.

After devising their own, very precise definitionfor a task (which is discussed in greater detail inappendix A of this report), the HSMS staff identi-fied 16 learnable skills, which can be grouped into6 major categoriesmanual, interpersonal. lan-guage, decisionmaking, general intellectual, and re-sponsibility. Scales reflecting different levels of pro-ficiency were developed for each of these skillsEach task is rated on each scale as well as on anadditional scale for task frequency.

Another part of the HSMS methodology is theKnowledge Classification System and KnowledgeScale. While all types of information can be con-sidered knowledge, the HSMS system is confined tothose subject matter categories having several levelsof complexity, requiring a learning effort beyondeveryday experience and the usual maturation proc-ess, and having direct applicability to competenttask performance. The Knowledge Scale is similarin concept to the skill scales. Once it is determinedthat a given task requires knowledge in a pa-ucularsubject area, the appropriate level is determinedby using two criteria. breadth of knowledge anddepth of understanding.

The HSMS data collection process began with theanalysts becoming oriented to the organizationalunit and functiclal area being studied. Informationabout the nature and purpose of the study was dis-seminated to all concerned persons, includingworkers, supervisors, managers, and union officials.Tasks were identified primarily through interviewswith the performer. although supplementary datawere obtained through observation. Analysts workedin teams of at least two each, and all team mem-

10

bers had to agree on the contents and dimensionsof each task. The task data were reviewed by theproject director for completeness, clarity of lan-guage, and conformity to HSMS definitions and byfunctional area resource people for technical accu-racy. The teams also determined the skill andknowledge level of each task and submitted theirratings to the project director, and in most casesresource people, for review.

The task identification and analysis process re-sulted in a very large number of individual piecesof information. A computer-based, adva:;_:t I formof factor analysis was used to structure his infor-mation in such a way as to further the study'sobjectives. Tasks were grouped into families on thebasis of similarities in their skill and knowledge re-quirements. These task families became the basisfor individual jobs, which were then arrangedinto job ladders. Again, skill and knowledge re-quirements were used to construct the job ladders.As individuals progress up a ladder, they refine andincrease their current skills and knowledge andacquire new ones, largely through work experiencesupplemented by education and training.

Current HSMS activities include translating thebasic task data into curriculum objectives and per-formance standards.

The Health Services Mobility Study has pro-duced a voluminous amount of written material re-lating to its techniques, instruments, objectives, andfindings. As can be seen from this brief description,the methodology is a rigorous one, requiring staffskills and financial resources beyond the reach ofmost organizations. It should be noted that the pur-pose of the study is to develop model job and cur-riculum ladders and performance evaluation instru-ments which _can be implemented, with certainadaptations, in individual health care organizations.Dr. Gilpatrick and her colleagues did not set out todesign a methodology capable of being used, in itsentirety, by local personnel management or man-power development specialists. Nevertheless, indi-vidual aspects of the methodologythe task defini-tion or the skill scales, for examplemay besusceptible to local adaptation and application.

The most recent HSMS publication, The Designof Curriculum Guidelines for Educational LaddersUsing Task Data (23), contains both a descriptionof the curriculum design procedure and a summaryof the entire methodology.

Position AnalysisQuestionnaire (28, 29, 31)

The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) hasbeen developed over the past several years by Dr.Ernest J. McCormick and his colleagues at PurdueUniversity's Occupational Research Center.

PAQ draws the distinction between job-orientedand worker-oriented job elements. Ti e former are"descriptions of job content that have a dominantassociation with, and typically characterize, the`technological' aspects of Obs and commonly reflectwhat is achieved by the worker. On the other hand.worker-oriented elements are those that tend moreto characterize the generalized human behaviors in-volved PAQ deals with worker-oriented elements,"since they offer some possibility of serving asbridges or common denominators between andamong jobs of very different technologies."

The PAQ consists of 189 "job elements." Theseelements are not tasks, since they do not refer tospecific worker activities in a given technologicalcontext. They represent, instead, "generalized hu-man behaviors involved in work." The followinglist includes the major divisions and subdivisionsof the PAQ with the number of elements in eachgiven in parentheses. A representative job elementis given after each sutdivision.

Information Input (35)Sources of job information (20) . Use of

written materials.

Discrimination and perceptual activities(15): Estimating speed of moving ob-jects.

Mediation Processes (14)

Decisionmaking and reasoning (2): Rea-soning in problem solving.

Information processing (6): Encoding/decoding.

Use of stored information (6): Usingmathematics.

Work Output (50)

Use of physical devices (29): Use ofkeyboard devices.

Integrative manual activities (8): Han-dling objects/materials.

General body activities (7): Climbing.

Manipulation/coordination activities (6):Hand Warm manipulation.

Interpersonal Activities (36)Communications (10): Instructing.Interpersonal relationships (3): Serving/

catering.Personal contact (15) Personal contact

with public customers.Supervision and coordination (8): Level

of supervision received.

Work Situation and Job Context (18)Physical working conditions (12): Low

temperature.Psychological and sociological aspects (6):

Civic obligations.

Miscellaneous Aspects (36)Work schedule, method of pay, and ap-

parel (21): Irregular hours.Job Demands (12): Specified (controlled)

work pace.Responsibility (3): Responsibility for

safety of others.

Each job element is rated on an appropriatescale such as "importance." "extent of use," or"time." Some elements are to be rated on theiron unique scales. Several are to be rated onlywith regard to whether they are applicable to a givenjob.

Another aspect of the PAQ is a list of 76 attri-butes or human traits which may be required in agiven work setting. Some of these attributes may beaptitudes. while others may be situational in the sensethat they require the worker to adapt to a specificsituation. The attribute list contains several itemsobviously adapted from certain Department of La-bor Worker Traits (specificially Aptitudes, Tempera-ments, and Interests), while others are similar tocertain components of J. P. Guilford's Structure ofIntellect described in The Nature of Human In-telligence (17). The attributes were rated in termsof their relevance to each job element to arrive atattribute Profiles for each element.

Extensive statistical research with the PAQ hasresulted in the identification of 32 basic job dimen-sions. These are groups of job elements which tendto cluster together in specific jobs. This and otherresearch related to the PAQ, along with computerprograms, has been made available to interestedorganizations. The principal us.s of the data are inthe areas of test validation, developing job familiesor progressions, and wage and salary classification.

III. SELECTED JOB ANALYSIS PROJECTS

This section contains several brief discussions ofselected projects employing job analysis procedures.Included are those projects funded by the LaborDepartment's Manpower Administration through itsOffice of Manpower Research and Development forwhich job analysis methodological information wasavailabl-, plus certain research efforts funded byother sources to use job analysis for human resourcemanagement pu-poses. The projects are discussed interms of their general methodological approach, theirobjectives, and the organizational context in whichthey were carried out.

Alpha: A Case Study

in Upgrading (16)Two major objectives of this project were to dem-

onstrate the needs and problems of upgradingprograms in industry and to generate informa-tion and questions about the variables and conditionsrequiring identification before more generic up-grading programs could be developed for a widerange of industries.

Site of the demonstration model was a smallplant, the Alpha Plastics Printing Company, Inc.,*which manufactures printed plastic materials andemploys 150 blue-collar workers on three shifts for

*Pseudonym.

51/2 days a week. The research team determinedthat no systemati.. upg ad'ng program existed andthat the company was . A.eriencing problems in re-cruiting high - level workers (printers), in retainingentry-level workers, and in maintaining the pro-ductivity level an,. quality of workmanship.

Frequent visit . and observations together withinterviews of the ,t,..ff ar u en.t.loyees initiated thedata-gathering acti,. y. A job analysis identified theduties and skill itqt..., silent.: for the company's posi-tions and yid,: e i _ data ;Naffed to redesign thejob structure. ii...ot,ter methodological aspect of thestudy was the development of a typology for deter-mining the conditions and climate conducive to suc-cessful upgrading.

The Alpha demonstration model provided for thetraining of 58 entry-level employees over a periodof 9 months. Subsequently, 19 percent of the newlyhired employees were moved up to higher skilledjobs, as printers. In addition, eight middle levelsenior employees were promoted to printer or lam-inating machine operator. Overall, the program re-sulted in the qualification of 14 new printers, 4 morethan the company goal. It should be noted that theproject was focused primarily on improving thecompany's job structure and product rather than oncontributing to the skill-level advancement of in-dividual employees.

The New Careers Systems Institute, which con-ducted the Alpha study, is currently applying jobanalysis techniques for upgrading purposes in avariety of other industrial settings. At this writing,published material on this work is not yet available.

13

18

Psychological Assessmentof Patrolman Qualificationsin Relation to FieldPerformance (3)

This 16-month study, conducted in the ChicagoPolice Department, was directed at predicting policepatrolman performance. Two main goals were iden-tified by the project sponsor ead study team:

The development of effective procedures andthe establishment of general standards forpatrolman selection.

The identification of distinctive "patrolmantypes," defined on the basis of field per-formance. which would not be adequatelydescribed by the concept of "average" patrol-man.

An occupational analysis was conducted to ob-tain information on the behavioral requirements ofthe field patrolman's job. This information was usedto help choose psychological tests for inclusion in atest battery for selecting entry-level patrolmen. Sincethe researchers were interested in psychological tests,and thus the job's behavioral characteristics, theydid not attempt to gather comprehensive job contentinformation or to identify skill or knowledge require-ments.

Data gathering was accomplished through a gen-eral orientation to Police Department organization,procedures. and facilities followed by onsite obser-vations of patrolmen at work. Staff members rodewith police officers in a cross section of Chicago'sneighborhoods at all hours of the day. The resultof this process was a list of 20 behavioral require-ments for patrolmen.

The test battery was compiled from existingsources and administered to two groups of patrol-men. It was validated by comparing the patrol-men's test scores with their ratings on two sub-jecti,'e measures and several objective ones. Thesubjective measures were the Chicago Police Depart-ment's own semiannual performance rating and theUniversity of Chicago Industrial Relations Center'spaired-comparison appraisal technique. The. ob-

jective measures included departmental awards,citizen complaints, departmental disciplinary actions,and number of arrests made. The subjective meas-

ures were given greater weight than the objectiveones. Individual tests whose results conflicted sh-rplyand consistently with the validation measures wereremoved from the battery.

A-aong the project accomplishments listed in thereport are:

An improved method for screening patrol-men.

An improved method for making internalassignments.

Capability for meeting the Federal Govern-ment's test validation requirements.

Establishment of a close working relationshipat all occupational levels between an educa-tion center and a big city police departmentinterested in research.

Career OpportunitiesResearch and Development(56, 57, 58)

In 1968, the Chicago YMCA applied the sys-tems approach to job analysis to develop andtest model core curee:uums in the human servicesfor 2-year commun.ry colleges. These curriculumswere based on job - related career ladder models,also developed by the stt:dy. A cooperative researchprogram with human service agencies and commu-nity colleges was thus required. In addition to devel-oping the models. the researchers were asked todocument the problems and processes involved inthe development phase and to evaluate the researchand resulting models.

Sixteen human service agencies and Cour com-munity colleges agreed to cooperate in tne project.Phase I of the work included the data gathering,analysis. task grouping, and model development.Phases II and III were dedicated to the continuingevaluation and maintenance of the models and tothe consideration of broadening the career laddersand core curriculum below and above the associateof arts degree level.

Over 200 interviews with, and extended observa-tions of. cooperating agency workers were conducted

14

19

by staff of the community colleges. The study teamadapted the Department of Labor scales to fit thehuman services fields. Modifications in the WorkerFunctions, General Educational Development, JobEnvironment, and Interest scales were determinedto be necessary, but no changes were made on theAptitudes scales. These modifications are discussedin appendix B.

Over 2,000 tasks were identified as a result ofthe interviews and observations. After analyzingand restructuring the task clusters, the staff devel-oped model career ladders for each of the follow-ing service areas:

community organization cast: workhealth services child caregroup work mental healthsocial service administration

Phase II activities included an effort to broadenthe career ladder models by "standardizing sixlevels of occupational status in terms of educationalachievement and/or life/work competency." Each ofthe six occupational categories (Professional, Tech-nologist I and II, Technician I and II, and Trainee)is described in terms of its primary functional rela-tionships to data, people, and things; educationalrequirements; and minimum salary. A suggestedcurriculum for the AA degree was designed for eachof the six occupational levels.

Another aspect of the phase II work includeda pilot project in a high school, at three communitycolleges which award the AA degree, and at asenior college. One of the goals of the testing wasto design curriculums for secondary schools andstudy beyond the AA degree.

Farm Job Ladder (39)The Farm Job Ladder Demonstration Project

is concerned with certain manpower utilization prob-lems arising from the dynamic state of Californiaagriculture. As the unionization of farmworkersprogresses, labor costs rise. This is making increasedmechanization economically more beneficial tofarmers. Trained equipment operators, rather thanunskilled migrant workers, are now the farmer'sgreatest manpower need, Such people are, however,in short supply, owing at least partially to thetraditionally seasonal nature of farm employment.

Most farmers have few year-round employees,preferring to hire large numbers of migrant workersfor the peak labor periods such as harvestingtime. Thus, individual local labor markets typi-cally do not have large numbers of either skilledequipment operators or geographically stable workersavailable for training.

A second pressing farm manpower need is forsupervisors, and managers to run the increasinglylarge and more highly mechanized farms. TheFarm Job Ladder Demonstration Protect, then, setout to develop year-round positions aad career lad-ders in both these shortage categories, with theworkers drawn, in all probability, from the migrantlabor stream.

The work performed during phase I, which be-gan in May 1971, included:

Task analyses on four medium-sized Cali-fornia farms (the Department of Labormethodology was used).

Development of career ladders for farm-workers, including detailed, task-based jobdescriptions.

Development of training sequence outlinesfor each job.

Recommendations for supervisory trainingprograms.

Development of a practical, farm-relatedmanagement training outline.

--Development of a farm machine mainte-nance training curriculum.

Phase II of the project has been underway sinceNovember 1972 and consists of implementation, on alarger sample of California farms, of the new jobstructures and manpower management practices de-veloped in phase I.

Manpower Utilization andCost Analysis Study of theFremont (Calif.) PoliceDepartment (40)

The organization under study was a law enforce-ment agency in a fast-growing community of about120,000 people located in the southern part of the

15

J20

San Francisco Bay area. The study's objectives in-cluded the development of job restructuring Alter-natives, recommendations for the redesign of in-service training and job-related college curriculums,and the development of employee performanceevaluation criteria.

The project staff consisted of a coordinator whoworked half time on the study and had a manpowerprogram administration and job analysis background,full-time assistant coordinator with manpower pro-gram and public personnel experience, and two oc-cupational analysts, both of whom were sworn policeofficers.

The basic methodology used in the study wasthe Department of Labor's job analysis technique.The project's senior staff trained the two occupa-tional analyst/poiice officers in this technique. Over1,600 tasks were identified. in both sworn and non-sworn positions, and assigned ratings on the LaborDepartment's Worker Functions, Genera; Educa-tional Development. and Specific Vocational Prep-aration scales. Task identification was accomplishedprimarily through interviews with the performers.Special logistical problems were encountered in

gathering i-iaterial for the multifaceted, highly de-centralized position of patrol officer. The personalexperiences of the two occupational analysts wereused extensively in preparing task statements forthis position. Several other patrol officers were thenasked to review the task data ante make any ap-propriate comments, additions, or deletions. Vali-dation of all the task data was r'nnducted throughfollowup interviews with employees and supervisors.

Certain problem areas in police manpower utiliza-tion provided a focus for the project staff in pre-paring its recommendations. For example, severalstudies show that patrol officers spend up to 80percent of their time re3ponding to calls for serviceswhich are either not related to criminal activities orare crime-related but nonhazardous. Most policetraining, however, places heavy emphasis on thecrime-fighting aspects of the job and pays little

attention to handling the sensitive human relationsproblems which patrol officers encounter daily. Theheavy burden of routine calls for service also pre-vents patrol officers from devoting sufficient time tosuch activities as crime prevention, counseling andreferral, and followup investigation.

Employee performance and morale also sufferfrom these misperceptions of the police role. Selec-

tion procedures and performance evaluation stand-

ards generally reflect the hazardous duties involved

in police work. Many patrol officers are disillusionedto discover that the ,;ob is not as they thought itwould be. This problem is aggravated by the flatorbanizational pyramid, resulting in few promotionalopportunities, common to most police departments.

Among the study's products was a job restruc-turing alternative with complete joh descriptions, in-cluding a four-level paraprofessional career ladderand a three-level police officer career ladder. Super-visory. managerial, administrative, and clerical

positions were also covered in the restructuring al-ternative. Finally, the task data were also used todevelop job-related training outlines and perform-ance evaluation criteria.

Job Task and RequirementsAnalysis (25)

Job Task and Requirements Analysis (JTRA)

is a term used by the Humanic Designs Corpora-

tion (HDC) to describe that organization's ap-

proach to job analysis. Among the industries in which

HDC has worked are automobile manufacturing, food

processing, and banking. In addit:on, its staff re-cently developed career ladders in three publichospitals under contract with a national public em-ployees' union.

Job Task and Requirements Analysis is descrioedin the HDC publication, Increasing Employee Mo-

bility Opportunities: An Employer's Handbook forSystem Design (25). This document, the result of 3

years of research and development efforts, outlinesHDCs generalized procedures for analyzing upwardmobility systems, identifying problem areas, and de-signing appropriate solutions.

Job Task and Requirements Analysis includes the

following steps:

Making preliminary lists of duties and identi-fying distinct jobs.

Designing an observation schedule.

--Collecting narrative data.

Transforming narrative data into task de-scriptions.

Determining knowledge aid skill dimensions.

Scaling the dimensions.

Rating the tasks.

16

21.

The sheer number of organizations in which HDChas worked over the past few years suggests thatits primary emphasis has been on developmentalactivities and on determining which procedures aremost effective in specific situations, rather than onbasic research. This impression is strengthened bythe tone of the di..cursion of JTRA in HDC's hand-book. Very little, if anything, about JTRA is new.HDC's comments focus instead on the proper ap-plication of existing tools and procedures, such asthose of the Labor Department and the Health Serv-ices Mobility Study.

While HDC found certain of the Labor Depart-ment's Worker Traits measurements, specificallyInterests, Temperaments, and Physical Demands,possibly useful for initial selection of employees,it considers them "not, on the whole, relevant tothe design of an upward mobility system." It alsohas reservations about the Worker Functions con-cept "In our view, the 'People, Data, Things' ratingsdo not contain sufficient information, even whenaugmented by the other dimensions described, todesign a structure based on relevant similaritiesbetween jobs," it says. But it concedes that "formalcomparisons have not been made and at presentit must remain a matter of opinion which option toese." Of the Labor Department scales, only GeneralEducational Development is felt to have definitevalue in upward mobility design.

HDC finds the Health Services Mobility Studyapproach, with its emphasis on identifying unidi-mensional skill and knowledge requirements, moregermane for career development purposes. Theproper use of this information will vary, however,depending on whether the objective is design of anupward mobility system, which "deals with the move-ment of people through all or major segments ofthe jobs and positions within an organization," orsimply upgrading, defined as "facilitating the move-ment of employees one step upward rather thaninto broad channels of career progression." Upgrad-ing calls for only the identification of required skillsand knowledge, information which can readily beextrapolated from adequately written task descrip-tions. ?,signing an upward mobility system, how-ever, r.'quires the scaling of skills and knowledge--that is. precisely delineating the amount of a givenskill or knowledge required in a task so that thetask can be placed properly in a multilevel jobladder. HDC discusses alternative methods of scal-ing skills and knowledge.

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Job Analysis (42)

In June 1967, researchers at the California StateColleges in Long Beach and Los Angeles set outto "discover, test, evaluate, report, and recmmendcurrent or proposed practice that can promise moreeffective and less costly ways to analyze jobs andto make resulting job information readily availableand useful " In addition, the project team would"determine whether current and valid job analysissource data can be obtained at less cost and inless time than is common in the observation-interviewtechnique in use by the U.S. Employment Serviceand its affiliated State agencies."

Initial study activities focused on the "current andproposed changes in the historical model of thejob analysis process," as reported in the literature.Following the literature review, the team surveyed thecurrent public and private use of joh analysis togather information on various practices and to elicituser opinions, criticisms, and suggestions. Fromthe review of the data, the researchers incorpo-rated changes in the classic model, tested the modi-fications and thus produced a revised procedure forcollecting, organizing, storing, and retrieving jobinformation.

The survey of traditional and current approachesto job analysis uncovered several areas in whichimprovement was needed. TI-tey include:

1. The subjectivity of the data (resulting fromdifferent choices of words by different analysts ordifferent choices by the same analyst over time).

2. Inadequate reliability and validity of inputdata.

3. Inadequate ways of quantifying the data (foruse in demonstrating data validity and reliability,facilitating comparison among jobs, and recording,analyzi-3, and retrieving data through electronicdata processing equipment).

4. Outdated job data.

5. Need for a job analysis system to have thecapability of selective retrieval of data so thatenough information for each application can be ob-tained without irrelevant data also being retrieved.

6. Traditional analysis is time consuming and re-quires personnel with scarce skills. A simplifiedprocedure, capable of implementation by peoplewith only moderate training in analysis, is needed.

Four experimental models of the Job InformationMatrix System (JIMS) were developed. JIMS in-volves the preparation of standardized task descrip-tions (on the assumption that certain tasks are com-mon to many of the jobs in a given occupationalfamily), using precisely defined w ^ ds (more wordsfor each level than are found in the Department ofLabor Worker Functions scales). It is expected thatthis procedure will yield job information which ismore objective, valid, and reliable.

JIMS uses a checklist format, designed for use byeither experienced or inexperienced analysts andeven capable of self-administration by the task per-former or supervisor. The matrix-modular format ofJIMS, with checklists which are readily coded andare written in standardized terms, permits com-puter storage and retrieval. This suitability for elec-tronic data processing makes JIMS a more flexibleprocedure than traditional analysis, since selectiveretrieval of information for specific purposes is pos-sible.

Since JIMS was field tested in only one occupa-tional category, metal machinery, the researchersrecommend experimentation in other areas. Beforethe system can be extended, checklists for each oc-cupation will have to be developed. In addition, theprocess of identifying and defining key action verbsto be used in assigning worker functions will haveto be continued, especially with the Things scale.

The development of a checklist format capableof administration by analysts with only minimal train-ing is an important aspect of this research. Also,the development of the standardized action verbvocabulary should be helpful in bringing about uni-formity and precision in worker function:, rating.

Job matching and joh evaluation (for classifica-tion and pay) and preparation of job descriptionsare the applications which seem to be emphasizedmost in this study, although the need for systematicflexibility to insure usable data f other purposessuch as restructuring and training, is fully recog-nized.

Restructuring ParamedicalOccupations (15)

This was a 21/2-year study to develop and testtechniques for easing the shortage of skilled para-

medical personnel in health services and to providemore job opportunities with upward mobility poten-tial for disadvantaged persons. This work was afollow up to a pilit study (by the same researchteam) entitled Hiring Standards for ParamedicalManpower, 1968 (24).

Specific basic objectives of the 31-month projectincluded the following:

To review and analyze the hiring require-ments for paramedical personnel and theirfunctions in the hospital. (The terms "func-tion" and "task" are used interchangeablythroughout the study.)

To determine a set of recommended improve-ments in the utilization of manpower in thehospital.

To evaluate efforts to implement recom-mendations and to measure the effects of im-plementation on the quantity and quaky ofmedical services.

Cambridge Hospital, city hospital of Camb idge,Mass., accepted the study proposal through the lead-ership of the City Commissioner of Health and Hos-pital. The hospital has been and continues to be in astate of transition due to a number of significantchanges initiated since 1963. Occupations targetedfor study were: Registered Nurse, Licensed PracticalNurse, Nurse Aide, Orderly, Ward Secretary, Sur-gical Technician, Psychiatric Attendant, X-Ray Tech-nician, EKG Technician, Inhalation Therapy Tech-nician, Neighborhood Health Worker, LaboratoryTechnician, and administrative and supervisory per-sonnel.

After reviewing several job analysis procedures,the research beam developed a methodology whichthey felt Amid be feasible in the milieu of a hospitaland would furnis'i reliable information. They recog-nized that "using observation as the principal methodof task identification in the hospital atmosphere,where privacy is one essential of quality patient care,would be difficult if not impossible." Thercfpre, useof observation was limited to validating information.For this purpose, observations were made of halfthose performers who responded to the "confirma-tion" interviews (conducted to determine if the func-tion attributed to a specific job represented 95 per-cent of the person's activity during the workweek).

An extensive interview schedule initiated thephase I data - gathering activity. Supervisors and per-formers (87.7 percent) were interviewed and then

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gen1111111=1100M.11=1111110.11MMIM1111/116,

consulted again if the subsequent cross-checkingvalidation process warranted it. An additional studyeffort resulted in a set of more complete definitionsof tashs identified in the pilot study. The level oftask complexity was determined by having the re-searchers, hospital supervisory personnel, and nurs-ing and medical consultants from other medicalcenters rank the tasks in order of difficulty. Suchcriteria as practical experience, educational expo-sure, and general responsibilities were used. Apanel of practitioners also contributed to the rank-ing effort.

Next, interview formats for each department (notfor each job or job title) were prepared. Data wereobtained through interviews. No questionnaires wereused. Interviewers elicited a variety of data relatingto education, training, experience, career expecta-tions, and salaries for each incumbent as well asthe percentage of time spent performing each task.The research assistant and an outside graduate reg-istered nurse then observed the work of about halfthe sample for validation purposes.

Phase II activities began with the organization andtabulation of the data The data were arranged todisplay such items as percentage of workers at eachoccupational level performing each task, percentageof time spent on each task, overlaps in tasks per-formed by workers at various occupational levels,and personal characteristics, opinions, and aspirationsof those interviewed. With this data base, the re-searchers consulted with independent experts inhealth' manpower and prepared their recommenda-tions. Phase II concluded with a followup at thehospital to observe the effects of change as a result ofthe implementation of study recommendations.

The report of the study is a two-volume set. Ap-pendixes in volume II include the definitions of tasksfor 9 selected occupations and a set of 70 tableswhich reflect the analysis of the functions performedby the paramedical personnel during the period ofthe interviews. An extension of the project work com-pleted at Cambridgc Hospital is attempting to deter-mine whether the same techniques could be used inother types of hospitals in the Boston area. This workis ongoing.

Task Analysis by SelectedCriteria (4)

Task Analysis by Selected Criteria is an approachwhich combines much of the Department of Labor

methodology with additional scales measuring othertask dimensions. It was used to develop career oppor-tunities for Biomedical Equipment Technicians(BMET's).

No single location or client for the study existed.The task data were gathered from individuals in avariety of organizations employing BMET's. Thestudy's major product consists of 230 BMET tasksand their relationships to er.ch of the selected criteria.These criteria include the Labor Department scalesplus the following:

Type of equipment used (six options).Task frequency (from 1 indicating daily to 5,almost never).Importance (a three-level "consequences offailure to perform" scale).

Difficulty of learning (from 1 indicating veryeasy to 3, very difficult).

Time required to perform the task (four op-tions ranging from under 1 hour to 40 hours).Types of learning and learned performance(based on the work of Robert Gagne anddiscussed in chapter IV of this monograph).Training time (similar in concept to the De-partment of Labor's specific vocational prep-aration but more precise over a compressedrangelevel 1 is "less than 1 hour," level 9is "more than 2 years").Skill complexity (based on the total of thethree Worker Functions ratingsan impreciseand questionable use of Worker Functions data;see appendix B of this report).

Projected changes for tasks and equipment(six levels from "obsolescence" to "in theR and D stage").

Twelve panels, each consisting of three expertsin the field, were used to rate the tasks. Each panelwas responsible for a different criterion, i.e., onepanel rated all the tasks for Worker Functions, an-other rated them all for projected changes, etc.

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Task Analysis of LibraryJobs in the State ofIllinois (41)

A task analysis of library jobs in the State ofIllinois was conducted in 1970, for the twofold pur-

pose of seeking the most effective way to use pro-fessional personnel and examining the library taskscurrently being performed by professionals to suggestways for delegating work to support personnel. Theproject, sponsored by the Illinois Library Association,emphasized the requirements placed on the worker.The research team and an eight-member Ad HocCommittee on Manpower Training and Utilization,appointed by the Illinois Library Association to as-sume an advisory role, set the following specific studyobjectives:

To conduct a thorough library survey of stud-ies, data reports, and programs in task anal-ysis.

To apply the task analysis technique to anumber of libraries in Illinois.

To provide data for job restructing, job defi-nition, and curriculum development.

Initially, the Ad Hoc Committee selected 18 li-braries in the State to be studied. The sample in-cluded every major type of library. Elementary,junior high, senior high, college, and university li-braries, public libraries, and special and other li-braries. In addition to the visit, interviews plannedfor each of the 18 libraries, a survey was mailedearly in the study to all 50 State libraries and otherlibrary settings to identify any relevant task analysisstudies. The response indicated that no task analysisstudies were in progress.

Over 100 employees were interviewed during thevisits to the 18 libraries. Job responsibilities of theemployees interviewed ranged from the duties ofcustodians to those of library directors. Data col-lected from the library interviews were analyzed toidentify tasks, to write task statements, and to com-plete the 15 -scale rating of tasks. The methodologyused for task analysis was basically the Departmentof Labor procedure with some modifications. Thestudy team described each task identified with awritten task statement.

Tasks were then measured for 9 areas (15 scales)of interest:

Performance Standards (4 scales).

Task Environment (I scale).

Worker Functions (3 scales).

General Educational Development (3 scales).

Worker Instructions (1 scale).

Training Time (1 scale).

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Time to Complete the Task (1 scale).

Extraordinary Physical Demands (1 scale).

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities.

This nine-point analysis was reviewed by the Ad-visory Committee to insure that the methodologywould (1) cover analysis requirements of library jobs,(2) be applicable to all library jobs, and (3) providefor agreement among the analysts' independent activ-ity.

A validity check was conducted for the 1,615 tasksthat had been identified. Each task statement wasreviewed to confirm that it described a task. Taskswere grouped into 35 functional areas for the pur-pose of uncovering duplications and inconsistencies.The more general functional areas included adminis-trating, selections and acquisitions, cataloging andprocessing, registration and circulating, referencese,-vices, patron service, collection maintenance, facil-ity maintenance, and miscellaneous.

The study team hopes that this data collectionand analysis effort will contribute to the restructuringand redefining of library jobs. Such studies are alsohelpful in planning curriculums for postsecondarytraining programs. The team concludes that furtherassistance should be directed to library administra-tors in developing new job descriptions and in re-arranging their agencies' staffing patterns.

Upward Mobility ThroughJob RestructuringU.S.Civil Service Commission(12, 13)

A team from the U.S. Civil Service Commission'sBureau of Policies and Standards, Office of SpecialProjects, began a study in June 1970 for the purposeof "conducting, in three selected agencies, experi-mental demonstration projects to test the feasibilityof using job restructuring techniques to enable em-ployees in lower grades to progress to higher gradejobs not customarily filled by promotion from thelower levels." It was agreed that information gath-ered during the study would be compiled in the formof guides, for use by the Federal Government, on theadvisability and methods of effecting an upward mo-

bility program The continuing effort to respond to aneed for providing advancement opportunities forlow -grade workers with limited education and train-ing prompted the projects.

Two agencies of the Department of Health, Ed-ucation, and Welfare (HEW)the Social and Re-habilitation Service and the Audit Agencyand theDistrict of Columbia Government's Departmentof General Services accepted the demonstration proj-ect proposal. With strong support from the top man-agement, "Project Bridge" was initiated at the Socialand Rehabilitation Service for 35 employee:, indeaC end jobs The program of work experism.:e andtraining was designed to qualify these employees foreight occupations, which previously had been filledfrom the Federal Service Entrance Examination(FSEE) register The FSEE is the Federal Govern-ment's primary vehicle for filling entry-level pro-feonal positions and, historically, has tended tofav1r recent college graduates over experienced cler-ic' employees Provision was made for additionalemployees to scan the program as others moved up.

In view of the December 1970 HEW employeedemonstration protesting the lack of carccr oppor-tunities for minorities, and the fact that many of thearrested employees were Comptroller's Office staffmembers, a formal request was submitted asking theproject team to include the Cffice of the Comptrollerin the study. The Audit Agency, one of two majordivisions within the Comptroller's OffiLe, was selectedbecause of its !age number of professionals and ab-sence of technician positions. A distinction was madebetween fiscal and management audits. This allowedpeople without accounting backgrounds to move intonewly created Management Technician positions.Management Technicians assist in nonfiscal auditsand are receiving experience which will preparethem for Management Analyst positions.

The audit function is a necessary component ofoperations throughout Government. Hence the sig-nificance of this demonstration effort lies in its poten-tial for wide application in this traditionally con-servative area.

Two organizations within the District of ColumbiaGovernment's Office of General Services, the Divisionof Printing and Reproduction and the Bureau ofBuilding Management. were chosen for the study be-cause of the interest in applying job restructuring toa blue-collar worker setting. The project team de-cided it was impractical, however, to develop a careerladder by job restructuring for the Division of Print-

Now replaced by Professional and Administrative CareerExamination (PACE)

ing and Reproduction, but they recommended a jobanalysis ef'ort to identify training needs, which wouldiLad to a workable upward mobility program.

The project team decided that job restructuringfor tht. Bureau of Building Management would notcontribute to what had already been done by theagency. Since it has a high ratic, cf low-skill custodialjobs to high-skill work and little turnover at thehigher skill levels, promotion opportunities are lim-ited. The team felt that it would be unfair to raisehopes for advancement with little chance of their be-ing realized. Recommendations included reorganizingto add more work activities under the Bureau or view-ing the entire Department as a unit to allow forgreater intradepartmental movement.

The Department of Labor's Handbook for Analyz-ing Jobs and the Upjohn Institute's Introductionto Functional Job Analysis are referred to in thereport as sources of task analysis technique informa-tion. In the training program developed by the studyteam, four task analysis measures are included for thedata-gathering activity:

I. The Worker Functions scales.

2. The General Educational Development s,,ales.

3. The Specific Vocational Prcpar 'on scale.

4. The Worker Instructions scale.

Project team members concluded that job restruc-turing is applicable to solving the upward mobilityproblem, strong support from management is essen-tial and counseling and carccr guidance should bepart of the program.

Study products include a set of examples of theprogram elements required to at..ieve upward mo-bility through work and training and a 3- to 4-day training package for developing an upward mo-bility program. The package consists of modules forjob and task analysis, job design, job element ap-proach to qualification requirements, and trainingplans, to be used as time allows. It was deigned tobe appropriate for local or State officials as well asFederal Government managers.

Vocational Education in

Michigan (43)

This was a study to dot ;rminc the extent to whichselected vocational training in three Michigan corn-

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munities w As meeting local employers' perceived skillrequiremenis. Major objectives of the research were.

To compare entry-level skill requirements ina sample of 11 occupations with presumablyrela'zd vocational curriculums and programsin tl.e three communities.

To use the result, of these comparisons tobring about needed imp:ovemelits in voca-tional education programs in the three com-munities.

To develop a methodology which could beused in school systems to reduce discrepanciesbetween employer-desired skills and curriculum - produced skills.

Four committees were established to serve as re-source, liaison, and review groups during the studywork period. They included the Research SteeringCommittee, representing the funding agencies andother interested groups, and three Community Ad-visory Committees, each consisting of representativesfrom appropriate industry, education, end other lo-cal organizations. Tilt. Community Advisor; Commit-tees would assume an important tole in initiating theimplementation of the team's recommendations.

Selection of the 10 occupations was based on twomain considerations: (1) Association with economicgrowth in Michigan's industries and (2) availabilityof vocational preparation in the high s:hools orthrough other local vocational programs. In addition,an effort was made to select those occupations whichwere considered to have signifcant possibility forchange in job content and curriculum requirements.The set of 10 occupations selected would reflect thefollowing characteristics:

Appropriate balance of white- and blue-collarjobs.

Appropriate balance of jobs traditionally heldby men and by women.

Relevance to the State of Michigan in termsof vocational education needs.

Distribution along the skill ladder.

Distribution among vocational and educa-tional categories (that is, trade and industrial,health, sales and distribution, and office).

Likely future change in content requirementsin the occupation.

Categories of occupations requiring postsecondary

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or college education were excluded, as were thoseshowing a decline in employment opportunity suchas agricultural occupations, private householdworkers, and nonfarm laborers. Ten occupations weretentatively reviewed by the Research Steering Com-mittee. A few changes in the onginal set of occupa-tions resulted in the following list: Retail SalesPerson, Clerk-Typist,'Clerk-Stenographer, LicensedPractical Nurse, Dental Assistant, Automobile En-gine Mechanic, Construction Electrician, Numeric-ally Controlled Machine Tool Operator, Construc-tion Carpenter, Chef/Cook, and Bookkeeper.

The communities chosen for the studyDetroit,Grand Rapids, and Mt. Pleasantrepresented large,medium-sized, and small cities.

The project staff compiled task clrxklists for eachentry-level occupation, using availa* literatureand consulting with subject mattcr experts. The re-searchers added any anticipated task arising fromtechnological and procedural changes in the contentof the 10 occupations. Job tasks were then organizedaccording to job task classes on interview guide tasklistings. The following questions were used to elicitthe five types of information expected from the inter-views:

Is the task one that entry-level persons shouldbe able to perform on the employment startdate?

For those tasks considered required or pre-ferred, what proportion of entry-level personnelhave been able to perform them?

How important is the job task performancefor hiring and promotion?

With what frequency is the job task per-formed by entry-level persons?

--Vv fiat level of performance proficiency is de-sired?

Additional questions were asked to determine the im-portance of such factors as appearance, attitude, in-terpersonal relations, and skills. After review, testing,and revision, the interview guides were submitted forDepartment of Labor approval.

As soon as approval was received, the researchteam proceeded with interviewing owners, managers,personnel directors, or supervisors in several estab-lishments using the occupations being studied. Eachperson interviewed had an opportunity to add to thetask listing, but the interviews yielded very few addi-tional tasks. The interviews continued until a wide

variety of types and sizes of establishments were con-tacted and it was evident that little or no new infor-mation was being collected. Data collected during theinterviewing phase were summarized, tabulated, andpublished in the team's Interim Report. Tasks labeledas required or of great importance by 80 percent ofthe employers were designated as "most important."

The research team next directed its attention tothe existing curriculums for the 10 occupations. Nocurriculums were found for the Dental Assistant,Construction Electrician, Licensed Practical Nurse,or Numerics' Controlled Machine Tool Operatoroccupations. The curriculums for the other occupa-tions were usually in the form of course outlines.This situation proved to be a problem because themethodology relied on the existence of curriculums.Additional information about the student experienceand course content was gathered from discussionswith vocational supervisors and teachers.

A comparison of the critical task lists by occupa-tion with the review of existing curriculums and stu-dent /educator responses revealed several situations inwhich a curriculum was not designed to produce skillsconsidered important by employers. For each, theteam developed a set of ruommenda'tions intendedto reduce the discrepancy between the skills desiredby employers and those produced by vocationalprograms. The set of recommendations covered thefollowing topics:

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Establishment of a Training Advisory Com-mittee.

Curriculum development and updating.

Staff requirements.

Facilities, materials, and equipment require-ments.

On-the-job training.

Student selection.

Student education.

Placement of graduates.

Implementation of the study's recommendationsvaried among the three communities. The smallestcommunity, Mt. Pleasant, accepted both the rec-ommendations and, more significantly, the job anal-ysis process, while the largest city, Detroit, essenti-ally rejected both. The study resulted in some changesin Grand Rapids. The team concluded that successdepended primarily on the interest and cooperationexhibited from the beginning by individuals at thedecisionmaking levels. Because LI the apparent simi-larity of entry-level skill requirements among em-ployers in the same occupational area, researchersrecommend that nationwide job task analyses inselected occupations be conducted or supported by aFederal agency such as the Department of Labor.

IV. APPLICATIONS OF THE TASK DATA

As the Introduction to this monograph indicates,job analysis is a means to several human resourcemanagement ends Four of these ends are discussedin this chapter on applications of job content infor-mation Two of the applicationsjob restrucLuringand development of education and trainingprogramsare included because substantial amountsof research have been directed toward them. Theimportance of a third application, qualifications ex-amining, is achieving greater recognition as thecourts and the Equal Employment OpportunityCommission require that selection procedures bejob related. Finally, performance evaluation is in-cluded because of its importanct to such areas aseducation and training, test validation fo; employeeselection and promotion, productivity measurement,and overall program evaluation. Unfortunately, rela-tive'y little research has been done in this field al-though some promising starts have been made.

Job RestructuringThe Department of Labor JobAnalysis Methodology

The Manpower Administr:tion's publication, AHandbook for Job Restructuring (51), offers a con-cise description of the Department of Labor ap-proach in this area. According to the Labor Depart-ment, the most important task dimensions forrestructuring purposes are .hose relating to WorkerFuEctions (Data. People, aid Things), General Ed-ucational Development, and Aptitudes. In special

circumstances, however, other factors take on addedsignificance. For example, in certain industrial sit-uations, or if job development for the physicallyhandicapped is one of the reasons for restructur-ing, it will be necessary to use the Physical Demandsand Environmental Conditions scales. Similarly, ifthe mentally retarded or the emotionally disturbedare potential beneficiaries of the restructuring effort,then tasks should be rated on the Teroc-raments.,cale. However, no scale should be used if it doesnot discriminate among tasks in such a way as toprovide meaningful bases for job restructuring deci-sions.

Once tasks have. been identified and rated onthe appropriate scales, patterns begia to emergewhich provide the analyst with insights into restruc-turing possibilities. Ratings on a combination ofscales, rather than on a single one, typically formthe basis for these insights. For example, in manyadministrative and technical jobs, there is a cor-relation among the Data (Worker Functions) andReasoning (General Educational Development)scales and certain Aptitudes such as Intelligence,Verbal and Numerical. Some tasks will tend to berated highly on all or most of these factors, whileothers will receive generally lower ratings. Thus,certain natural divisions become apparent, and theidentification of lower level, supportive jobs is facili-tated.

The restructuring process is by no means auto-matic, however, and is :lot dependent solely ontask ratings. In addition. .he Department of Laboremphasizes the interrela ionships among jobs withinthe organization. In order to understand fully thenature of these interrelationships and the ways inwhich they can affect restructuring possibilities, the

ts

analyst must consider such factors as work flow,plant or office layout, relevant technology,hierarchical relationships, and the establishment'soverall organi-ltion and purpose. Finally, other con-siderations, such as the desirability of retaining cer-tain less complex tasks in higher level jobs whileallowing supportive employees to gain experience inperforming more demanding work, arc also impor-tant.

The Department of Labor approach to upwardmobility includes both career ladder and career lat-tice development. A career ladder consists of a se-ries of jobs at progressively higher levels within thesame occupational category. This is vertical mobil-ity. Movement along a career lattice can take placevertically and in two other ways. A worker may, onthe basis of relevant training and experience in onejob, be promoted to a higher level job in anotheroccupational category. This is diagonal mobility. Or,a worker who is faced with a dead end in one cate-gory may take a lateral transfer to another categorywhere the upward mobility possibilities are better.This is horizontal mobility.

The Department of Labor approach uses the Oc-cupational Classification Code from the Dictionaryof Occupational Titles to identify jobs which are inthe same or related occupational categories. Perti-nent criteria for career ladder and lattice develop-ment include ratings on the General EducationalDevelopment. Aptitudes, and, sometimes, PhysicalDemands scales. Also, information on similaritiesor relationships among technologies, which can beobtained from the task descriptions and the Occu-pational Classification Code, is important. Finally,the organization's recruitment, transfer, and pr.,mo-don policies and any union requirements are im-portant considerations.

Farm Job Ladder (39)

The Social Development Corporation's Farm JobLadder project used the Department of Labor'sjob analysis approach. Because of the highly un-structured nature of agricultural workjob descrip-tions, accurate or otherwise, are virtually unheardofthe SDC staff found it necessary to find a

framework on which they could arrange the tasksto be identified. They used, six general agriculturalfunctionsground preparation, cultural practices.harvest, maintenance, planting, and administra-tion. Initially, these functions provided a systematicway of gathering the task data. Later, they enabled

the staff to insure that the various work flows, orsequences, necessitated by technological, climato-logical, logistical or other considerations were notdisrupted by the proposed restructuring al'ernative.

The staff used selected criteria to assign eachtask they identified to one of six levels of complex-ity. The most important of these criteria were theGeneral Educational Development and Specific Vo-cational Preparation scales. When tools or equip-ment were involved, the Department of Labor'sThings scale was used in assigning task level. ;TheThings scale, when divided into its two subscales,man, machine and nonman, machine, is the best ofthe three Worker Functions fnr determining taskcomplexity.) These levels wert tl _r used as thebasis for the Farm Career Lit -e: (see chart 1).The roman numerals under each job title reflect thelevel of most tasks in that job. But not all tasks ina given job are at the same level. The importanceof maintaining work flows prevented a uniformgrouping. In addition, assigning higher level tasksto a job facilitates mobility. Employees at level III,for example, will be able to perform level IV tasksas a means of preparing themselves for advance-ment. Job descriptions were prepared for eachproposed job, they included descriptions of eachtask to be performed in that job.

The Fr..rm Job Ladder project is significant be-cause it represents one of the few attemptsperhapsthe only oneto structure agricultural work ration-ally in response to changing social and technologicalconditions. Increased mechanization on the farm,the problems of migrant workers, and rational pol-icy toward revitalizing rural America all demandfresh thinking and new techniques with regard toagri.-ultural manpower utilization. The project staffis currently engaged in working with several farm-ers to implement the study's findings. This effortshould yield a clearer understanding of the study'simplications for the entire agriculture industry.

Health Services Mobility Study (20, 23)

Job restructuring in the Health Services MobilityStudy (HSMS) is, of course, accomplished by usingthe task identification procedure and skill and knowl-edge scales developed for the study.* All the tasks ina given group of job titles being studied form thedata base for restructuring. Each task is given a scale

'An overview of the FISMS methodology Is given ;n chapterII. The task identification procedure and the scales arc discus.sedin detail in appendixes A and B.

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ki"1.-- Clcsi

value on each of the 16 HSMS skills and on anindeterminate, number of knowledge categories (onescale value for each knowledge category required inthe task). These data are subjected to factor anal-ysis which results in a set of task families. Eachtask in a given family is related to the other tasksin that family by virtue of identical or similar re-quired skills and knowledge categories. Tasks areassigned to levels within their respective familieson the basis of their skill and knowledge scale val-ues. Thus, each level includes tasks which requirerelated skills and knowledge at similar scale val-ues.

With the mass of task data broken up into fami-lies on the basis of related skills and knowledgecategories and each family subdivided on the basisof skill and knowledge levels, the next step is thecreation of idealized jobs and job ladders. Accord-ing to HSMS, "each job is related to the job aboveand the job below on the ladder because the jobsrequire related skills and knowledge. Lower leveljobs require lower scale levels and fewer cate-gories; higher level jobs require higher scale levelsand more categories."

The HSMS focus on specific skills and knowledgecategories is particularly useful in career lattice de-velopment. Often, jobs in distinctly separate occu-pational categories have very similar skill or knowl-edge requirements. A food service worker, forexample, may need the same human interaction andreading skills, at similar levels, as a clerk. (Foodserv;ce workers may be required to read recipes,food labels, or operating instructions for machines.)Most qualifications requirements, however, cons;derprevious work experience to be job related only ifit was in the same occupational area. Thus, the foodservice worker would not be considered qualifiedfor the clerk's job unless he or she had previousclerical experience or could pass a general intelli-gence test which might not accurately measure therequired skills. By describing jobs in terms of theircomponent skills and knowledge requirements, theHSMS approach thus enables the worker to trans-fer his or her skills from one occupational cate-gory to another.

One possible drawback to the HSMS approach,especially for organizations lacking sophisticated dataprocessing expertise and equipment, is its use of anadvanced form of computer-based factor analysis.This procedure is necessitated by the large numberof individual pieces of information which must bemanipulated. As was noted in chapter II, the HSMS

methodology was developed to support the project'smodel building activities and was not intended forlocal application. However, the project staff intendsto develop training manuals to assist local practi-tioners interested in using the HSMS skills andknowledge scales.

Alpha (16)The Alpha project of the New Careers Systems

Institute was located in a plastics printing plant andinvolved skilled printer and laminating-machineoperator jobs, as well as supportive cutter and back-tender positions. This project provides an exampleof a work situation in which the restructuring pos-sibilities are constrained by the technology involved.The printing machines were 100 feet long. Theprinter and the backtender were stationed at theinput end of each machine, while the cutter wasstationed at the output end. The cutter was thus inthe only logical position to assume initial qualitycont:ol responsibilities as the printed material camecif the machine. The backtender's job, though moreclIcult than the cutter's, was assigned to new em-ployees because it was located nearer the printer'swork station and could thus be more easily super-vised by him. The project staff comments that:

the job redesign had to "protect" Alpha's almost automaticvery rapid crew-machine production; otherwise, the com-pany would find the costs of training prohibitive. Themachines could not be slowed for prolonged periods orleft idle to satisfy training needs. The redesign had to blendin with Alpha's routine operating procedures. (16, p. 52)

The project's final report does not indicate thatthe task data were rated on any scales such asthose used by the Labor Department or the HealthServices Mobility Study, although the language usedto describe various activities suggests that the staffwas strongly influenced by the Labor DepartmentWorker Functions. Thus, the restructuring criteriawere expressed verbally, as written descriptions ofworkers' duties, rather than quantitatively, as nu-merical ratings or scale values.

Among the results of the restructuring effort were:

An entry-level, combined cutter-backtenderposition allowing new employees to be exposedto the duties of both jobs. Because of the dis-tance between the two work stations, individualworkers would rotate between the jobs ratherthan perform them simultaneously.

Assignment of certain press set up and tend-ing duties, formerly performed by the printer

28 32

or jointly by him, the cutter, and the back-tender, to the more experienced cutters andbacktenders.

Assignment of press control and inonitoringduties, requiting some print theory and controlprocedures knowledge, to a newly created printtrainee job. This position was created as anupward mobility opportunity for experiencedcutters and backtenders.

Releasing of the printer from less complexduties, allowing him to devote more time toscheduling, inspecting materials, ald exercis-ing final quality control responsibility.

Restructuring ParamedicalOccupations (15)

The Northeastern University study, RestructuringParamedical Occupations, found little or no up-ward mobility available to employees at any levelin Cambridge Hospital. Once again, traditional andrestrictive credentialing requirements were the ma-jor culprit. The study also found considerable over-lap, from one level to another, in the performanceof specific tasks, especially among Nurse Aides, Li-censed Practical Nurses, and Registered Nurses. Theresearchers recommended the creation of a newoccupational ladder to parallel the traditional hier-archy of the hospital. The entry level for this ladderwould be the currently existing Nurse Aide job.The remaining three levels would be new jobsNursing Assistant, Medical Assistant, and Physician'sAssistant. This ladder was designed in such a waythat experience and on-the-job training in one jobwould qualify an incumbent for the next higherlevel. The credentialing requirements associatedwith traditional positions such as Licensed Practi-cal Nurse and Registered Nurse would thus beavoided.

As was discussed in chapter III, the basic taskdata were gathered through interviews with workersend supervisors and arranged, within each hospitaldepartment, by level of complexity through consul-tation with various experts. Interviews based onchecklists were used to determine the percentageof workers at each job level performing each task,thus revealing the overlaps mentioned above.

The project staff recommended the restructuringof Registered Nurse and Licensed Practical Nursejots to eliminate most of those employees' "easy"

tasks. However, they did not indicate any specifictasks which should be removed from, or added to,these or any other jobs. Instead, these decisions areto be made by the hospital officials using the taskstatements, ranked in approximate order of diffi-culty, and the task overlap data compiled by theproject. A Job Description Committee, consisting oftwo Registered Nurses, two Nurse Aides, and oneLicensed Practical Nurse from the hospital and theproject's research assistant, was formed to trans-late the task data into actual jobs. The fi.st sixjob descriptions prepared by this committee, con-taining specific task statements, are included in theproject's final report. Formation of this committeewas viewed by the researchers as very encourag-ing, since it indicated a willingness on the hospital'spart to implement the study recommendations.

Education and Training

Health Services Mobility Study (23)

The Health Services Mobility Study (HSMS) meth-odology includes application of the task data for ed-ucation and training purposes. The major concern hasbeen the design of curriculum guidelines for educa-tional ladders. These ladders are intended to paralleland support the HSMS job ladders, aliowing em-ployees to gain the required skills and knowledge, atthe required levels, for performing more responsiblework. The study's curriculum design methodologyis only now being applied and is thus subject to re-vision.

Just as the task description is the basic buildingblock for the job ladders, curriculum objectivesperform the same function for the educational lad-ders. They are to be written in behavioral terms:that is, each will state an intended outcome of thetraining. These intended outcomes will consist of thekind of task performance expected, the conditionsunder which that performance will take place, andthe standards for determining its acceptability.

The curriculum objectives will be written in lan-guage incorporating both the HSMS task descriptionsand the skill and knowledge data. In fact, the HSMScurriculum objectives are highly dependent on thetask data. As was mentioned earlier in this chapter,the task descriptions were subjected to computer-

29

33

based analysis and arranged into clusters referred toas factors. Each factor was defined on the basis of itsskills and knowledge content. Tasks were furtherassigned to levels (jobs) within their factors on thebasis of their skill and knowledge scale ratings Cur-riculum objectives will be written for each skill andknowledge category needed in a job. The objectiveswill also reflect the nonscalable procedural informa-tion found in that job.

It is intended that the curriculum content be setin the context of formal academic disciplines so thatthe learning which takes place will be transferableto other work situations requiring those disciplines.These situations can exist either in completely dif-ferent occupational areas or at the next higherlevel of the same area. Thus the curriculum ob-jectives are to contribute to both career ladder andcareer lattice development.

The HSMS staff emphasizes the contrast betweenits approach, which bases curriculum objectives onvery complete task descriptions, and approachesthat use less detailed task inventories. The Depart-ment of Labor's single sentence task statements, forexample, do notand were not intended toprovide enough information by themselves for cur-riculum development. They need to be interpretedby experts in the occupational area if their skill andknowledge content is to be ascertained. These ex-perts are usually at least one step removed from thetask-gathering process and thus may differ amongthemselves in their interpretations of the task state-ments. One expert may see a particular skill re-quired at a certain level in a given task. Anothermay not consider that skill important at all, as he orshe interprets the task statement, or may see it at ahigher or lower level. The accuracy of the curricu-lum content is thus questionable

In the HSMS approach, on the other hand, allthe information required for curriculum develop-ment, including specific skill and knowledge con-tent, is gathered initially through interview andobservation of the task performer. The role of the ex-pert is to confirm the accuracy and completeness ofthe task description, including proper use of techni-cal terminology and correct scaling of skills andknowledge requirements. Discrepancies can be re-solved, if necessary, by returning to the task per-former for additional information. By the time cur-riculum development is to begin, then, the taskdata have been verified and, to a large extent. quanti-fied to prevent misinterpretation.

Task Analysis by Selected Criteria (4)

Technical Education Research Centers, Inc., (TE-RC) suggests several ways in which its Task Anal-ysis by Selected Criteria approach can be helpfulin developing education and training programs.Among the suggested applications are the following:

--Estimating the total time required for train-ing on the basis of the learning time infor-mation for each task.

Evaluating existing training materials, vichoosing new ones, on the basis of the taskstatements.

Maintaining current information on trainingneeds through periodic updating of the taskdata. Thus, when new equipment is intro-duced or new procedures are applied, theproper adjustments in the training programcan be made.

Two other applications are covered in slightlygreater detail. One is determining training prioritiesthrough the use of each task's scale values on cer-tain criteria. In most cases, the relevant criteria aretask frequency and task importance. The first stepis to reverse the numbering system on the frequencyscale so that on it, as on the importance scale, highvalues indicate high priority.

Frequency (reversed) Importance

1. Almost never2. Several times a year3. Several times a month4. Several times a week5. Daily

1. Failure to performcould result in someinconvenience

2. Failure to performcould be costly

3. Failure to performcould lead to damageto life or limb.

Note. It is not dear whether "failure to perform" meanssimply that or also means failure to perform properly."

Since the frequency scale has five levels and theimportance scale only three, the next step is to equal-ize tht, weight of the two scales in determining finalpriority (provided, of course, that the analyst wantsthem to have equal weight). This is done by mul-tiplying each task's raw freepticy rating by threeand its raw importance rating by five. These adjustedratings are then multiplied by each other to producea final score for each task. High scores indicate thata task has high priority for training purposes. The

following is an example of this process.

30

c34-

Frequency Importance PrtorayTask No. Raw Adpated Raw Admsted Rating

1 5 15 3 15 2252 5 15 2 10 1503 1 3 1 5 15

Task 1 is performed daily and failure to performit could lead to damage to life or 1;mb. Thus it hasthe highest priority rating. Task 2 is also per-formed daily, but failure to perform it would resultin less drastic consequences and .its priority rating isthus lower. Task 3 has the lowest priority becauseit is almost never performed and has little impor-tance attached to it.

TERC briefly discusses procedures for using othercriteria as determinants of priority for training,weighting one scale more heavily than others, andmaking criterion scales nonlinear. It also notes thatspecific local situations will contain other elementswhich will strongly affect the setting of training pri-orities. Thus the prccedure described above is muchmore likely to suggest priorities than to dictate them.

fhe other application of its task data whichTERC discussed in some depth is based on RobertM. Gagne's work with regard to sypes of learning.Tables 1 and 2 present much of this material. Ac-cording to TERC:

The most dependable condition for insurance of learningis prior learning of prerequisite capabilities. This is some-times called specific readiness or enabling cc :awns. Re-search has shown that having learned the preit.quisites, nineof ten students are able to solve a problem which theywere initially unable to solve. They were able to solve theproblem without hesitation and with no -lice on theproblem itself. Here. "the prerequisite for e pe of learn-ing is that which distinguishes one type of rning fromanother" For example, to solve problems. a trainee musthave mastered the prerequisite principles (and so on asindicated on the chart). Thus, practical and desirable out-comes can be gained through proper emphasis on the pre-requisite skills and knowledge. Any particular learning isnot at all difficult if one is truly prepared for it. (4. p. 143)

The type of "performance established by learn-ing" (stimulus responding, motor chaining, etc.) isidentified for each task. Thus the types of "internal(learner) and external conditions" for learning agiven task (its "specific readiness or enabling con-ditions") are suggested.

This information would appear to have definitevalue in instructional planningthat is, in determin-ing the sequence of training segments so that thetrainees always approach new material armed withits "prerequisite capabilities." The talents of some-one versed in educational psychology would beneeded, however, to apply Gagne's broad concei--tual outline to specific local situations..

31

Functional Job Analysis (11)

The Upjohn Institute's Functional Job Analysis(FJA) approach distinguishes among three typesof skillsadaptive, functional, and specific content.They are defined thusly:

Adapti 'e Skills refer to those competencies that enablean individual to mange the demands for conformity andor change in relation to the physical, interpersonal, andorganizational arrangements and conditions in which ajob exists Included are management of oneself in relationto authority, to impulse control, to moving towards, awayfrom, or against others; to time (e.g., punctuality andself-pacing); to care of property: to dress (e g., style andgrooming). These skills, rooted in temperament, are nor-mally acquired in the early developmental years, pnmanlyin the family situation and among one's peers and re-inforced in the school situation.

Functional Skills refer to those competencies that enablean individual to relate to Things, Data, and People (orien-tation) in somt combination according to personal prefer-ences and to some degree of complexity appropriate toabilities (level). They include skills like tending or operat-ing machines, comparing, compiling, or analyzing data: andexchanging information with or consulting and supervisingpeople These skills are normally acquired in educational,training, and avocational pursuits and are reinforced inspecific job situations.

Specific Content Skills refer to those competencies thatenable an individual to perform a specific job according tothe standards required to satisfy the market. These skills arenormally acquired in an advanced technical training schoolor institute, by extensive on-the-job experieace. or on aspecific j )b. They are as numerous as specific products,services, and employers who establish the standards anticonditions under which those products and services areproduced.

In effect, the degree to which a worker can use hisfunctional skills effectively on a job is dependent on thedegree to which his adaptive skills enable him to acceptand relate to the specific content skill requirements. (11,pp 79-80)

Adaptive skills, although regarded as crucial toworker satisfaction and growth, do not have a di-rect relationship to FJA task statements. The func-tional and specific content skIlls required for eachtask, however, are determined as part of FJA's ini-tial data-gathering procedure. FJA task data are in-tended to provide inputs, not merely into the selec-tion of training materials, instructors, or priorities.but also into specific curriculum content.

The following example is taken from the Socialand Rehabilitation Service's National Task Bank(49) for workers in the public welfare field, whichwas prepared by the Upjohn Institute using FJA

Task: Talks with discusses preferences, feelings, and situa-tion with unwed mother. explaining possible arrangements.in order to provide mother with information necessary toobtain confidential maternity and medical care.

TABLE 1. TYPES OF LEARNING AND LEARNED PERFORMANCE

Performanceestablishedby learning

Internal(learner

conditions)

External conditions Definition Example Inferredcapability

Stimulusresponding ___ . Certain learned

and innatecapabilities.

Repeated exposure toresponse-provokingstimuli; immediateconfirmation of activeresponse.

Making a specificresponse to aspecified stimulus.

Trainee repeatsnew word"torque."

Connection,identification.

Motor chaining ___ Previouslylearnedindividualconnections.

Presenting a sequence ofexternal cues that callfor a sequence ofspecific responses;repetition to achieveselection of response-produced stimuli.

Exhibiting a chainof motor respon-ses, each of whichis linked to eachsubsequent re-sponse.

Using a wrenchto remove aspark plug.

Sequence ofmotions.

Verbal chaining _ Previouslylearnedindividualconnectionsand cues.

Presenting a sequence ofexternal verbal cues,effecting a sequence ofverbal responses at thesame time.

Exhibiting a chainof verbal respon-ses, each of whichis linked to eachsubsequent word.

Listing, frommemory, thesteps for start-ing a dieselengine.

Verbal associa-tions; verbalsequence.

Multiple dis-criminating ___ Previously

learnedchains, motoror verbal.

Practice providing con-trast of correct andincorrect stimuli.

Making different(chained) respon-ses, to two ormore physicallydifferent stimuli.

Pointing out andidentifying theball peen ham-mer, the car-penter's ham-mer, and thetack hammer.

Discrimnation.

Concepts ___ . Previouslylearnedmultiple dis-criminations.

Recalling discriminatedresponse chain alongwith a variety ofstimuli differing inappearance, but be-longing to a singleclass; confirmed bysuccessful application.

Assigning objects ofdifferent physicalappearance I::classes of likefunction.

Sorting out allthe resistorsfrom a pile ofspare parts.

Classification.

Principles - Previouslylearnedconcepts.

Using external cues, usu-ally verbal, effectingthe recall of previouslylearned concepts in asuitable relationship;confirmed by specificapplications of therule.

Performing an ac-tion in conformitywith a rule whichis composed oftwo or more concepts.

Adding moreflour for highaltitude bak-ing.

Principle orrules.

Problem solving Previouslylearned rules.

Self-arousal and selectionof previously learnedrules to effect a novelcombination which isself-confirming.

Solving a novelproblem by com-bining rules.

Troubleshootinga radio.

Principles, plusproblem-solv-ing ability.

Source: Technical Education Research Centers, Inc.

Functional:How to convey information to specific audience.How to listen, explore, and reflect feelings, give advice/counsel to meet needs of others.

Specific Content:Knowledge of local resources for helping unwed motherswith medical needs and maternity care.

32

36.

'ZilliMIIIIIIMIIMIBICEINI.

TABLE 2. ACTION VERBS RELATED TO SPECIFIC KINDS OF LEARNING

ASSOCIATION

StimulusResponding

MotorChaining

VerbalChaining

MultipleDiscriminating

Concepts Principles ProblemSolving

associate activate cite choose allocate anticipate accommodategave a word for adjust copy compare arrange calculate adaptgrasp aline enumerate contrast assign calibrate administerhold close letter couple catalog check adjust toidentify copy list decide categorize compile analyzeindicate (dis)assemble quote detect characterize compute composelabel (dis)connect recite differentiate classify conclude contrivelift draw record discern collect construct correlatelocate duplicate reiterate distinguish file convert createloosen insert repeat divide grade coordinate developmove load reproduce isolate group correct devisename manipulate (re)state judge index deduce diagnosepick up measure transcribe pick inventory define discoverplace open type recognize itemize demonstrate find a waypress operate select match design inventpull remove mate determine realizepush replace order diagram reasonrecognize stencil rank equate resolveiepeat trace rate estimate studyreply tune reject evaluate synthesizerespond turn off /on screen examine think throughrotatesaysetslidesignaltightentouchturntwist

sortspecifysurreytabulate

expectexplainextrapolatefigureforeseegeneralizeillustrateinferinterpolateinterpretmonitororganizeplanpredictprescribeprogramprojectschedulesolvetranslateverify

troubleshoot

Source: Technkal Education Research Centers. Inc

Knowledge of agency guidelines for helping unwedmothers.Knowledge of specific client situation.Knowledge of needs, problems. and their possible solu-tions for unwed mothers.Knowledge of, and how to identify. prenatal and post-natal medical needs.

In this example, and in the great majority of theitems in the National Task Bank, the specific con-tent skills are expressed as types of knowledge (ofresources, agency procedures, guideimes, personalcharacteristics of clients, etc.). According to theHealth Services Mobility Study, knowledge is learned

through instruction, while skills require practice. Itmay be that some of the specific content examplesfor the above task actually involve both skills andknowledge, in the HSMS definitions of those terms.For example, a worker might easily pick up "knowl-edge of local resources for helping unwed mothers"through classroom instruction or by reading the ap-propriate manuals. However, the skill in putting thatknowledge to work, by analyzing the individual cli-ent's particular needs and selecting the most appro-priate resource, would be developed only throughpractice. An effective training program, then, would

33 37

have to combine classroom work covering the re-sources and procedures for using them with super-vised on-the-job training in applying that knowledgeto the individual client's beat advantage.

The functional/specific content dichotomy is use-ful in distinguishing between those skills having ap-plicability in relatively narrow occupational settings(specific content) and those with broader utility,such as in facilitating career advancement (func-tional). FM training content data would be evenmore useful, however, in planning education andtraining programs if the distinction between skillsand knowledge were also recognized as important.

Job Relevance of Vocational EducationCurriculums in Michigan (43)

In this study of vocational education curriculumsin three Michigan Lummunities, task data wereused to perform a somewhat different purpose fromthat of other studies discussed in this section. Thegoal was to increase the job relevance of vocationaleducation by identifying discrepancies between thoseskills employers look for in entry-level employeesand those actually produced by vocational curric-ulums. The data-gathering and analysis methodol-ogy was outlined in chapter III of this report.

As an adjunct to the primary effort, however, theBattelle staff prepared a "concise description of arecommended (more comprehensive) methodol-ogy for school systems to use in designing and main-taining vocational education programs to developstudent skills which correspond to employer-desiredskills." This methodology contains the following

seven steps:

1. Decide on curriculum organization and selectprogram offerings, based on an assessment of em-ployment opportunities, student body desires andneeds, and resources and constraints.

2. Assess employer and job requirements.

3. Formulate performance objectives for programsand select/develop measures of attainment of ob-jectives.

4. Assess characteristics of target populations.

5. Design programs:Courses and other instructional units within

programs.Instructional strategies and methods; content;

sequencing. and materials, equipment, andmedia.

34

6. Implement and conduct programs:Assess entry-level skills and knowledges.Assess attainment of objectives.

7. Conduct followup studies:Job placement.Graduate job performance.Employer job requirements.

Battelle's major effort was to devise and test aprocedure for implementing step two. Its commentsregarding step three are also relevant in a discus-sion of job analysis.

Like the Health Services Mobility Study, Battellewas strongly influenced by he work of Robert Ma-ger (30) in establishing training program objectivesin behavioral terms. The Battelle report puts itsuccinctly: "Objectives specify what the learner isto be able to do upon completion of instruction."In addition, "objectives specify conditions underwhich the learner is to display the desired behavior"and "the level of performance that will be consid-ered acceptable." Finally, they "must be stated atan appropriate level of specificity to permit meas-urement of performance."

According to Battelle's report:

Job requirements task analysis information, and skillsand knowledge required for performance of these tasks

serve as the basis for formulating performance objectivesat the program level. Two major outcomes are possible,

depending on the terminal objectives of the program. Insome cases, the program objectives will literally provide forthe teaching of required job tasks In other instances, pro-gram objectives will be stated in terms of skills, knowledge.and other capabilities required for successful task perform-ance. School training, in this latter case. stops short ofliterally teaching actual job tasks, but instead provides forcertain required capabilities, and with the assumption thaton-the-job experience will lead to successful task perform-ance. Which of these strategies to employ, or which cam-binatien of the two for a given job, depends on the jobitself along with time/funds constraints and other factors.Further, regardless of which of the above strategies is used.timeifunds constraints may not permit the teaching of alljob tasks at the required level of proficiency, or all pre-requisite capabilities. Nor might it be desirable to do so,since certain skills and skill components (e.g., those tasks

unique to particular organizations) may be more appropri-ately learned through on-the-job experiences or in company-sponsored training . . . .

Thus, selection of particular job tasks, skills, and capa-bilities must be made along with levels of proficiency theprogram will seek to teach. Information obtained on the

tasks during the task analysis phase (such as importance.frequency. and degree to which a task for a job is commonacross establishments) is useful in providing E !dines inselecting tasks and associated skills and knowledge toteach. Also, estimates of learning difficulty for the varioustasks can provide another criterion for task selection (43,

pp. 75-76)

Thus, Battelle recognizes the need for traiLiating task data into curriculum content. Its task di-mensions (importance, frequency, etc.), however,appear inadequate to provide more than, as itsreport says, "guidelines" 13 this process. This is notto fault the institute, however, because the purposeof its project was simply to identify discrepanciesin curriculum content, and it appears to have doneso admirably. But the need for better as to ana-lyze job content data for curriculum developmentremains The Health Services Mobility Study ap-proach of identifying specific skill and knowledgecontent may have relevance, although it is prob-ably too rigorous and time consuming to gainwidespread acceptance among school systems. TheFunctional Job Analysis dichotomy between func-tional and specific content skills, with proper atten-tion paid to knowledge content, may be moreappropriate. Similarly, the Technical Education Re-search Centers' adaptation of Gagne's types of learn-ing concept should be useful in step five (instruc-tional strategies, etc.) of Battelle's recommendedmethodology.

As the Battelle staff concludes:

[he ease and ',Ado with whet the formulation of pro-gram objectives can be azc,,rnplished arc directly dependentupon how well the previous step of assessing job require-ments has been accomplished. If a well-defined descriptionof required tub tasks and associated skills, knovdedge, andproficiency levels is asailable. then the formulation of program objectives is greatly facilitated If such information isnot available. then formulation of program objectives prescnts secral major problems. In turn, if program objectiescannot be well formulated. subsequent formulation of sub-terminal objectives and associated courses and units. anddesign of the learning environment. suffer proportionately(43. p. 77)

Qualifications Examining

Job analysis as a means of devising job-relatedqualifications examinations and procedures has notreceived the attention it deserves. While several ofthe projects reviewed in this monograph have dealtwith job restructuring and/or education and trainingprogiam development, only twothe Chicago PoliceDepartment and the U.S. Civil Service Commissionstudieshave addressed themselves to the problemsof employee selection. There are signs that, at leastuntil recently, pcssunnel practitioners had little moreinterest in this area than did the researchers. A sur-vey of State and local government personnel practice

conducted in 1971 by the National Civil Service Lea-gue, showed that test validation was 11th on a listof 15 personnel functions ranked in order of fre-quency of performance. (36)

The problem is not failure to accept employmentexamining as a valid personnel function. Well over90 percent of the 357 respondents to the NationalCivil Service League's survey, each with at least 500employees, used some form of examining, includingwritten tests, review of education and experience, oralinterviews, and, or performance tests. I he civil serv-ice reform movement of the late 19th and early 20thcenturies, aided by the increasing sophistication ofpsychological testing and measurement as a science,has made merit as determined through "objective"procedures, the rule in public personnel selection.The private sector has by no means been isolatedfrom these developments.

The problem is that true objectivity is not ofteneasily attained, and the appearance of it is frequentlyaccepted as a substitute. True objectivity requires rel-atively rigorous efforts to determine actual job re-quirements and to select examining procedures whichmeasure them accurately in each applicant. Per-sonnel specialists often do not have the time, resour-ces or training for these efforts. A high school educa-tion, which is presumably certified to by possession ofa diploma, may not actually be required for the per-formance of an entry-level job, but it does representa standard which can be demanded evenhandedly ofall applicants. A written test may not have any pre-dictive power in selecting applicants capable of per-forming or the job, but it has an aura of objectivityabout it and its numerical results can be used tojustify personnel decisions.

There are strong indications that these practicesareand will continue to bechanging. Court deci-sions, such as Griggs v. Duke Power, and the guide-lines of the Equal Employment Opportunity Com-mission, whose coverage has recently been expandedto include State and local governments, are provid-ing employers with the incenti.cs to make the time,find or reallocate the resources, and seek out thetraining required to make their employee selectionprocedures truly job related.

The most recent, and specific, word on this sub-ject comes from the Equal Employment OpportunityCoordinating Council, which has representativesfrom 111:: U.S. Civii Service Commission, the Com-mission on Civil Rights, the Equal Employment Op-portunity Commission, the Department of Justice,and the Department of Labor. The Council's "Uni-

35 :39

form Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures"have been published in draft form. They are beingcirculated for comments by interested parties and aresubject to modification. They will become effectivewhen they are published in the Federal Register asfinal. They will apply to private and State and localgovernment employers, labor organizations, and em-ployment agencies. The following excerpt discussesjob rnalysis:

A required element of any validation study is a sy:tcm-atic and comprehensive analysis of the job for which thelest is to he used. The analysis must be based upon (li theduties performeu by the insunthents on the job. t2i thelevel of difficulty at which the duties are performed, (3)the sirsumstanses and conditions under which the dutiesare performed, and (4) those duties which are critical i.e.,those which must be performed competently if the job is tobe performed in a satisfastory manner. The job analysisshould describe on what bases any working conditions weredetermined to be critical and tin what bases duties weredetermined to be critical, such as the proportion of timespent on the respective duties, their levels of difficulty,their importance, or their frequsnsy of performance. If aduty which occupies a high proportion of time is nut deemeduritisal, the reasons therefore must be set forth. For thoseduties which have been determined to be critical pursuantto clause (4) at,ove, the job analysis should set forth whichknowledges, skills, abilities, and other worker characteristicsare requited for successful job performance.

the requirements fur a lob analysis set forth herein arenut iricndrd to specify a particular method of job analysis.Any proNssionally recognized method of job analysis is

acceptable if it is ompre hens* c and uthenvise appropri-ate fur the specific validation strategy used. For example.it is recognized that some methods of job analysis providedirest identification of the knowledges. skills. abilities. ar.dother worker characteristics necessary fur successful jobperformance by an analysis of work process. rather thanspesifis job lines. In any Lase the factual bast., fur thedetermination of the identified knowledges, skills, indabilities. and other worker sharasteristiss must be docu-mented. (7. pp. 7-8)

Vernon Taylor discusses the various types of testvalidation and their relationship to job analysis ina paper prepared for the Public Personnel Associa-tion (now the International Personnel ManagementAssociation):

A test has content ralidit% if it directly measures t%eskills and knowledges that are necessary to job performance.The basic prerequisite to this process is a first-hand knowl-edge of the tasks performed on the job. This information isa first consideration in planning any test. and with it theestablishment of content validity in an achievement testcan be fairly easy. . . . If (certain) skills and knowledgesare an important part of the content of the job and arealso included in the test content, the test has content va-lidity The relationship between job and test content is

obvious . .

Construct tanlity has been defined as an analysis of themeaning of test scores in terms Of explanatory concepts or"constructs." More importantly, construct validity is usedto infer the degree to which people possess some trait Ifwe cannot measure an ability directly (as with a work

sample test), we find a way to measure it indirectly. Thisis done when the test measures aptitudes... .

Whereas content validity may he achieved by studyingonly the tasks performed in an Wcupation or class. construt validity requires a complete job analysis. After thetasks to be performed are understood. it is necessary '.o

identify the specific skills, knowledges. and abilities neces-s,try to their performance. Only then is it possible to utilizeconstructs in the planning of an exa ,ation.

The d-sk audit commonly performed by classificationtechnicians is a shun-cut appmzwh i" job analysis, but itdoes not produce the depth or detail of information neededfor examination planning. Its function is to provide classi-fication and pay information....

A job analysis must produce a list of the aptitudes, skills.know ledges, and other characteristics required to performthe job, which are possessed to a satisfactory degree bysome of the prospective applican't. but perhaps not by all.This is known as a list of job requirements or performancerequirements. It most include indications of the degree ofskill at v. hich each characteristic is needed, and its im-portance to success in the job. . . .

Construct validity can he demonstrated by showing acomplete record of the process that was employed. includinga list of the tasks identified in the job ,;nalysis, the list ofabilities required to perform these tz.sLi, the reasons for nutattempting to measure all of the n, cessary abilities, thenature of the tests used and the evidence that suggested theiruse, and their reliabilities when used. All of this informa-tion should be retained in the agency's files as long as thatexamination plan is in use... .

Criterion-related kaltdoN is measured by comparing testscores with other scores that provide a direct measure of theabilities in question fu the sase of employ rent tests, thescores are compared with criteria of job success. . .

The goal of test validation in public personnel work isto determine the effectiveness of tests in identifying thoseapplicants who would be successful if appointed to positionsin the classes for which they are tested. The most widelyaccepted evidence of this effestiveness is an empirically ob-served relationship between pre-employment test scores andpost-employment criteria of job success. When this positiverelationship is found. an applicant with a high score isconsidered more likely to succeed than is an applkant whoearned a low test score. Indeed, any applicant may be con-sidered more likely to succeed than is any other applicantwith a lower test score. (45. pp. 3-7)

The importance of job analysis in criterion-relatedvalidity lies in its use as a way of selecting job-relatedperformance evaluation criteria, a subject which willbe discussed in the final part of this section.

Upward Mobility Through JobRestructuring (13)

The U.S. Civil Service Commission project, Up-ward Mobility Through Job Restructuring, recom-mended use of the job dement examining procedure,a technique developed by Ernest Primoff of theCommission, which has been used for several yearsin examining for Federal blue-collar jobs. The jobelement procedure is explained, with abundant ex-

36tirVi

amples, in the Civil Service Commission's publica-tion Job Qualification System for Trades and LaborOccupationsHandbook X-118C (48).

A job element is not related in any way to an ele-ment of a task as discussed in appendix A. Job ele-ments are those skills, knowledges, and abilities(SKA's) required for successful performance of agiven job. The job element technique is meant toserve as an alternative to qualifications standardswhich require a specified number of years in speci-fied work situations. The examiner using the job ele-ment procedure is primarily concerned with whetherthe applicant possesses the required SKA's, not withhow he or she may have acquired them. It may havebeen on the job, in school, in community or volunteerwork, or through general life experiences. The ex-aminer uses the most appropriate examining proce-dure in determining whether the applicant possessesthe key job elements. If, for example, the ability totype at a given speed is required in the job, a per-formance test would be in order. If skill in perform-ing arithmetic operations under deadline pressures iscalled for, a timed, paper and pencil test may beappropriate.

The development of a job element examining pro-cedure for a specific position requires a job analysisfor the identification of the necessary ,iements(SKA's). This analysis does not include job contentdetermination in the form of specific task id.tion. Instead, it involves having supervisors, workers,and other experts determine the elements throughgroup discussions. The Civil Service Commissionproject staff did use task statements, however, as ex-amples of work situations in which specific job ele-ments might be demonstrated. This procedure wasrecommended for inservice placement (i.e., promo-tion from within the organization) in three job se-riesBudget Technician, Social Science Technician,and Management Auditor Technician. The followingare the job elements identified for Budget Technicianjobs, GS levels 5 through 8:

a. Work from complex rules, rt lliationsind pro-cedures with minimum assistanc, from super visor.

b. Perform accurately work which requires metic-ulous attention to detail.

c. Communicate information or ideas (oral orwritten) by means of letters, memos, summaries, re-ports, etc.

i. Work with and abstroet quantitative data froma variety of standard forms and other data sources.

e. Recognize problem areas and inconsistencies indata.

Each of these elements is required at each level inthe Budget Technician series. The higher levels, ofcourts, require possession of some or all elementsto a greater degree. Thus, the i-)b element examiningprocedure must determine not only whether the ap-plicant possesses the required skill, knowledge, orability, but also the extent to which he or she has it.In the examples given above, a review of the workhistory is one likely examining procedure. The CSCstaff lists specific tasks for each element, which, ifperformed in previous jobs by the applicant, wouldindicate possession of that element. Listed below areexamples of relevant tas1-. for the `first job element"work from complex rules, regulations, and proce-dures with minimum assistance from supervisor."

Applying official and,'or legal business termi-nology and documentary regulations.

Dispensing information relative to the cor-rect interpretation of rules and regulations gov-erning such matters as insurance, education,employment, and housing.

Allocating and insuring the proper utilizationof personnel, equipment, supplies, services, orfacilities for specific purposes to pre-determined schedules, priorities, and proce-dures.

Interviewing applicants for employment andprocess'ng application forms according to es-tablisheu procedures.

Scanning documents and deriving pertinentpoints.

These tasks are listed in order of their relevance tothe element in question. An applicant who coulddemonstrate experience in perfnrriling the first taskwould receive a highe- rating on that element thanthe applicant who had only performed the fourthtask.

The CSC staff also provides a recommended sup-plemental application form and a structured inter-view guide for eliciting the necessary informationfrom job applicants. Also provided are suggestedways to gather and organize supervisory appraisaldata in order to evaluate the quality of each appli-cant's prior work performance. Final scores arebased on the cumulative totals of each rating oneach element.

3741.

The job element procedure does not eliminate theneed for test validation. However, by making use ofthe whole range of examining tools it reduces thepersonnel specialist's dependence on written tests.The process of identifying job elements provides aclear understanding of exactly what qualities are be-ing sought in the applicants and thus aids examinersin sehcting the most appropriate selection devices.It should be emphasized that, when used properly,written tests can be excellent examining tools. Prob-lems have arisen with them when they have beenasked to produce results they were not intended toproduce or were interpreted incorrectly.

When a job element examining program is basedon a careful and complete job analysis, its validitycan easily be documented. There are other bene-ficial effects to this technique. For example, whenjobs are described in terms of their abstract elements,it is possible to find common elements across severaloccupations and thus increase career lattice oppor-tunities. This theme is found throughout the litera-ture on job analysisin the Worker Functions con-cept, for exampleas well as in the Health SersicesMobility Study and Position Analysis Questionnairemethodologies.

Psychological Assessment of PatrolmanQualifications in Relation to FieldPerformance (3)

The Industrial Relat. -Is Center of the Universityof Chicago conducted an occupational analysis of thepatrol officer's job in the Chicago Police Department.Their purpose was t_ gain insights into the behavioralaspects of the job in order to facilitate deNelopmentof a psychological test battery for employment selec-tion purposes. Some of the behavioral requirementsthey found al.. listed below:

Make prompt and effective decisions, some-times in life and death situations, and be ableto size up a situation quickly and take appro-priate action.

Maintain a balanced pe.spective in the faceof constant exposure to the worst side of hu-man nature.

Tolerate stress in a multitude of forms, suchas meeting the violent behavior of a mob, arous-ing people in a burning building, coping withthe pressures of a high-speed chase or a w -von

being fired at the officer, or dealing with awoman bearing a child.

Exhibit a number of complex psychomotorskills, such as driving a vehicle in normal andemergency situations, firing a weapon accuratelyunder extremely varied conditions, maintainingagility, endurance, and strength, and showingfacility in self-defense and apprehension, as intaking a person into custody wth a minimumof force.

Have the facility to act effectively in ex-tremely divergent interpersonal situations. Ancff:cer has contact with paracriminals, inform-ers and people on the border of criminal be-havior besides the dealings with criminals. Atthe same time, officers must relate to the peopleon their beatbusinessmen, residents, schoolofficials, visitors, etc. Their interpersonal rela-tions rust range up and down a continuumdefined by friendliness and persuasion on onPend and by firmness and force at the other.

The occupational demands placed on field patrolofficers are not unique to that job, but they certainlydiffer in substantial ways from those faced by work-ers in industrial, commercial, bureaucratic, or evenmost other service contexts. This fact and the crucialnature of the job make employee selection a farfrom routine process. Most of the behavioral require-ments listed above call for skills which are amongthe most difficult to predict. Some of the task dimen-sions discussed elsewher.. in this report, such as theU.S. Department of Lai or's Temperaments and In-terests scales and the Ht.lth Services Mobility Study'sInterpersonal Skills sca.es ca N.: used, to a limitedextent, to identify thes; ski' zquirements in jobs.But considerable doubt ren.am- concerning whethercurrent psychological tests are capable of accuratelymeasuring the extent to which human beings possessthese skills. An article by two International Associa-tion of Chiefs of Police staff rvchologists, DeborahAnn Kent and Terry Eisenberg, Ph. D. (27,, makesreference to a followup study in Thicago in which thetest battery developed from the c:cupational analysisis shown to have had very limited validity in predict-ing successful job performance among new police re-cruits.

Given the multifaceted nature f fte police officer'sjob and the limitations in psy:holo, 'cal testing, thejob element approach may be worth urther study inthis are Police departments common!) conductbackgn. 4 investigations on their job applicants,

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but tht.se usually focus more on matters of moralcharacter than on evidence of interpersonal skills,decisionmaking capability under stress, or broad-minded attitudes.

Although the Chicago study had results which, inthe long run, were somewhat disappointing, it servedto direct attention to the special problems of examin-ing in those occupational areas where such charac-teristics as psychological and emotional stability un-der stress are definitely job related.

Performance Evaluation

Health Services Mobility Study (21)

Performance evaluation, like qualifications examin-ing, has been somewhat neglected as an applicationfor job content data. Yet, the need for job relatedperformance standards is eery bit as great as theaced for job related employee selection procedures.The Health Services Mobility Study (HSMS) lists thefollowing uses for valid performance evaluation data:

I To enable an institution to evaluate the quality of itson work. covering individuals within the institution.

2. To compare gruk.ps of employees. For example. thesuccess of an educational ladder paralleling a job 'addercan be measured by applying performance evaluation in-struments to incumbents trained in conventional programsand to newly placed incumbents trained in the new pro-grams. A soraparison can tnen be made between the twogroups

3 ro e)aluate the adequacy of ocsupational programs.if curristilum objestkes are derived from task astivities.the adequacy of individual programs can he ascertained byreference to the performance of the tasks in actual worksituations

4. To determine when students have successfully reachedstandards of tA)mpletion of program requirenienis in labora-tory or slip al work independent of time requirements Ifperformance evaluation were used to determine studentreadiness to pass from laboratory to clinical or to ascertainwhen clinical work was successfully completed. there mighthe greater safety to the patients who are inv) ked in theclinical practice Performance evaluation woi Id make itpossible to save on laborators' and 'or clinical s aining timewhen nut needed by proficient students or to prescribeadditional training for students performing bel.iw par

5 To he ii.ed alone or in sonitimion profiLiencyor CqUi ACM- y exanunations lu evaloate an individual,readiness to he accepted with advanced standIN: in existingprograms. into job titles or to sit fot licensure or certitication examinations

6 To he used to validate test items in profi-ensy exaniinations C tirrently, incumbents scores on protiLlemy test

items are used to validate test items, but the items are nuttested for job relevance. Performance evaluation instrumentscan be used to validate test items, to thus provide for jobrelevant test items 121. pp 2-32)

These uses are most appropriate in the health fieldwhich was the HSMS staff's primary concern. But,with slight modification, they are applicable in otherareas as well.

Work on the HSMS performance evaluation in-struments is in the preliminary stages. However, thefollowing comments can be made to shed same lighton the general nature of their approach.

Since the HSMS curriculum objectives are tobe written behavioral terms, they will contain

sis of acceptable task performance.se same standards will be usable as inputs

. the design of performance evaluation instru-ments.

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Two models (A and B) for performance eval-uation were designed. "A" was designed fortasks which have outputs that are easily evalu-ated and "B" was designed for those whoseoutputs are not easily evaluated.

In Model A, criteria for evaluating the out-puts of tasks are presented to appropriate raters(who could be supervisors, coworkers. patients,other persons, or a combination of these). Theraters are told to rate each task performer'soutputs on a scale ranging from "distinctlysuperior" to "distinctly inferior."

Model B is used for those tasks which haveoutputs that are not easily evaluated. Examplesof this would be when the output cannot beseparated from the procedure, such as in giviti;.reassurance; when the output is intangible, suchas in teaching; or when the criteria for outputsresulting largely from intellectual processes aredifficult to evaluate objectively, such as in diag-nostic tasks. In these cases, the task performeris evaluated with respect to the kills and knowl-edge inherent in the task rather than withrespect to the output. Thus, the raters (whomight be the same people used for Model A)evaluate each performer against the skill andknowledge scale values required tor each task.For example, if a given task requires HumanInteraction skills at scale value 5. the descriptorfor that scale value would be used as a criterion.Performers would be rated against that descrip-tor along a scale ranging from "distinctly su-perk " to "distinctly inferior."

Functional Job Analysis (11)

According to Fine and Wiley, "theoretically, alltasks performed in an agency should contribute toits objectives; but unless the expected results andtheir respective performance standards are carefullythought out and specified beforehand, this will re-main only a theoretical proposition." In FunctionalJob Analysis (FJA), performance standards are de-termined for each task statement and may beeither descriptive or numerical. Descriptive standardsare nonspecific and subjective and thus open to mis-interpretation. Numerical standards are objective andrequire no interpretation. Thus, they communicatethe standards by which the worker's performancewill be evaluated more explicitly. However, they canbe relied on too heavily to the neglect of qualitativemeasures. Objectivity is not served when irrelevantor secondary measures are used simply because theycan be quantified. The following is an FJA taskstatement with both descriptive and numericalstandards:

Asks client questions, listens to responses, and w rites an-swers on standard intake form, exercising leeway as tosequence of questions, in order to record basic idcatifyinginformation.

Descriput e StandardsWrites answers legibly.Listens carefully to client's any" ers and records responses

accurately.Easily changes sequence of questions to meet unique sit-

uations or problems.

Numerical StandardsAsks all required questions of client (form 100 percent

complete)On the average, completes X number of forms per day.No more than X complaints from clients per month about

worker's manner during interview.

FJA performance standards should also reflecteach task's orientation measure. In the above exam-ple, the primary orientation is toward Data (50 per-cent) with a substantial involvement with People(40 percent). The Things orientation was minimal(10 percent). Thus the performance standards re-late largely to data functioning, with only slightlyless emphasis on the worker's involvement withpeople.

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V. NONTECHNICAL ASPECTS OF A JOB ANALYSIS STUDY

A complete job analysis consists of more than sim-ply gathering and rating job content data for ap-plication toward one -ir more specific purposes. Thereare p 1.1iminary activities, involving both planning andpoliticking, and there are evaluations and updatesto be conducted after the basic analysis has beencompleted. But the whole process should not bethought of as hzving only three phasesbeginning,middle, and en-: Some activities occur during twoor more phases aid one, the periodic updating of jobcontent information. insures that the process nevertruly ends. This chapter discusses some activitieswhich may be called supportive of or auxiliary tothe technical analysis and which are crucial to itssuccess.

Establishing Goals andObjectives

It: some cases, a job analysis project's specificgoals and objectives will be known from the begin-ning. Current employment examinations will need tobe validated or new ones developed in order to meetEqual Employment Opportunity Commission require-ments. Job descriptions or a position classificationplan will be outdated and in need of revision. Atother times, general goals will be knownreduceturnover or increase upward mobility opportuni-tiesbut the specific ways in which- they are to beaccomplished will not yet be clearly understood. In

these latter instances, job restructuring or new ex-amining procedures may or may not be appropriatemeans. It will only be after th study has progressedfor some time that the specific nature of its productswill become apparent. Thus it is not always possible,or desirable, for the planning of a job analysis studyto be completely separate from, and prior to, theconduct of the study. The two activities may be car-ried out concurrently. As new data are generated,certain objectives or products will begin to appearpreferable to others. In some cases, a modification ofoverall goals may be in order if they should appearto be unrealistic in the light of present or anticipatedorganizational resources.

The fact that goals and objectives may change as abetter understanding of the organization and its en-vironment is gained does not, of course, mean thatgoals should not be established initially but simplysuggests that a job analysis study can be a dynamicforce, identifying the need for changes in unexpectedareas, and that flexibility is in order. (As statedearlier, the purpose for which an analysis is con-ducted largely determines the types of data which aregathered and the way in which those data are ar-ranged.)

Organizational goals and objectives, as distin-guished from those of a job analysis study, are alsosubject to change. Although the process is often aslow, evolutionary one, in some cases it can takeplace more quickly. State and local public agencies,in particular, are susczptible to changes in legisla-tive or Federal funding agency priorities and occa-sionally must alter their own goals accordingly. Thelikelihood of organizational goals changing substan-

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tially may have a bearing on the choice of a jobanalysis methodology.

For example, in our discussion of Sidney Fine'swork for the Upjohn Institute the point was empha-sized that his Functional Job Analysis approach isintegrally connected with the identification of or-ganizational goals. Tasks are identified in terms oftheir contribution io the accomplishment of systemsobjectives. That job content which does not makesuch a contribution is disregarded as superfluous. Itwould appear, then, that FJA is most appropriate inthose circumstances in which goals and objectivesare relatively clear and not likely to change. In other,less stable cases it may be advisable to use an ap-proach which concentrates on establishing a completeinventory of existing job content without regard tocurrent priorities. Again, no case is being made hereagainst the identification of organizational goals be-fore conducting a job analysis, but many agenciesmust operate in environments which make suchidenthication difficult, if not impossible.

Gaining Support forthe Study

A job analysis study cou:d conceivably result sim-ply in a confirmation of the status quo, for example,all employees may already be working at levels con-sonant with their skills and experience and haveadequate access to upward mobility opportunitiesIt is much more likely, air gh, that an analysis willreveal the need for change and will suggest directionsin which that change might occur.

It has become a cliche to note that many peoplefeel threatened by the possibilities of change. Suchfeelings do (persist, however. and in many cases theyare justified. Job analysis, if done properly, can bene-fit many of an agency's current r mployees. But it isnot likely to be :lone properly if the project staffignores these employees and thus fails to benefitfrom the constructive suggestions they can provide.If current agency employees, from entry-level work-ers to department heads. are made to feel thatchanges are being proposed which are indifferent orantithetical to their interests, fear and opposition areinevitable. Employee opposition becomes especiallypotent of course, when strong unions or professionalassociations exist within the organization. Similarly.persons with responsibility for thii agency's personnel

policies of administration have much to offer a jobanalysis study, will certainly be affected by its re-sults, and have the capability for facilitating or ob-structing its implementation.

Horowitz and Goldstein (24) cell of resistance, onthe part of nursing supervisors at Cambridge Hospi-tal, to an upgrading program for nursing assistants.Among the reasons for the supervisors' oppositionwere the following:

Although the nursing assistant program was anursing program, nursing supervisors had notbeen sufficiently involved in the planning striges.

Many commitments previously made by the1...Dspital administration were 'later rescindedSeveral of the supervisors believed the financialcommitment made to the upgraded employeesand the union would not be met and the Nurs-ing Department would unjustly bear the bruntof the blame.

One nurse resented what she termed "the con-descending and condemning attitudes towardnursing personnel and nursing education by thehospital administration." (15, vol. 1, pp. 92-93)

As a result of these and other objections, the Cityof Cambridge's Commissioner of Health and Hospitalreluctantly refused to approve the program, eventhough it had the support of the employee union.

The importance of involvement and consultationwith the employees whose work is being analyzedwould seem obvious, but it is too often ignored. Thisinvolvement is especially critical because the validityof the data gathered is largely dependent on theooperation of the workers being interviewed and ob-

served. As the second and third objections cited bythe nursing supervisors above would indicate, the jobanalysis project staff may have to do more than con-vince employees of the study's inherent value to them.They may have to overcome distrust and bitternessdirected against the organization )ecause of real orimagined betrayals in the past.

The Health Manpower Council of California rec-ommends consideration of the probable results of ajob analysis even before the study begins as a wayof predicting, and preventing, likely objections.

It is wise to anticipate the probable kinds of changes thatmay occur as a result of the analyses The recommendedchanges will be designed to increase output. alleviate staffingproblems. increase worker satisfaLtion. improve the quality,of patient care and either hold the line on. or reduce.overall costs.. . .

These changes all require management support andfollow-through. Therefore. it is strongly reininicnled that

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the Technical Consultant in Task Analysis proceduresdiscuss, in advance, the analytical procedures, probable find-ings, and general kinds of changes that cm be anticipatedfor each department with the department heads and theirsubordinate supervisors It is important to hold these dis-cussions in advance of the actual analyses, in order toavoid any future misunderstandings abou either the pro-cedures or the use of the task anal) sus findings. As men-tioned earlier, this is a new approach to better uniintion,and time is well spent in orienting management personnelto both the requirements and benefits of adequate taskanalysis. (19, p. 5)

The United States Civil Service Commission TaskForce lists several management attitudes, practices,and concerns which may have to be addressed:

I. Lack of Full Management Commitment, or "will."

Commitment is the capstone of any upward mobilityeffort. If management has the will to do or support such aprogram, then most obstacles can be easily met. A firmword from the top works wonders in getting the wheelsgreased and working smoothly. On tne other hand, ifmanagement lacks "will." the tiniest obstacle becomes amajor problem. In upward mobility, strong commitment isespecially crucial, since this area seems to generate anunwarranted amount of fear and misconception. Reasonsfor the absence of "will" are numerous and generally fallin the following broad categories-

a. Indifference: Management simply may not be in-terested in or convinced of the effectiveness of job re-structuring, or it may not see the need for providing up-waid mobility opportunities Some managers may feel thatthe job restructuring technique is merely a useless gimmick.For any of these reasons, management may not be willingto expend the necessary effort.

b Insecurity Some managers may s:e proposals forjob restructuring or u,wv ard mobility as a threat. It mayseem to them that the %el) existence of such proposalsimplies that they have not done their job adequately. Or,they may be concerned that they will not be able to copewith any resulting organization change.

c Prestige Top officials closely associated with aparticular group may oppose moving employees up throughjob restructuring on the grounds that it would dilute the"profession" with employees who did not undergo the samedegree -f training as they did and that they irrst is neces-sary Therefore. they oppose job restructuring when it in-cludes career ladders leading directly into the "profession."They also oppose a because it tends to be associated withselection programs which emphasize the actual requirementsof the work rather than "profession-determined" qualifica-tions.

d Racial bias In sectors where most lower level em-ployees are minority group members. racial bias may be theroot cause for lack of commitment to upward mobility,especially if managers in these areas equate minority withlow-skill levels or ineptness, or both.

Whether or not management is fully committed to theprogram can be determined early by the treatment accordedthe restructuring group. Lack of support may be manifestedin various ways. The group has unusual difficulty in gettingdata such as staffing charts. promotions and accessions lists.or job descriptions and finds it hard to obtain suitablequarters and equipment It has to cope with foot draggingat various le,els. Frequently heard are. its being studied,'

"We mustn't proceed too hastily,' "There are lots of prob-lems to be worked out first." "It's a great idea but it won'twork in my shop," or 'We tried but the Civil ServiceC..mmission won't approve our plan." Without clear sup-port from the top, the effort is probably doomed to failure.The importance of making certain of management commit-ment before proceeding with an upward mobility projectcannot be overemphasized. The removal of obstacles de-pends upon it.

2 Management Practices Incompatible With UpwardMobility Goal

a. Outmoded attitudes: Some managers assume thatemployees are motivated to work hard and well only bythe carrot and stick approach. In other words, employeesmust be managed 'Ar manipulating and controlling themthrough a system of sanctions and rewards. They fail tosee employees as having striving, growth-oriented goals oftheir own.

b Traditionalism and resistance to change. Some man-agers feel that "the way it has always been done" is ofnecessity the best way. This may include the neglect ofplanning and forecasting, failure to make good utilizationof manpower, failure 10 determine employee skills andpotential, failure to set up good training programs and afailure to prov icie a stimulating work environment. A cor-ollary of this is what is referred to as the firefighting styleof management, whereby managers grasp at temporarypalliatives to meet each crisis as it comes up. Anothercommon manifestation of this traditionalism is manage-ment's overly cautious use of regulations. It tends to find inthem barriers to action rather than using the flexibilities inthe Federal personnel system which permit them to carryout innovative-type programs. Such limited attitudes, prac-tices, and views of regulations pose particular problems bothfor job restructuring and for upward mobility. It takesconsluerlble effort to sell their merits to this kind of man-ager. He is not usually geared to recognize the employee'sneed for growth on the job, his need for an opportunity toadvance to (or at least try his hand at) work with greaterresponsibilitiesthe core of job restructuring for upwardmobility.

c. Desire to retain quality employees in place: It is nothard to understand why a supervisor would be loath to giveup a topnotch secretary or clerical worker even though itblocks the employee's development. Not only does thesupervisor hesitate to lose an employee. but he .'sadditionally burdened by having to train successors. Wheineror not this practice is conducive to efficient management, itis clearly an obstacle to upward mobility.

d. Empire-building- This phenomenon, often a majorbarrier to job restructuring, can be found not only in theranks of top management but also at the level of thefirst-line supervisor. Two prominent features of one type ofempire-building are unwarranted grade escalation andinefficient work organization. A hallmark of this situation isa structure in which profess: mats are not being utilized attheir full level, in which there are deputies or assistants notrequired by the work ("layering"). and in which the staffassumes tasks beyond the bounds of the work the unit issupposed to dooften overlapping or duplicating anotherunit's work. Such a work structure is hard to redesignwithout hurting someone and the mere suggestion of it often(for obvious reasons) inspires fear and hostility. (13. pp.23-27)

The experiences of the Alpha project illustratesome of the difficulties encountered in an industrial

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setting. These problems are not uncommon in othercontexts as well.

Critical to the success of the project was the participationof the first-line supervisory staff and foremen. Except forthird shift personnel, they were brought together to go overprogram details prior to the start of the program

Most of the details on the development of the programand I nstruLtional materials had been developed wallow theirinv olv emeilt As a means of involving them, the, weresolicited for their inputs to the nanuals being produced inthe printing and laminating-embossing department.

These occasions were intended to serve the purpose ofinforming and gaining advive as regards the operation of theprogram and especially to win the full support of theforemen for the project. . .

As regards the program. they accepted it but did notbelieve it would really change things. They were never wonover to the program. Getting ahead by improving one'sskills required more motivation than they saw in these newemployees. It was their contention that success wasdependent upon the individual. If he wanted to do it, hecould.

in part, the attitudes of the foremen were racial. Themost adamant were those in print nroduction All theforemen in this unit were whites who had transferred toNew Brunswick when the company shifted its operationsfrom Trenton The other two foremen, in lamination-embossing, were Black and were highly supportive of theprogram. They had also tiansferred in from Trenton .

In part, the negative behavior of the foremen wasprovoked by trainees "hasseling" them, explaining that theyhad to get off production because they were scheduled to goto class. Of course. some employees were disciplineproblems. They excused their work behavior by referring totheir "special" program status

The foremen were also caught in the middle ofmanagerial produLtion demands and low employee morale.The employees felt, vorrectly. that the tympany had notmet its commitments in paying the increased wages on timeThe employee wanted improvements to be made as regardsrest periods. lunch and toilet breaks. While there are nodireLt measures of the impact of these attitudes on foremen,it is logical to assume that they felt some of the brunt ofthese attitudes and some acting-out of felt grievances

The firstline supervisor had little to gain from theprogram. It only inLreased his problems since he wasresponsible for the quality and quantity of the goodsproduced. The program design did not provide any incentivefor him in terms of any bonus or other benefits. .

Program planning in this area must give seri als Lon-sideration to incentives for foremen and supervisors who acenot direct beneficiaries of upgrade programs (16, pp.153-154)

The preceding comments deal specifically withmanagerial and supervisory personnel but they arealso applicable to all employees who will be affectedby, or are in a position to influence the success of.the study.

In many organizations, unions or employee as-sociations can provide the mechanism for informingthe rank and file of the study's purpose and solicitingtheir support. In the Fremont Policc Departmentstudy, for example, the Assistant Project Directorspoke at a police association meeting near the start

44

of the project and wrote .wo articles for the associa-tion's newsletter. Employee comments, questions,and suggestions were encouraged. Although somedepartmental employees were still critical of thestudy, expressing the belief that the resources de-voted to it could have been more profitably em-ployed elsewhere, most were highly cooperative andmany made helpful contributions to its final recom-mendations. This can be at least partially attributedto the project's "open door policy" which kept thestudy from being perceived as a mysterious andmalevolent force.

Relations with personnel officials are particularlyimportant to projects working i, public agencies sub-ject to legislatively mandated merit system pro-cedures. Some civil service officials may oppose ajob analysis study initially because they believe itsresults will increase pressure on them to violate themerit principles by which only the most qualifiedapplicants are considered for public employment. Itmay be necessary to discuss the study's objectivesand procedures with them in some detail to assurethem that any recommendations of final productswill be based on systematically and objectively de-termined assessments of job content and will thusbe in accord with merit principles. Merit systemofficials are more likely to accept projects conductedby agency personnel staffs than those conducted by"outsiders" who lack technical competence in per-sonnel management and who may not appreciate thevalue of preserving these principles. Thus it is par-ticularly important for these "outsiders" to developand convey an understanding of the concerns of themerit system administrator.

The support of top personnel officials is helpful inat leas' ) ways. It provides access to technical ex-pertise . ,:rsonnel management, a factor which isparticularly important when such expertise is notfound among the project staff itself. And it helps torefute the claims of antagonistic or reluctant man-agers that civil service procedures prohibit imple-mentation of the study's recommendations.

Staffing the Project

In most instances, the project staff should con-sist of individuals with varying skills and experience.As was mentioned above. personnel expertise is

helpful because a job analysis study is essentially a

personnel management activity and because thepresence of suca expertise on the staff enhances theproject's standing in the eyes of civil service adminis-trators The Health Manpower Council of Californiarecommends against excessive reliance on personnelanalysts for data gathering, however.

The use of personnel analysts fur this activity immediatelytriggers suspicion and "calculated cooperation" amongother workers. No matter what management sass. mostworkers will believe that the personnel analysts are gong toapply task analysis information to classification (and.therefore, salary) levels Workers will naturally respondaccordingly. (19, p. 8)

Personnel specialists, then, may be most useful astechnical assistants in identifying the kind of data tobe gathered and in reviewing those data in order toformulate recommendations.

Thus it is often advisable to assign data gatheringresponsibilities to persons working in the occupationalarea being studied. Both the Social DevelopmentCorporation projects reviewed here, in law enforce-ment and agriculture, followed this pattern (39. 40).In both cases, it was decided that worker-ana:ystscould be trained within a short period to a sufficientlyhigh level of competence in task analysis techniques.The worker-analysts brought with them an under-standing of the terminology and procedures employedin the occupations being studied and the ability togain the cooperation of the workers being inter-viewed.

The Health Manpower Council offers the follow-ing qualifications requirements for worker-analysts:

Worker Analyst Qualifications. Thorough knowledge of thedepartmental activities. supported by one year of experiencein the department: demonstrated professional competence. apersonality that is reasonably well liked and respected bythe other workers, average intelligence, ability to workindependently; and ability to follow instructions exactly.(Task Analysis looks easy because it is not complicated. It is,in fact, a rigorous disciplineNot required are Advanced wrung skills or previousanalytical experience.Not desirable are Super is irs personnel, except where thesupervision has been confined to clerical asystants (19. p 7)

Task Analysis Survey

While this report was being prepared, the Man-power Management Institute sent questionnaires tograduates of its task analysis training workshops tolearn of their experiences in applying the techniqueand thus aid in planning future workshops. Certain

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of the survey's findings are included here. The greatmajority of the Institute's workshop graduates arefrom public agencies. However, there is little reasonto believe that their experiences differ substantiallyfrom those of persons in the private sector.

There were 86 responses out of more than 500questionnaires sent out. One of the questions was:

"What were your objectives in conducting a taskanalysis?" (Respcndents were asked to choosefrom among 11 suggested objectives and/or tospecify any 0,,,:tives not listed.)

The results suggest that the respondents appreciatethe diverse uses for job analysis data:

Writing or Revising of Job Descriptions-60Determining Qualifications Requirements-49Development or Maintenance of a Position

Classification S;stem -48Career Ladder or Lattice 7:,velopment-46Job Restructuring--46Assessment of Training Needs--35Performance Evaluation-27Training Curriculum Development-21Test Development-19Test Validation-13Employee Career Counseling-13

A similar diversity is revealed in response toquestion on the types of jobs which were analyzed:

Administrative or Managerial-47Clerical --43Paraprofessional-40Professional or Scientific--36Technical-35Skilled Trades-22Semisk:lled-22Unskilled-21

a

The survey responses indicate that job analyseshave been conducted in most of the functional areaswhich are performed in the public sector:

General Administration-36Social Services-27Education-21Planning and Development--19Health-18Environmental Services-13Public Works-13Public Safety--11Transportation-10Library-9Recreation-8Housing-6

Workshop graduates .vere asked to name the majorobstacles to performing a job analysis in their orga-nizations. Money appears to be the number one prob-lem:

Funding not available-34Lack of top management support-27Lack of available manpower and/or time-21Civil service or personnel department opposi-

tion-16First line supervisors opposition-14Middle management opposition-13Union or employee organization opposition-9

The subject of obtaining funds to support a jobanalysis study warrants further discussion, not onlybecause it ranked first in the list of obstacles, butalso because it is directly related to the second andthird barriers. The reluctance of top managers is oftenbased, at least partially, on a simple concern for fund-ing the study. If outside funding should becomeavailable, this reluctance may be overcome. Also,"lack of available manpower and/or time" is oftenanother way of saying lack of money to purchasethese resources.

Traditionally, the greatest source of outside fund-ing, especially for State and local agencies has beenthe Federal Government. Certain Federal agencieshave particular interests in specific functional areas:

Department of Health, Education, and Welfare(Education, Health, Libraries, Mental Health,Rehabilitation Services, Social Services).

Department of Housing and Urban Development(Housing Inspection and Code Enforcement,Planning and Development)

Department of Justice (Criminal Justice, DrugAbuse Prevention, Juvenile Delinquency)Department of Laboc (Manpower)Department of Transportation (Airports, High-way, Transit)Environmental Protection Agency (Environ-mental Services)

Since job analysis is a personnel function, the In-tergovernmental Personnel Program, administered bythe U.S. Civil Service Commission, is a possiblesource for State and local governments. Organizationsin the private sector may want to contact the U.S.Department of Commerce or the Small Business Ad-ministration. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assist-ance, published by the U.S. Government PrintingOffice, identifies specific Federal programs, describeseligibility requirements, and provides guidance in ap-plying for funds. Also, the regional offices of all Fed-eral agencies involved in domestic assistance pro-grams have been clustered in 10 cities, making 1- or2-day "grantsmanship" visits more feasible.

Private foundations represent another potential,,ource of support for job analysis studies. A standardreference in this area is The Foundation Directory,prepared by the Foundation Center and distributedby the Columbia University Press. To the extent thatrevenue sharing becomes a reality, persons interesteuin job analysis in the public sector will have to pre-sent their arguments for such efforts to State andlocal officials. Finally, two or more organizations withsimilar personnel needs may decide to cooperate ineither funding the ..,tudy themselves or seeking outsidehelp. For example, two police departments could pooltheir resources to conduct an analysis. Many Federalagencies encourge such cooperative ventures.

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VI. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions

What follows are some thoughts written by onewho has recently begun to surface from beneath apaper avalanche of job analysis reports, workingpapers, task inventories, and assorted human resourcemanagement tomes. First, a brief rephrasing of per-haps the four most important points made in thispaper:

1. The purpose(s) tor which a job analysis isconducted should dezerr.iinc the ty pe of informationcollected, how it is documented, and the dimensic,T.on which it is rated.

2. Persons interested in applying any of the jobanalysis methodologies discussed in this report shouldcontact the appropriate researchers directly for com-plete and current information. (Addresses are foundin appendix C.)

3. To be successful, a job analysis project mustdevote sufficient attention to certain nontechnicalmatters, including as clear an articulation of organiza-tional and project objectives as possible, acquisitionof adequate and appropriate staff capabilities, anddevelopment of support from all concerned persons.

4. Although a job analysis study will require aninitial expenditure of resources which may seem pro-hibitive to top managers, it can often be justified asa means of developing more efficient personnel man-agement practices. Creative grantsmanship and co-operative efforts among organizations with similarneeds can help solve funding problems.

As was stated earlier, this report does not attemptto make systematic evaluations of the various job

analysis methodologies. However, some general com-ments can be made with regard to certain techniquesand their appropriateness for two of the most com-mon job analysis applicationsjob restructuring andeducation and training program development.

When job restructuring is the goal, the Depart-ment of Labor approach appears adequate for thosesituations in which jobs from only one, or a iew close-ly related, occupational categories are being studied.Depending on the types of work with which theanalysts are concerned, various adaptations of oradditions to the DOL scales may be appropriate.W hen more ambitious career ladder and lattice de-velopment is desired, involving a large, complex or-ganization with a diversity of job classifications or,perhaps, more than one organization, the DOL ap-proach is less satisfactory. The key to horizontal,diagonal, and extensive vertical mobility is common-ality in skills and knowledge requirements, Theworker functions concept begins to address this issue,but only in the most general way. The Health Serv-ices Mobility Study's (HSMS) skills and knowledgetaxonomy is much more appropriate for this situa-tion. The HSMS methodology is resource consuming,though, and may thus be unattractive to even largeorganizations unless there is the possibility of outsidefunding. The best setting for the use of this approachis probably very similar to that in which it was de-velopeda research and development effort to

gather and analyze data and to develop career modelsin a given occupational or professional area whichcan be adopted, with modifications, by local prac-titioners.

The Upjohn Institute's Functional Job Analysisshares many of the characteristics of the Departmentof Labor approach from which it is derived. Per-

47S1

haps its most impoLiatti contribution is its systemsorientation by which it encourages a critical review ofwork procedures and forces a specific delineation oforganizational goals and objectives. To do this, itrequires close support and involvemen from all levelsof decisionmaking and all relevant types of exper-tisea desirable feature in any job analysis.

The Department of Labor task statement,written in terms of "what the worker does" and "whatgets done," allows the analyst to document the jobcontent data in a standardized way. It also providesfor maintaining P proper perspective on worker-ori-ented, as well as job-oriented, characteristics of thework situation. It would be strengthened, though, byaddition of the Health Services Mobility Study's taskdefinition which insures the proper specificity of thedata for job restructuring purposes. (This definitionis discussed in appendix A.)

Because of the unfortunate way in which so manyeducation and training programs are developedthrough a combination of tradition, plagiarism fromother organizations, and haphazard adoption of what-ever materials or instructors are availableany proc-ess of systematic task identification should be animprovement. But mere task inventories, in whichcurriculum content must be inferred from task state-ments which were written to describe the work beingperformed, not the skills and knowledge required toperform it, are inadequate. (The Department of La-bor's Task Analysis Imentories (54) provides sup-plemental skills end knowledge information, but notall checklist-type documents do so.) Many times theseinferences are self-evident, but often slippages canoccura type of skill or knowledge which is impor-tant for acceptable tas'.. performance may not bereadily apparent, especially to the currkulum designerwho has only the task statement to work with andhas not had sufficient indepth exposure to the jobitself.

The Health Services MobiLy Study addressed thisproblem by incorporating a determination of the re-quired skills and knowledge into the initial data-gathering process. The HSMS skills may be too ab-stract, not specific enough, for projects in whichabstraction is not particularly beneficial, i.e., those inwhich there is little or no job restructuring or careerladder development contemplated. In such instance,analysts are less interested in generalized skills de-velopment which can form the basis for mobilityacross occupational lines than they are in specific,job-related training content information. Althoughthe HSMS methodology does provide this informa-

tion, a streamlined approach, also incorporatingskills and knowledge identification into the initialdata-gathering process, could be developed forprojects with more limited curriculum developmentneeds. Interviewers might simpty ask task per-formers, and their supervisors, to give some thoughtto and then list those skills and krrowledges requiredfor satisfactory performance of each specific task.Tiis information could then be displayed as anadjunct to the basic task statement, much the wayit :s in the Functional Job Analysis technique.

Recommendations

The recommendations which follow are directedto the Manpower Administration of the U.S. De-partment of Labor. That organization has the nu-cleus of the staff capability required to implementther,-, although additional personnel and financialresources will be needed in most cases. The Man-power Administration also has programatic respon-sibilities with regard to improved human resourceutilization which would be well served by a greateremphasis on job analysis.

I. The Manpower Adrn nistration should supportrese,,rch to develop and test procedures for usingjob analysi., in the area of qualifications examining.The elimination of needlessly restrictive entry re-quirements is an essential part of job developmentactivities. The courts and the Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission provide powerful incen-tiveL in this area. But employers need to know notonly that they must establish equitable hiring poli-cies, but also how to do so. The link between jobcontent information and examining procedures whichaccurately reflect that content has not been firmlyestablished.

The job element examining procedure, which hasbet n developed by the U.S. Civil Service Commis-sio.i and applied extensively in Federal trades andlabor occupations, is clearly worthy of serious at-tention in this regard. The Manpower Administra-tion's involvement would not necessarily includefurther development of the job element approach,duplicating the Civil Service Commission's efforts,bul. rather would concentrate on testing its effective-ness in a variety of occupations. For example, theidentification of job elements in essentially manual,

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1

"things-onented," blue-collar jobs may prove aneasier task than similar efforts with administrativeor service occupations which involve extensive dataor people relationships. Also, job element examin-ing has thus far been practiced primarily by theFederal Government. Its use in smaller organiza-tions, with fewer resources devotee to personnelmanagement, may require procedural modifications.In any event, the goal should be the developmentof examining techniques which will allow employ-ers of all types and sizes to pursue fair hiring prac-tices.

2. The Manpower Administration should supportresearch exploring the potential of lob analysis inthe related areas of productivity measurement andemployee performance evaluation. This researchmight be carried out in conjunction with other in-terested organizations, such as the National Commis-sion on Productivity.

Many factors contribute to changes in productiv-ity, including technological advances and othervariations in capital inputs. Worker performance,however, plays a significant role, especially in labor-intensive industries such as the human services andin managenal, professional, and scientific jobs. But:t is in these jobs, where the outputs are often in-tangible, that performance evaluation is most diffi-cult. Job analysis can identify these outputs andprovide an objective basis for relating them to or-ganizational goals.

Research in this area can also lead to more ac-curate procedures for evaluating the effectiveness ofthe various job analysis methodologies. A majorreason for conducting an analysis, certainly a ma-jor argument for gaining support for it among topmanagers, is the presumed beneficial effect that theresulting job restructuring alternatives or trainingcurricula will have on organizational productivity.Without reliable performance evaluation criteria, itis impossible to document these effects or even toidentify them accurately.

Labor unions and employee organizations willhave an interest in job analysis and its impact onperformance and productivity measurement Theirinvolvement in this type of research should be soughtso that any resulting analytical tools are not, andare not perceived to be, helpful only to manage-ment.

3. The Manpower Administration should work incooperation with the Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration of the Department of Labor to in-

crease the effectiveness of job analysis as a tool forOSHA personnel in carrying out their inspection andcompliance responsibilities. The Physical Demandsand Environmental Conditions factors, as describedand illustrated in the Handbook for Analyzing Jobs,form the basis for a structured approach to theidentification of safety hazards in the workplaceTraining in their use can be of substantial value toFederal inspectors and to safety officers within in-dividual organizations.

4. Full dissemination of job analysis research in-formation to personnel and manpower practitionersshould be a continuing priority of the ManpowerAdministra:ion. An important component of thisshould be the preparation of practical, how-to-do-itmanuals for each of the various applications of jobanalysis data. The Handbook for Analyzing Jobs isan excellent reference work with complete descrip-tions and illustrations for the Labor Department'smethodology. But practitioners at the local level alsoneed to know how to use the data they have gath-ered and analyzed. The Labor Department's Hand-book for Job Restructuring provides a precedent,and perhaps a model, for this type of documentSimilar publications covering such areas as curricu-lum development, qualifications examining, and per-formance evaluation will help encourage the use ofjob analysis for these purposes.

Advances in the state of the art of job analysisare occurring in many widely dispersed settings.Governmental agencies, private foundations, andeducational institutions are all sponsoring or con-ducting research which should be of interest to prac-titioners. Also, employers in both the private andpublic sectors have had valuable experiences in ap-plying analytical techniques. Thz Manpower Ad-ministration should publ.sh a periodic newsletter re-porting on activities in this field. The newsletterwould include both information on basic researchand case studies of specific projects.

5. The Manpower Administration should providetechnical support for, and otherwise encourage thedevelopment of, task banks for specific occupations,professions, and industries. In their study of voca-tional education, the Battelle staff found an "apparent similarity of entry-level skill requirementsamong employers" which would justify creation ofa nationwide test bank. This work could oe funded,sponsored, and/or performed by any of

several organizationscommercial, industrial, orprofessional associations, relevant Federal agPrxi.s,

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and labor unions For example, in education, supportcould come from the Office of Education, the Na-tional Education Association, and:or the AmericanFederation of Teachers. In law enforcement, thefunding might come from the Law EnforcementAssistance Administration or the Police Founda-tion, with cosponsorship by the International As-sociation of Chiefs of Police. In general purposeState and local governments, there are numerouspossibilitiesthe National League of Cities, the i a-tional Governors' Conference, the International Per-sonnel Management Association, and the AmericanFederation of State, County and Municipal Employ-ees. In the automobile industry, a cooperative ven-ture between one of the "big four" manufacturersand the United Auto Workers could contribute tothe resolution of some of their labor relations prob-lems which have become increasingly critical. As ageneral ruic, joint labor, management efforts shouldbe ent.ouraged in order to assure the highest qualityresults and the best chances for ultimate implemen-tation.

The choice of methodology to be employed ingathering the task bank data should of course be afirst priority. It should be based on a realistic assess-ment of the occupation's needs, i.e., in the humanservices, the Functional Job Analysis (FJA) or Ca-reer Opportunities Research and Development(CORD) scales might be used, while in an indus-trial setting, emphasis might be placed on an ex-panded and more specific Things scale. Data shouldbe rated on as many dimensions as possible to maxi-mize the potential uses at the local loci. The initialeffort in such a venture would, of course, be timeand resource consuming and procedures for pe-

riodic updates of the data would have to be estab-lished But the potential value, in more efficientand equitable manpower utilization, would be enor-mo-s, especially for those local-level practitionerswho do not have the resources to do the initial datagathering and analysis themselves.

6 Further research Inc' development is called forwith regard to the Department of Labor's basic jobanalysis. methodology. For exampic, J Departmentof Labor Worker Functions scales need to be modi-fied to reflect both new types of work it, today'seconomy and changes in the way older types of workhave been performed. Just as researchers have cre-ated new worker functions to accommodate the newemphasis on human services occupations, functionsshould be developed which are capable of describ-ing more precise]) activities associated with emerg-ing technolo -il processes. The world of work is adynamic oni, and procedures for understanding itmust keep pace.

7. The Manpower Adm!nbaration should activelypromote training in job analysis and its applicationsfor employer services representatives and otherState employment service personnel. Increased at-tention is being paid within the U.S. EmploymentService, and its State agencies, to enhancing theircapability for providing employers with technicalpersonnel management assistance. Job analysis is alogical component of such a strat3gy. All employerservices representatives should be fully aware of jobanalysis' value in this area so that they may be ofgreater assistance in addressing individual employ -ers' needs.

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11117NNI.

APPENDIXES

Si

A. The Task Description

The single most important piece of informationgathered during the course of a job analysis is thebasic task description. Not only does this descrip-tion serve, when written properly, as the founda-tion for the various scalings and other judgmentsmade about worker activities, but it also providesthe greater portion of the insights useful for applyingthe study's data. Most organizations, even thosewith formal position classification plans, have neverlooked at their employees' activities in detail greaterthan that of the general duty statement. The processof reviewing and describing job content in morespecific terms can uncover such things as inaccur-ate job descriptions, overlapping worker responsi-bilities, and blatantly non-job-related performancestandards, qualifications requirements, and trainingprograms. None of this is intended to minimize theimportance of the various scales used in analysis,but merely to emphasize the primacy of completeand accurate task data.

Discrepancies in the level of specificity of the datagathered represent a major obstacle to making ef-fective use of those data. An analyst confronted witha melange of duty, task, and element statementswill be forced, in most cases, to repeat large seg-ments of the data-gathering process in order toresolve questions. Information which is too generalmay be useless. That which is too specific may ormay not be helpful, but it is often more difficultto manage. Excessively precise data also requirethe needless expenditure of precious staff resourcesduring the gathering phase.

There is, of course, no one "best" or "right"level of specificity for an analysis. The applicationsto which the data will be put, the reasons for thestudy, will determine the appropriate level. Em-ployment test construction, for example, may re-quire data that are more detailed than would be

53

required for job restructuring. Once the level ofspecificity is decided upon, however, it is importantto insure that all the data gathered are at that levelso that the risk of comparing apples and oranges isavoided. One way of doing this is to develop orborrow standardized definitions for each level andto adhere to them faithfully.

The U.S. Department of Labor uses the follow-ing definitions in its job analysis methodology.

1. Element is the smallest step into which it is practicableto subdivide any work activity without analyzing separatemotions, movements, and mental processes involved.

2 Task is one or more elements and is one of the distinctactivities that constitute logical and necessary steps in theperformance of work by the worker. A task is created.-.,,enever human effort, phys*cal or mental, is exerted toaccomplish a specific purpose.

3 Position is a collection of tasks constituting the totalwork assignment of a single worker. There are as manypositions as there are workers in the country.

4. Job is a group of positions which are identical withrespect to ;heir major or significant tasks and sufficientlyalike to justify their being covered by a single analysis.There may b.: one or many persons employed in the samejob. (52, p. 3)

One immediately apparent characteristic of thesedefinitions is their rather imprecise nature. The dis-tinction between a task and an element is not clear.Elements are described simply as being the nextlarger step above some vague undefined "sepa-rate motions, movements, and mental processes." Atask is then defined in terms of elements, a positionin terms of tasks, and a job in terms of positions.No level, such as "duty," exists to reflect a group ofseveral functionally related tasks which do not, how-ever, constitute a L:11 position. However, it shouldbe noted that several of the projects studied in thisreport used these definitions and appear to havedeveloped usable information, although it is notknown of course, whether more precise definitionswould have resulted in even better data. In the

Fremont Police study, staff members developed un-written but mutually agreed upon guidelines for iden-tifying tasks, based largely on intuitive judgmentsas to whether individual statements would be toogeneral or too specific for the project's purposes.The Assistant Project Director had responsibility forreviewing the task data to insure uniform levels ofspecificity. Perhaps this procedure was followed inother research efforts as well. As mentioned before,however, problems can arise when uniformity of thedata is not understood to be a-, important considera-tion.

The Department of Labor uses the followingstandardized format for writing task statements.

1. The subject is always the worker (implied but notexpressed).

2. The verb, which always begins the sentence, issynonymous with the worker function (i.e., the primary data,people, or thim,s_relationship).

3 The immediate object is either data. people, orMTEWA (Machines, Tools, Equipment, and Work Aids):

in case of a data function, the object is informationin some form.in case of a people function, the object is usually thepeople to whom a service is being rendered.in case of a things function, the object is a machine,tool, equipment, or work aid through which the actionof the verb is performed.

4. The infinitive phrase has a varying influence as amodifier:

the infinitive is the work field.the object of the infinitive is MPSMS (MaterialsProducts, Subject Matter, and Services). (52, p. 7)

This format makes the crucial, and very helpful,distinction between what the worker does and whatgets done. This distinction is often blurred in every-day speech and can easily lead to confusion whe.iprecise information is needed. For example, an em-ployee may describe his task as "processing orderforms." Actually, however, the processing of formsis what gets done. What the worker does may con-sist of reading the forms to highlight certain infor-mation contained in them, reviewing them for ac-curacy or completeness, comparing information Jnthe forms against standardized guidelines, or any ofseveral other actions. These activities may all be per-formed by the same worker simultaneously or se-quentially or they may each be performed by dif-ferent workers. An emphasis on identifying whatthe worker does, as well as what gets done, revealsjob restructuring opportunities, training needs, quali-fications requirements, and performance standardswhich would otherwise not have been manliest.

The task definition used in the Functional JobAnalysis approach reflects that technique s systemsorientation:

54

A task is an action or action sequence grouped through timedesigned to contribute a specified end result to theaccomplishment of an objective and for which functionallevels and orientation can be reliably assigned.A task is derived from a system objective (that is, it isdesigned in the first place as a means of moving toward anobjective) and when it is executed properly by a worker, theresult of the task becomes an input to the accomplishmentof that objective. (11, p. 9)

FJA, like the Department of Labor methodologyfrom which it has evolved, stresses the distinctionbetween what the worker does and what gets done.The task statement format is also similar to DOL'swith a subject understood to be the worker but notexpressed, an action verb telling what the workerdoes, and an infinitive phrase telling what getsdone. Because FJA is goal directed, this "what getsdone" portion must be clearly related to the accom-plishment of an organizational objective. By thesame token, "what the worker does" must be logic-ally related to "what gets done." The materials, tools,equipmerit, or work aids used in the performanceof the task are also specified. The FJA task state-ment includes an additional component indicatingthose parts of the task which are prescribed for theworker and those which are left to his orher dis-cretion. This final component is thus related toFJA's Scale of Worker Instructions.

The following is an example of a Functional JobAnalysis task statement:

Asks client questions, listens to responses, and writesanswers on standard intake form, exercising leeway as tosequence of questions. in order to record basic identifyinginformation. (11. p. 20)

The activities of asking, listening, and writing arelogically related to the final result-recording infor-mation, and this result contributes to the accom-plishment of agency objectives.

Because of its emphasis on actions, results, andobjectives, the FJA task statement is more than astill photograph of the activity going on in an or-ganization at a given time. It is intended to serve asa check for an organization concerned with seeingthat its work procedures and employee utilizationpolicies reflect the most efficient way of reaching itsgoals.

The Health Services Mobility Study has producedthe most complete task definition of anv of the proj-ects reviewed.

A task is a ser.es or set of work activities (elements) that areneeded to produce an identifiable output that can heindependently consumed or used, or that can be used as aninput in a further stage of production by an individual whomay or may not be the performer of the task (20, p. 3-2).

In the HSMS methodology, tasks are identified hiterms of their output, what is used in producing thatoutput, and the recipients, respondents, or coworkersinvolved in them Variations in any of these threefactors will result in the identification of a separatetask. For example, two workers may both use thesame machine to process goods for the same recipi-ent. If, however, one worker must be able to exploitall of the machine's capabilities to produce one typeof product (output) while the other performs a rela-tively simple operation to produce a different prod-uct, the workers are performing different tasks. Sim-ilarly, if two workers produce the same output forthe same recipient but, of necessity, use differentkinds of equipment (e.g. manual v. power .lsistedv. fully automated), each is performing a differenttask. Finally, different tasks are involved when therecipients differ, for example, a nu-se aide whomakes a bed for an ambulatory pat:en:: as opposedto one who makes a bed L. a pc 3toi..r:tive pa-tient requiring special handling.

In all these instances, the differ nces in output,what is used or recipient reflect differences in eitherthe types or levels of required skills or knowledge.The HSMS job and curriculum ladders are to bebuilt around the identification of these required skillsand knowledge.

In their search for an adequate task definition.the HSMS staff set several criteria which had to bemet. One of these was that each task had to be"sufficiently self-contained to be moved from jobto job or from employee to employee- for a jobladder development purposes. This was accom-plished by requiring that every task have an "identi-fiable output- which can be used by a consumer or

by another worker to advance production. An ac-tivity which does not result in such ar. output isan element. For example, the preparation of a sur-gical instrument tray prior to an operation is a tasksince the output, the prepared tray, can be used byanother worker. The washing of hands by a surgeonprior to an operation, however, is an element, sinceonly the surgeon can use that output, the washedhands.

The "identifiabie output- requirement also servedto meet a second criterion for a task definitionthat it be "sufficiently reliable for different analysts,seeing the same -Rork, to agree on the task units:*An analyst who is uncertain as to whether a givenworker activity is a task, as opposed to an element,need only determine whether the output of that ac-tivity can be used directly by a consumer or by an-other worker. If it can, the analyst has identified atask. If the output of the activity is of use only tothe performer, an element has been identified.

Since the HSMS method requires very completeand detailed task data, the single sentence formatused b, the Labor Department and FJA was con-sidered to be inadequate. Instead, a new formatwas developed with places for the three factors intask identification discussed above and for a com-plete list of elements (figure 1).

The HSMS procedure is complex and cannot bedescribed fully within the confine.. of this report.Persons encountering it for the first time are oftensomewhat iritimidated by it, although i-, principlescan be mastered with a little concentrated study.Its qualities of precision, inter-rater reliability, com-pleteness, and appropriateness for job restructur-ing, however, make such study worth the effort.

Code 33

FIGURE 1. HEALTH SERVICES MOBILITY STUDYTASK IDENTIFICATION SUMMARY SHEET

This is task 3 of 18 for this performer.

This is page 1 of 2 for this task.

Performer's Name Analyst(s)

Job Title Institution

Dept

Date

I. What is the output of this task? (Be sure this is broad enoughto be repeatable.)

Sutures removed: healing evaluated; wound irrigated. dressed.bandaged. medication prescribed and or administered: recordente red.

2. What is used in performing this task? (Note if only certainitems must be used. If there is choice. include everything orthe kinds of things chosen among.)

Patient's chart. pen. requisition forms. sterile gloves. antisepticsolution. swabs. sterile clamp. forceps or tweezers. scissors. sterilesyringe. sterile dressing. bandages. tape. medications as ordered.

3. Is there a recipient, respondent or coworker intolted in thetask' Yes . . . ) No . . . (X)

4. If 'Yes' to q. 3: Name the kind of recipient. respondent. orcoworker involved. with descriptions to indicate the relevantcondition: include the kind with whom the performer is notallowed to deal if relevant to knowledge requirements orlegal restrictions

Any patient to have sutures removed: accompanying adult ifpediatric patient: subordinate

5. Name the task so that the answers to questions 1-4 arereflected. Underline essential words

Removing any patient's sutures. by reviewing case. applyingantiseptiz. lifting up sutures using clamp: cutting sutures andremoving with forceps or tweezers: evaluating healing: orderingirrigation. bandaging, and or antibiotic medication. orderingfollowup if needed. recording

6 Check here if this is a master s' cet . (X)

56

;---e`51

List Elements Fully

Performer removes patient's sutures as a result of:

a. Having performed incision and suturing per-sonally. after ordering revisit for removal ofsutures.

b. Referral to performer.

1. If appropriate. reviews patient's chart to ascertainrelevant medical history. Pcrformer may decideto delegate al! or part of procedure to coworkeror subordinate. If so. explains what is to be done.

2. Performer orders materials to be used or checksmaterials already prepared.

3. Performer greets patient and accompanying adultif patient is child. Explains what will be done.Performer examines sutured areas and notescondition and healing.

4. Performer has patient prepared and dons sterilegloves. May personally swab area with antisepticsolution.

5. Performer uses clamp to hold up stiches: cutesutures with appropriate scissors. Pulls out sutureswith forceps or tweezers.

6. Examines wound for signs of infection. Maydecide to irrigate with antiseptic or order woundirrigated May use syringe or pour on solution.If performer decides that antibiotics are needed.orders and administers or has administered bysubordinate. Writes and/or signs order formedication Performer may explain to patient (oraccompanying adult) how to take medication athome.

7 Performer may dress and bandage wound or havesubordinate dress and bandage. specifying whatto use and any medications. May order followupexamiiation.

8. Enters record of what was done and anymedication prescribed on patient's chart.

B. Task Dimensions

Clear, precise, and comprehensive task descrip-tions are necessary, but not sufficient, for jobstructuring, training program development, and simi-lar human resource management activities. Severalscales have been developed, by the Department ofLabor and others, which highlight certain aspectsof each task, provide bases for ranking by level ofcomplexity, and facilitate comparisons among tasks.None of these scales should be thought to have equalapplicability to all possible manpower developmentor personnei management purposes. However, manyare valuable analytical tools when used in appropri-ate situations for appropriate purposes. This sectiondiscusses the various scales which have been devel-oped for different job analysis methodologies, assessestheir strengths and weaknesses when a basis forsuch judgments exists, and suggests appropriate usesfor each.

Worker Functions

The Worker Functions (data-people-things)scales occupy a central place in the Department ofLabor methodology (figure 2). They were used byseveral of the projects reviewed in this report. Theyhave been subjected to criticism, some of it valid,some of it predicated on misunderstandings concern-ing their purpose and their proper use.

The Worker Functions concept is based on thepremise t, at every task calls for its performer tofunction in relation to each of three primitivesData, People, and Things. Scales have been de-veloped for each primitive showing the various lev-els of complexity at which a relationship may exist.Each of thesa scales is said to be hierarchical innature with the levels arranged from Lhe relativelysimple to the complex.

57

According to the Dictionary of OccupationalTitles, "each successive relationship includes thosethat are simpler and excludes the more complex."This general principle, however, is violated at leastpartially in all three scales. The Labor Departmentitself notes that "as each of the relationships toPeople represents a wade range of complexity re-su'Aing in considerable overlap among occupations,their arrangement is somewhat arbitrary and canbe considered a hierarchy only in the most generalsense." Thus, a Supervising task will not necessar-ily include such "simpler" functions as Diverting orPersuading althodgh it will always exclude the higherlevel relationships such as Instructing. (50, vol. II,p. 649)

The same point can be ,trade about the Datascale a:though the Labor Department does not do so.For example, an Analyzing task will always ex-clude Coordinating but will not necessarily includeComputing or Copying. One critic of worker func-tions contends that Data levels 4, 5, and 6 (Com-puting, Copying, and Comparing) "are h re repre-sentative of different types of work than levels.Level 4 involves arithmetic functions, while level 5is basically concerned with clerical and posting du-ties. Level 6 would clearly include many low-leveltesting and inspection jobs. In a sense, what we seehere is a tierarchy; which, in the finai analysis re-flects the I. .vest skilled date relationship for threedifferent kinds of jobs." (37, p. 37)

Final:y, the Department of Labor's Handbook forAnalyzing Jobs, published 7 years after th' Dic-tionary of Occupational Titles, points out that theThings scale is u-tually two separate scales with thedetermining factor being the use of a machine inthe performance of the task. When a machine isinvoked, the appropriate Things relationship shouldbe Setting Up, Operating-Controlling, Driving-

FIGURE c. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WORKER FUNCTIONS

DATA: I..formation, knowledge, and conceptions. related to data, peopl or things, obtained by observation. Investigation,interpretation, .isualizatiun, mental creation. incapable of being tutichec, written data take the form of numbers, words,symbols; other data are ideas, concepts, oral verbalization.

0Synthesizing. Integrating analyses of data to discip.er facts and or de,elop knowledge concepts ur interpretations.I CoordinatIng. Determining time, place. and sequence of operations or action to be taken on the basis of analysis ofdata; executing determinations and/or reporting on events.

2Anal,zing. Examining and evaluating data. Presenting alternat-o,e actions in relation to the evaluation is frequentlyinvolved.

3 Compiling Gathering, collating, ur classifying inform.non about data, people, ur things. Reporting and, as carrying out aprescribed action in relation to the information is frequently involved.

4 Computing Performing arithmetic operations and reporting on and ur carrying out a prescribed action in relation to themDoes not Include counting.

5Copying: Transcribing, entering, or posting data.

6Conir..rin,, Judging the readily observable functional, structural, or compositional characteristics twhether similar to ordivergent from obvious standards) of data. people. or things.

PEOPLE: Human beings. also animals dealt with on an individual basis as if they were human.

0---Ventoring Dealing with individuals in terms of their total personality in order to advise counsel, and, or guide them withregard to problems that may be resohed by legal. scientific, clinical, spiritual. and or other professional principles.

IVegot.ating Exchanging ideas, information, and opinions with others to formulate policies and programs and. or arrivejointly at decisions, conclusions, or solutions.

2Ins:rutting Teaching subject matter to others. or training othei., tinclt ding animals) through explanation, demonstration,and supervised practice; or making recommendations on the basis of technical disciplines.

3Supera;ng Determining or interpreting work procedures for a group of workers. assigning specific duties to them,maintaining harmonious relations among them, and promoting efficiency.

4Diverting: Amusing others.

5Persuading Influencing others in favor of a product. service, or point of view

6 Speaking- Signaling Talking with and or signaling people to coney or exchange information. Includes giving assigr.-ments and/or direction. to helpers or assistants.

7Ser,,ng Attending to the needs or requests of people or animals or the expressed or implicit wishes of people. Im-mediate response is involved,

THINGS. Iiianimate objects as distinguished from human beings. substances o. materials, machines, tools, equipment, prod-ucts A thing is tangible and has shape, form. and other physical characteristics.

0 Setting Up Adjusting machines or equipment by replacing ur altering tool.. jigs. fixtures, and attachments to preparethem to perform their functions. change their performance. or restore their proper functioning if they break down. Workerswho set up une or a number of machines fur other workers or who set up and personally operate a variety of machines areincluded here.

I Prtc,sion Workmg Using body members and ur tools or work aids to work, move, guide or place objects or materialsin situations where ultimate responsibility fur the attainment of standards ...curs and selection of appropriate tools, objects, Jrmaterials, and the adjustment of the tool to the task require exercise; of considerable judgment.

2Operating-Controlling Starting. stopping, controlling, and adjusting the progress Of machines or equipment designed tfabricate and ur process objects ur materials Operating machines invokes setting up the machine and adjusting the machine ur material as the work progresses. Controlling equipment involves observing gages, dials, etc., and turning salvesand other deices to control such factor- as temperature, pressure. flow of liquids, speed of pumps, and reactions of mate-rials Setup involves several variables and adjustment is more frequent than in tending.

Starting. stopping, and controlling the actions of machines or equipment for which a course must besteered, or which must be guided. in order to fabricate, process. and or move things ur people. Involves such activi ,es asobserving gages and dials. estimating distances and determining speed and direction of other objects. turning cranks andwheels. pushing clutches Jr( brakes, and pushing ur pulling gear lifts ur levers. Includes such machines as cranes, c< 'Ivey( ,systems, tractor:, furnace charging machines, pacing machines. and hoisting machines. Excludes manually po...creamachines. such as handtnicks and dollies. and power assisted machines, such as electric wheelbarrows and handtnicks.

58

FIGURE 2 (continued)

4Manipulating. Using body members, tools, or special devices to work, move, guide, or place obje,:ts or materials. In-volves some latitude for judgment with regard to precision attained and selecting appropriate tool, object, ur material,although this is readily manifest.

5Tending Starting, stopping, and observing the functioning of machines and equipment. Involves adjusting materialsor controls of the machine, such as hanging guides, adjusting timers and temperature gages, turning valves to allow flowof materials, and flipping switching in response to lights. Little judgment is involved in making these adjustments.

5Feeding-Offbeat-mg Inserting, throwing, dumping, or placing materials in or removing them from machines or equip-ment which are automatic or tended or operated by other workers.

7Handling. Using body members, handtools, aril or special devices to work, move, or carry objects or materials. In-volves little or no latitude for judgment with regard to attainment of standards or in selecting appropriate tool, object, urmaterial.

NOTE Included in the concept of Feeding-Offbearing, Tending, Operating-Controlling, and Setting Up is the situationin which the worker is actually part of the setup of the machine, either as the holder and guider of the material orholder and guider of the tool.

Operating, Tending, or Feeding-Offbearing. Whenno machine is involved, for example when theworker uses handtools in performing the task, one ofthe nonmachine functions, Precision Working, Ma-nipulating, or Handling, is appropriate. Even thesesubscales, moreover, do not meet the Labor De-partment's definition of hierarchical. For example,an airline pilot's task of flying an airplane (Thingslevel 3, Driving-Operating) can hardly be calledless complex than his navigator's task of operatingnavigational equipment (level 2, Operating-Controlling), while neither task includes Feeding-Offbearing (level 6).

The foregoing discussion indicates strongly thatthe Worker Functions scales have serious draw-backs with regard to meacuring task complexity. Ifthey are used for this purpose, it should be doneonly in conjunction with other scales, such as thosefor General Educational Development. The primaryvalue of the Data-People-Things scales is descrip-tive rather than hierarchial. They provide explicit,tightly controlled language for use in describing spe-cific worker activities. Their value in this respect issuggested by an excerpt from a classic in the fieldof position classification:

The use of such ambiguous terms as "assist," "prepare,""handle." "edit," "examine." "conduct research," "supervise,""review" etc., vvithout any eAplanation of the processes,tasks, or onerations constituting the assistance. handling, orpreparation almost invariably is a sign of inadequacy ofinformation. .

The word ' assist," when used alone, is capable of so widea latitude of interpretation as to render it almost meaning-tes^ for riiccification purposes An employee who assists ina given piccc of work may perform such simple duties assearching files and assembling material for the use of a

59

supervisor subject to the latter's close supervision, r r he mayperform other duties ranging from the most simple ones allthe way vgr-the scale to the point where he performs exactlythe same duties as the one whom he assists, the only differ-ence being the element of higher responsibility for the workinherent in the senior position....Much, or very little, may be contained within the meaningof the word "prepare." For example. 'to prepare statisticaltables of a certain sort)" might mean that the employee onhis own initiative seeks out or develops sources of basicinformation, plans the schedules or outlines other means ofcollecting the information required, designs the tables, andwrites interpretative text as well, or it might simply meanthat he copies numbers from given places on a schedule,posts them to a given column and line on a tabulationsheet. adds columns, and computes averages and percentageson a calculating machine. (5. p. 87)

Although the above passage was written morethan 30 years ago, ambiguous terminology remainsa common feature of position descriptions andother statements of job content. Each level on thethree Worker Functions scales is accompanied bya definition written in precise terms. The Hand-book for Analyzing Jobs also contains several illus-trative worker activities for each function. For ex-ample, "coordinating" is a popular term on employeeresumes and job descriptions. According to the La-bor Department, coordinating is defined as "deter-mining time, place, and sequence of operations oraction to be taken on the basis of analysis of data;executing determinations and,'or reporting onevents." An illustrative situation would be "plansand establishes collection routes and directs assign-ment of personnel and equipment in the operationof a municipal sanitation departmt-nt." (Note. Notall of the Labor Department's illustrative situationsare tasks. This example would be a position, or

perhaps a duty if such a level existed in their meth-odology.)

Job Analysis, 1970, ty C. Harold Stone and DaleYoder, contains an Activity Verb List which pro-vides ev--1 greater precision in the defining of termsrelating to worker activities. This list includes, anddefines, several additional verbs under each workerfunction on the Data and People scales. For example.under "copying" are listed record, post,. tabulate,list, transpose, duplicate, transcribe, and quote. Thisexpanded list gives the job analyst an additional toolto insure that worker activities are assigned theirappropriate functional ratings. At the time of theirreport, Stone and Yoder concluded that "itappears . . . that task statements in the 'things'area can be ranked in terms of their verbs onlywhen the verbs are considered in context." (42. ap-pendix C. p. 3)

Use of the Data-People-Things scales requiresthe job analyst to provide clear, specific informa-tion on what the worker does as well as on w.,at getsdone. In order to decide whether a given task in-volves a Negotiating or simply a Speaking-SignalingPeople relationship for example, it is necessary todetermine the exact nature of the interactions goingon and the circumstances under which they are oc-curring. Questions concerning subtleties such as theknowledge and the authority which the workerbrings to the task cannot be left unresolved ifthe proper worker functions are to be assigned Inthis sense then, the scales provide a quality controlcheck on the completeness and accuracy of the basictask statements. They also provide a means of mak-ing generalized comparisons 'with, and distinc-tions among. tasks.

The Worker Functions concept. then, appearsto have definite value in job analysis. although it is.perhaps. not always appropriate for the uses towhich it is put The specific worker functions givenin the Handbook for Anal :inc Jobs, on the otherhand. may not necessarily be the best for describ-ing the job-worker situations which are found inany given organization.

Since the Labor Department scales were devel-oped in connection with the Dictionary of Occupa-tional Titles., they have an industrial and bureau-cratic orientation which accurately refit, :. the pre-dominant worker relationships of the present andthe recent past. As the United States becomes whathas been called a "post industrial society." however.new relationships are emerging. This is especiallytrue in the People and. to a lesser extent. Data

areas. Although the manufacturing sector of theeconomy continues to grow. it is doing so at aslower rate than the services sector. Workers stillrelate to machines and they still relate to otherpeople as coworkers in a bureaucratic, hierarchicalway. But, to an increasing extent, they are alsodealing with people who are clients or consumers oftheir services. Thus, several researchers have foundit necessary to make adaptations to the WorkerFunctions scales in order to establish levels whichare capable of accurately describing and discrim-inating among activities performed in specific workcontexts.

Among the more extensive modifications of theWorker Functions scales are those developed forthe Functional Job Analysis technique (11). Mostof these additions occur in the People scale.

Two of the Labor Department People functions,Persuading and Diverting. were placed on the samelevel on the FJA scale and joined by a new func-tion. Coaching. It is defined as:

befriends and encourages individuals on a personal, caringbasis by approximating a peer or family-type relationshipeither in a one-to-one or small croup situation. gives in-ftruction. advice. and personal assistance concerning activ-ities of daily livine, the use of various institutional services,and participation in groups

This function appears to be an attempt to de-scribe work performed in entry-level "aide" posi-tions in human services agencies. Although thesepositions have existed in limited numbers in someareas. such as health care. for several years, theirgreatest growth has occurred within the last decade.Many persons in aide positions come from the samesocioeconomic background as the agency's clienteleand are often hired for their ability to relate effec-tively with that clientele. FJA's Coaching function,then, can be seen as a means of identifying thoseinterpersonal relations tasks currently performed byhighly paid and highly credentialled workers whichmight be done by aides. An analyst using FJAwould. however. refer to other scales such as Gen-eral Educational Development and Worker Instruc-tions before assigning a Coaching task to an aideposition.

The next higher level on FJA's People scale con-sists of three functionsthe Labor Department's In-structing, slightly modified, and two new functions:

Consultingserves as a s'urce of technical information andgo,es such information or provides ideas to define, clarify.enlarge upon. or sharpen procedures. capabilities, or productspecifications.

Treating ac's on or interacts with individuals or smallgroups of people or animals who need help (as in sickness!

to carry out specialized therapeutic or adjustment pro-cedures. Systematically observes results of treatment withinthe framework of total personal behavior because uniqueindividual reactions *.) prescriptions (chemical, physiLal, orbehavioral) may not fall within the range of prediction.Motivates, supports, and instructs individuals to accept orcooperate with therapeutic adjustment procedures whennecessary.

While the Labor Department's Instructing func-tion includes both teaching:training and "makingrecommendations on the basis of technical disci-plines," FJA removes the latter activity and placesit at the center of the Consulting function. Con-sulting and, especially, Treating appear to representalternative interim steps between entry-level Coach-ing tasks in human services agencies and the moretraditionally professional tasks which would be ratedMentoring Thus, they should have application inthe design of career ladders for paraprofessionalswithin those agencies.

FJA has also added a new function to the Datascale, Innovating, which is on the same level as Co-ordinating. Innovating is defined as:

Modifies, alters, and/or adapts existing designs, procedures.or methods to meet unique specifications, unusual conditions.or specific standards of effectiveness within the overallframework of operating theories. principles. and/or organ'zational contexts.

Both Innovating and Coordinating are conceit.c.dwith putting tu, analysis of data into action. Inno-vating, as its name implies, appears to be the morechange oriented of the two, while Coordinatingwould typically take place within the confines ofthe existing organizational procedures and envir-onment. However, the Department of Labor defi-nition of Coordinating has been expanded upon toinclude makir,g decisions on "the need for revisionof goals, policies or procedures." Innovating, on theother hand, involves the actual making of thoserevisions. It differs from Synthesizing in that it con-sists of modifying old approaches to problems,rather than conceiving new approaches without nec-essarily having the benefit of tradition, experience.or guidelines.

The strict hierarchical nature of the Labor De-partment scales has been softened somewhat in FJAby placing more than one function on some levels.

This was the case in all the new functions discussedabove and was done because empirical evidence didnot make hierarchical distinctions clear. It was alsodone, for the same reason, on the Data scale withComputing and Compiling. The Data functions ofCopying and Comparing continue to occupy the twolowest rungs on their ladder, however. This con-ceptualization contrasts with the comment by Sco-ville, noted above, to the effect that Computing,Copying, and Comparing should each be consideredthe lowest level relationship for different kinds ofjob.

The most radical surgery on the scales has beendone in the Thir4s area vhere FJA leaves onlythree levels. Each of the three nonmachine func-tions, Precision Working, Manipulating, and Han-dling, occupies its own level. As with the Labor De-part Tent scales, the degree of precision requiredan .he number of objects, materials, and toolsin vc,ved are the major determinants of level. Themachine functions are viewed as merely specialcases of the nonmachine functions which happen toinvolve the use of machines. Thus, a Setting Uptask is one performed in relation to a machine andhaving the same precision requirements and thes n number of objects, etc., as any other Preci-sion Working task. Operating-Controlling andDriving-Controlling have the same relationship toManipulating, as do Feeding-Offbearing and Tend-ing to Handling. In this way, the machine,'nonmachine dichotomy of the Labor DepartmentThings sale has been eliminated by subjecting theformer to the complexity criteria of the latter.

The Career Opportunities Research and Develop-ment 'CORD) project, conducted by the YoungMen's Christian Association of Metropolitan Chicago,also made significant changes in the Worker Func-tions scales (figure 3). Some of their modifications,like those of FJA, were designed to make the Peoplescale more useful in the human services setting.Also, several additions were made to the Data scale.Finally, the Things scale was substantially revised tomake it more appropriate for use with office ma-chines (57).

FIGURE 3. CAREER OPPORTUNITIES RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTWORKER FUNCTIONS

(Definitions are given only for new functions or when they differ significantly from DOL's.)

DATA

10Composing: Same as Department of Labor's Comparing9Copying13Computing7Compiling6Translating. Placing information into a different language or a more kiesirable form to fa-ilitate improved communi-

cation.

5Coding. Transfernng data and other information into some numerical or pictographic symbolism in order to facilitateswift computation and analysis.

4---k awing. Bringing together various data, things. and or structures in order to produce some activity or concerteda .ion and attain some definite results.

3Analyzing2Coordinating1Planning. Looking into the future, foreseeing needs, services. situations before they arrive and making the necessary

arrangements to provide the structures. activities. and things to meet the needs. Providing the direction in whichactivities. functions. structures are moving.

0Synthesizing

PEOPLE12Hei;iing11--Servinc

10Persuading (no Speaking-Signaling)

9Diverting8--05ecking. Following up operations. (requently routine, for purposes of ascertaining ir.forn..,tion about the delivery of

goods or services, the functioning of pecple. or the performance of operations7Observing-Listening. Sitting ur being with another person to watch events for purposes of administration of assistance.

acquisition of data, or to provide company and understanding.6Arranging. Bringing together the necessary ingredients in terms of people, situatiJns. and things to facilitate activities,

developments, and interaction.

5Interviewing Talking or otherwise communicating with otht . for the purpose of exit-acting information or evaluatinga particular or generalized circumstance

4Supervising3Instructing2Negotiating1Mentoring0Therapy. Administration of various forms of physical or mental assistance. through well developed principles. pro-

cedures. and techniqi ,,s.

THINGS

5 Handling4Tending. Making adjustments (minor) and checking the operation. condition. and functioning of equipment and situations

3Operating-Driving. Guiding or steering various machines - pieces of equipment (cars, buses. etc ) Administenngsirnple devices.

2Operating-Controlling-Wori. rig Controlling, starting stoppir,g. supervising the operations of various equipment (Xerox.multilith. typewriter, therapeutic equipment) Administering complex devices.

1Preparing r;etting equipment re. dy for u,-. making connections and adjustments. cleaning. acquiring necessary equip-ment. Organizing materials for use

0Servicing. Keeping various toiins of equipment in working order Repairing or replacing Ordering. planning. andscheduling use. Inventing'devising equipment or operations.

62

Gfi

Social, Educational Research and Development,Inc., relied primanly on a combination of LaborDepartment, FJA, and CORD scales fe: their workwith library jobs in Illinois (4i). Their Things scalerepresents an alternative fo. dealing with officcmachines and equipment (figure 4).

The decision on whether to develop new WorkerFunctions scales depends, of course, on projectneeds and objectives. The Labor Department scalesare certainly not sacrosanct, nor were they intendedto be. The People scale, in particular, leaves yawn-ing gaps to be filled. For the most part, though.persons making revisions would well advi.-,od toconcentrate on creating function) and thfinitionswhich are descriptive of the work to be analyzed,and not to attempt to place them in any 'gut themost general hierarchical levels of complexity. Thedevelopment of more specifically delineated levelswould probably require a greater expenditure ofproject resources than the results would warrant,especially since there are better ways to measuretask complexity.

Also, new functions should be developed onlyafter it has been carefully determined that existingones are not appropriate to project needs. In addi-tion to the obvious witste of time and effort creat-ing unnecessary new levels, there is the proliferationissue. The Labor Department scales were, in part,an attempt to generalize about work performedto bring together apparently diverse but essentiallysimilar activities under a few categories to high-light similarities amc ng jobs and thus facilitate com-parisons. If the Worker Functions concept is to be

employee. at all, new functions should refine exist-Lig ones or fill in the gaps in coverage. They shouldnot simply express old functions in new terminologyor needlessly subdivide functions into two or threemore specific ones. The ultimate goal should be animproved set of standardized functions which areapplicable to all types of jobs.

Measurement, of Task Complexity

The Department of Labor's General EducationalDevelopment (GED) scales (figure 5) are intendedto measure the extent to which a worker activityrequires:

a. Reasoning development and ability to fo:lowinstructions.

b. "Tool" knowledges such as language and math-ematical skills.

These factors are normally acquired through theformal educational process rather than through spe-cific job-related training. They may also be the re-sult of life or work experiences or self-study.

Initially the temptation to equate each GED levelwith a specified number of years of schooling was re-sisted because, as Fine has written, " 'high schoolgraduation' or '12 years' of education can meandifferent things for different areas of the country,for different schools in the same city, or for differentperiods of time. Furthermore, the number of yearsof schooling has little relevance to job tasks in manyinstances." (10, p. 366)

FIGURE 4. SOCIAL. EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, INC.,THINGS WORKER FUNCTIONS SCALE

1Handling. Using body or 'iandtools to move and carry objects. books, or materials.

2Motatorang. Obsersing. .king. or standing by while equipment. actisity, process, or objects operate or function andcalling for assistance in ti event of malfunction.

3Ser icing. Performs simp e repairs ur adjustments requiring few ur no tools. tei..hniques. skills. or time and usuallycompleted a: we; k station

4Operating. Coxiirolling. starting, stopping, or working machines, equipment. objects. ur materials.

5Preparing mg equipment, materials, or facility ready for use. cleaning, acqua mg necessary equipment andsupplies.

6Maintenance king, testing. determining. and measuring the exact nature and scope of malfunctioning equipment.materials. and cts. using technical knowledge and,'or skill to restore same to operatise condition

7Storage, Retrie'al. tielecting. placing. or procuring tools, objects. materials. ur equipment with some latitude. judgment. or precision since a system or procedure is applied

8Not applicable.9Other.

61,

FIGURE 5. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR SCALE OF GENERALEDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CED)

Level Reasoning Development Mathematical Development Language Development

6College 3 and 4

5College 1 and 2

4

Grades 9-12

1

Apply principles of logical orscientific thinking to a widerange of intellectual and prac-tical prc blems. Deal with nonverbal symbolism (formulas, sci-entific equations, graphs, musicalnotes. etc ) in its most difficultphases Deal with a variety ofabstract and concrete variables.Apprehend the most abstruseclasses of concepts.

Apply principles of logical orscientific thinking to define prob-lems, collect data, establish facts,and draw valid conclusions. In-terpret an extensive variety oftechnical instructions in mathe-matical or diagrammatic form.Deal with several abstract andconcrete variables.

Apply principles of rational sys-tems' to solve practical prob-lems and deal with a variety ofconcrete ariabiLs in situationswhere only limited standardiza-tion exists. Interpret a variety ofinstructions furnished in written.oral, diagrammatic, or scheduleform

Advanced calculus:Work with limits, continuity, realnumber systems, mean value the-orems, and implicit function the-orems.

Modern algebra:Apply fundamental concepts oftheories of groups, rings, andfields. Work with differentialequations, linear algebra, infiniteseries, advanced operations meth-ods, and functions of real andcomplex variables.

Statistics:Work with mathematical statis-tics, mathematical probability andapplications, experimental design,statistical inference, and econo-metrics.

Algebra:Work with exponents and loga-rithms, linear equations, quadraticequations, mathematical inductionand binomial theorem, and per-mutations.

Calculus:Apply concepts of analytic ge-ometry, differentiations and in-tegration of algebraic functionswith applications.

Statistics:Apply mathematical operations tofrequency distributions, reliabilityand validity of tests, normalcurve, analysis of varia,ce, corre-lation techniques, chi-square ap-plication and sampling theory,and factor analysis.

Algebra:Deal with system of real num-bers, linear, quadratic. rational.exponential, logarithmic, angleand circular functions, and in-verse functions: related algebraicsolution of equations and in-equalities, limits and continuityand probability and statistical in-ference.

Geometry:Deductive axiomatic geometry,plane and solid; and rectangularcoordinates.

Shop Math:Practical application of fractions,percentages. ratio and proportion,mensuration. logarithms. sliderule, practical algebra, geometricconstruction, and essentials oftrigonometry.

64

Reading:Read literature, book and playreviews, scientific and technicaljournals, abstracts, financial re-ports, and legal documents.

Writing:vVnte novels, plays. editorials,journals. speeches, manuals, cn-tiques. poetry, and songs.

Speaking:Conversant in the theory, prin-ciples, and methods of effectiveand persuasive speaking, voiceand diction, phonetics, and dis-cussion and debate,

Same as Level 6

Reading:Read novels poems. newspa-pers. periodicals, journals. man-uals. dictionaries, thesauruses.and encyclopedias.

Writing:Prepare business letters, exposi-tions. summaries. and reports.using prescribed format andconforming to all rules ofpunctuation, grammar, diction,and style.

Speaking.Participate in panel discussions,dramatizations, and debates.Speak extemporaneously on avariety of subjects.

FIGURE 5 (continued)

Level Reasoning Development Mathematical Development Language Development

3

Grades 7-8

2Grades 4-6

1

Grades 1-3

Apply commonsense understand-ing to carry out instructionsfurnished in written, oral, ordiagrammatic form. Deal withproblems involving several con-crete variables in or from stand-ardized situations.

Apply commonsense understand-ing to carry out detailed butuninvolved written or oral in-structions. Deal with problemsinvolving a few concrete ari-ables in or from standardizedsituations.

Apply commonsense viw.istand-mg to carry out simple one-or two-step instructions. Dealwith standardized situations withoccasional or no variables in orfrom these situations encount-ered on the job.

Compute discount, interest, profit,and loss, commission, r^...ikup,and selling price. ratio and pro-portion. and percentage. Calcu-late surfaces, volumes, weights,and measures.

Algebra:Calculate variables and formulas;monomials and polynomials; ra-tio and proportion variables; andsquare rocts and radicals.

Geometry;Calculate plane and solid figures;circumference, area, and rFlurne.Understand kinds of angles, andproperties of pairs of angles.

Add, subtract, multiply, and di-vide all units of measure. Per-form the four operations with likecommon and decimal fractions.Compute ratio, rate. and percent.Dray, And interpret blr graphs.Per..' -m arithmetic operationsinvolving all American monetaryunits.

Add and subtract two digit num-bers. Multiply and divide 10'sand 100's by 2, 3, 4, 5. Performthe four basic arithmetic opera-tions with coins as part of a dol-lar Perform operations with unitssuch as cup. pint, and quart;inch, foot, and yard: and ounceand pound.

Reading.Read a variety of novels, mag-azines, atlases, and encyclo-pedias. Read safety rules, in-structions in the use and main-tenance o, shop tools andequipment, and methods andprocedures in mechanical draw-ing and layout work.

Writing:Write reports and essays withproper format, punctuation,spelling, and grammar, usingall parts of speech.

Speaking:Speak before an audience withpoise, voice control, and con-fidence, using correct Englishand 411-modulated voice.

Pa:.sive vocabulary of 5,000-6,000 words Read at rate of190-215 words per minute.Read adventure stories andcomic books, looking up un-familiar words in dictionaryfor meaning, spelling, and pro-nunciation. Read instructionsfor assembling model cars andairplanes.

Writing:Write compound and complexsentences, using cursive style,proper end punctuation, andemploying adjectives and ad-verbs.

Speaking:Speak clearly and distinctlywith appropriate pauses andemphasis, correct pronuncia-tion, variations in word order,using present, perfect, and fu-ture tenses.

Reading:Recognize meaning of 2,500(two- three-syllable) w^rds.Read at rate of 95-120 wordsper minute. Compare similar-ities and differences betweenwords and between series ofnumbers.

Writing:Print simple sentences contain-ing sub; ^t, verb, and object,and series of numbers, names,and addresses.

Speaking:Speak simple sentences, usingnormal word order, and pres-ent and past tenses.

Examples of rational systems are bookkeeping. internal combustion engines, electric wiring systems, house building, nursing, farmmanagement, and navigation.

However, some critics maintain that "to be useful foreducational planning, they (GED scales) must begiven year-equivalents." (37, p. 41) Perhaps in re-sponse to such comments, DOL assigned the gradelevel equivalents shown in figure 5.

The primary value of the equivalents appears toin assessing jobseekers, not jobs. Thus, a personnelspecialist or an employment service counselor cantake into consideration an applicant's educationalbackground, in conjunction with several other factors,and arrive at an estimated GED level. This levelcan then be compared with the required levels forcurrently available employment opportunities. Evenfor this purpose, however, it is important that thegrade level equivalents not be followed slavishly tothe exclusion of life and work experiences which mayalso 11ace contributed to the applicant s geiicral ed-ucational development. When GED is used to analyzejobs or tasks, levels sl'ould be determined by com-paring worker activities against the Department ofLabor definitions and the illustrative situations con-tained in the Handbook for Analyzing Jobs. It shoal,never be assumed that all or most of the tasks in ajob would properly be rated at GED level 4, forexample, simply because the current qualificationsrequirements for that job include a high school di-ploma.

The Career Options Research and Developmentproject of Chicago has developed GED scales whichare based on, but differ substantially from, the LaborDepartment's (figure 6). CORD retains the threemajor categoriesreasoning, mathematics, and lan-guage development. Each scale consists of three pri-mary levels. Each of these levels is further subdividedinto three more specific levels.

The CORD reasoning scale is based on differencesin the nature and extent of data manipulation in-volved in a given activity. The highest primary levelincludes assimilative, interpretive, and judgmentalactivities. The middle level consists of operationswhich set up or predigest data to prepare it forfurther action. The lowest level includes activitiesproceeding frOm already treated data or action in-volving the maintenance of data. No rationale isprovided for the primary levels in the mathematicsand language scales. These scales reflect essentiallythe same processes covered by the Labor Depart-mentCORD simply defines these processes in

slightly different terms and distributes them over nine,rather than six, levels.

The decision on whether to use the CORD, as op-posed to the DOL, scales would rest on several

66

factors, including the purpose of the analysis, thenature of the work being analyzed, the nature of theorganization being studied, and the project's re-sources. CORD was concerned with linking the workperformed in several social service agencies with ex-isting educational resources at the community collegelevel for the purpose of developing a model corecurriculum. Thus, they decided that general educa-tional development data which were more precisethan those provided by the Department of Labor'sscales wer-, required. Other projects, however, maybe less concerned with curriculum development.Or they may need only generalized data on taskcomplexity because the type of work they are analyz-ing or the organization in which they are operating isnot conducive to the development of more than a fewemployment levels within any occupation. For ex-ample, each job in a small organizat.on may containtasks of widely varying complexity. It may not befeasible to restructure in such a way that significantlygreater specialization is achieved. In such a case, theLabor Department scale would appear to be ade-quate for separating the simpler from the more com-plex activities. Another consideration is the fact thatmore precise information requires more time and, orstaff to put it into manageable forty. If the greaterprecision is not actually needed, these resources arcthus wasted.

The GED scales developed at the Upjohn In-stitute for the Functional Job Analysis approach areonly slightly modified versions of the DOL scales.Some of the FJA-level definitions may be useful assupplements to those of the Labor Department inclarifying the scales, however, and should be con-sulted.

FJA has contributed ail additional tool to the me-asurement of work complexitythe Scale of WorkerInstructions (figure 7). According to Fine and Wiley,

All tasks have prescribed and discretionary components.The presi.ribed i.omponents of a task represent thcw.: areasv, here the worker has no choice over what he does.. .

Prescription can be set on the worker actions (means) as wellas on the results expected (ends).

The discretionary components of work consists of thoseareas of tasks where the worker is expectedin factrequiredto use his own judgment in the planning andexecution of his tasks. In other words, a worker's area ofdiscretion is synonymous with his authority to makedecisions in that area. (I I, p 20)

The Scale of Worker Instructions is designed foruse in indicating the relative proportions of prescrip-tion and discretion found in any given task. Thus atask rated at level 1 on this scale would consist ofwork which is almost entirely prescribed for the

FIGURE 6. CAREER OPTIONS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTDESCRIPTI0o; OF LEVELS OF REASONING, MATHEMATICS. AND LANGUAGE SCALES

Descriptions of Levels of Reasoning Ability ScaleC-I Simple one- or two-step operations are performed upon instni_tions where circumstances of work are honvanable

(Delivers articles, messages. re-eives. dispenses. loads, unloads, moves people and things. runs machines.)C-2 Follows complex instructions vvi:h variable circumstances of work. (Stocks supplies, checks stores, guards, deans. works

as aide, relays. sorts records. a__ompanies, brings food, installs simple equipment. runs machines )C-3 Supervises or instructs lower C levels as well as coordinates their function with one another and with higher levels of

operation. Supervises fur above mentioned functions by directing goods, equipment, and people Controls and organizeswork teams. (Supervises play groups, social activities, lifeguards. polices, carries out tact,cal instructions, repairssimple equipment: runs machines.)

B-I Collects, copies, arranges data or materials entering into the structure or exiting from it. (Clerks, survey vlerks. runsmachines; arranges outings, social functions. receptionist. interviewer, cashier.)

B-2 Codes, insta"s sophisticated equipment, compiles. classifies incoming and outgoing aformation, rnatenal, and peopleComputation begun. Does computer coding. makes graphs, charts. processes information, tests (Gives therapy, repairssophisticated equipment, m:chanic, electrician, carpenter, nurse, technician, musician, secretary )

B 3 Supervises all lower B levels and C-3 supervisors. On this level information or data is verified. conclusions drawn.decisions made, and directions issued. Here also. any computations are completed Supervises all above. (Runswork teams, guides work and study groups, figures costs, taxes, acc lunting, p-ograms computers. runs social work-shop: director, group worker, investigator.)

A-I Data are translated from language to language, or system to system. Reports ur extracts are prepared and issued.Mode of presentation decided upon and designed. Representations of data prepared and issued. Plans from higherlevels carried out (Interpreter, writer. composer, commercial artist, reader, psychiatric social worker, social worker,teacher.)

A-Z Data are subjected to some analysis, calculations. and computations, manipulations of a sophisticated variety arecarried out upon it Information is extracted from data, and new relationships drawn. Exploratory operations are carriedout on problems and data. Plans are completed. (Engineers, chemists, mathematicians, statisticians, doctors, psycholo-gists, physicists.)

A-3 Final manipulations are performed. Data analyzed, synthesized, and interpreted in a finalized manner New ideas andsymbols are formulated and created. Definitions arc fixed. and all lower levels are supervised Plans are formulated(Psychiatr;st, theoretical scientist, architect. research scientist).

Descriptions of Levels of Vac Mathematics/Arithmetic ScaleC-I Counting: Able to count four significant figures.C-2 Addition, Subtraction. Conversant with processes of addition subtraction of whole numbers of all varieties.C-3 Multiplication Division, Fractions Know how to multiply divide whole numbers Work processes of addition and sub-

traction on common fractions and decimals.

B-I Fractions Ivf ultiplicativ u. Division Know how to multiply and divide common fractions and decimalsB-2 Percentages, .-.umpounding tax tables, Charts; Graphs Algebra Exponents. logarithms. linear equations. quad-

ratics. Permt.ta.ions. c Imbinations.B-3 Algebra. Fa, ,,,ring equations with two three unkmiwns Determinants. matrix algebra. circular functions

Plane Geometry Trigonometry, Probability. Product of probabilities. independent probability

A-I Plane Geometry/Analytic Geometry 'Trigonometry/StatisticsA-2 Statistic. 'Calculus/Differential Equations 'Modern Algebra/Vector AnalysisA-3 Open. Mathematical skills beyond those listed above

Descriptions of Levels of Language Development ScaleC-I Writing. Prints simple sentences, names, addresses, and numbers

Reading Reads simple sentences Vocabulary approximately 2.500 words Reads comic books Compares worksimilarities.Speaking Speaks simple sentences with reasonable word arrangement and delineation of past and present tenses

C-2 Writing: Writes simple and compound sentences with interior and exterior punctuationReading Reads compound sentences with understanding. Reads instnictions fur carrying out designated operationsKnows how to use a dictionarySpeaking: Speaks clearly with appropriate pauses and emphasis

67

74)

FIGURE 6 (continued)

C-3 Writing- Writes complex as well as compound sentences, punctuates well, and utilizes perfect and future tenses.Reading- Reads complex sentence stnicture with understanding Vocabulary of 5,000 to 6,000 words. Uses the diction-ary to look up words.Speaking: Able to speak as above, but incorporating good conventional usages with all tenses.

B-1 Writing Writes reports. Prepares schedules Fills out questionnaires, applications, and other forms.Reading: Reads magazines, novels, atlases, encyclopedias.Speaking- Able to give verbal descriptions of a complete nature. Uses good English, with well-modulated voice beforesmall audiences.

B-2 Writing Writes business letters and prepares summaries Makes use of all parts of speech and punctuation, uses theproper format for preparing work.Reading: Able to read road manuals, periodicals, etc. Uses a thesaurus and an encyclopedia.Speaking Able to gis e detailed descriptions. instructions, and explanations. Can speak fairly well extemporaneously.

B-3 Writing: Writes descriptive essays and expositions.Reading: Novels, poems, journals are read with general understanding.Speaking: Able to speak on a variety of subjects extemporaneously and to engage in dramatics

A-1 Writing: Writes translation and technical reports Wntes songs and/or poetry.Reading: Can read material in foreign texts. Reads abstracts, reports.Speaking Speaks one or more foreign languages and 'or specialized languages for handicapped people or animals.

A-2 Writing. Writes argumentative essays, critiques, manuals, journal articles, and speeches.Reading. Reads scientific journals, financial reports, and legal documents.Speaking: Able to discuss or debate Delivers lectures or highly developed explanations.

A-3 Writing Writes novels. nonfictional and technical material, symphonic music. Composes journal articles and theoreti-cal works.Reading: Reads theoretical works (political, social, scientific), nonfiction.

worker, with a minimal discretionar; component. Atask rated at level 8, on the other hand, would bealmost entirely discretionary. The worker would haveat his disposal only the most general guidelines fordetermining the means to be employed in perform-ing the task and would enjoy extensive latitude withregard to the form of his final result, as long as itadvanced organizational objectives.

According to the FJA approach, a task's ratingon the Scale of Worker Instructions should be re-lated closely to its Data (Worker Functions) andReasoning (GED) ratings. In fact, FJA says that, inmost cases, there should not be more than a one-level spread among the three ratings. Thus, a taskwhich involves an Analyzing function (which wouldbe rated at level 4 on FJA's Data scale) should berated either betv.een 3 and 4 or 4 and 5 on both theReasoning and Worker Instructions scales. Therationale behind this guideline is that "each of thesethree scales looks at intellectual functioning (al-though) from a somewhat different point of view."Thus, sharp discrepancies among ratings are unlikely.It should be emphasized that this general rule hasnot attained the status of dogma. Exceptions canoccur. However, when they do, the analyst shouldreview his ratings to see if each can be justified.

The Manpower Management institute uses a chart(figure 8) in its task analysis and job restructuringworkshops which shows the relationships between the.

Department of Labor's Data and Reasoning scales.Although the Labor Department's numbering s }-stemdoes not allow clear delineation of the "one-levelspread" rule (the Worker Functions scales are "upsidedown" with the most complex level given the low-est number), it is clear that the two scales closelyparallel each other. Again, the chart should be usedonly as an aid and should not be considered a sub-stitute for careful rating of each task on both scales.

Health Services Mobility Study Scales

The Health Services Mobility Study methodologyuses scales which differ significantly from those dis-cussed above:

The I-ISMS ,ob analysis method is based on the premisethat, if the jobs in a ladder (upgrading sequence) arearranged to reflect rising levels of related skills andknowledge (education), the educational costs and trainingtime between each step on a ladder can be kept to theminimum needed to bridge the gap between the jobs. Thiswould be far less than that required to train for each job"from scratch" or fu, job sequences unrelated in skills orknowledge. For this reason, job tasks are the basic unit ofobservation and are evaluated in terms of the levels of thelearnable skills (and knowledges) required for their per-formance These skills and knowledge categories can thenbe treated as statistical variables and can he used to clustertask; into related hierarchies. From the point of view offISMS objectives the skills needed for the method musthave the property of being learnable, because all the rungson the job ladders must be reachable through training andeducation (20, pp. 2-10 and 2-11)

FIGURE 7. W. E. UPJOHN INSTITUTESCALE OF WORKER INSTRUCTIONS

Level I Definition

S Inputs. outputs, tools, equipment, and procedures areall specified. Almost everything the worker needs toknow is contained in his assignment. He is supposedto turn out a specified amount of work or a standardnumber of units per hour or day.

2 Inputs, outputs, tools and equipment are allspecified, but the worker has some leeway in theprocedures and methods he can use to get the jobdone. Almost all the information he needs is in hisassignment. His production is measured on a dailyor weekly basis.

3 Inputs and outputs are specified, but the worker hasconsiderable freedom as to procedures and timing,including the use of tools and equipment. He has torefer to several standard sources for infor cation(handbooks, catalogs, wall charts). Time to completea particular product or service is specified, but thisvaries up to several hours.

4 Output (product or service) is specified in theassignment, which may be in the form of amemorandum or of a schematic (sketch or blueprint).The worker must work out his own ways of gettingthe job done, including selection of tools andequipment, sequence of operations (tasks), andobtaining important information (handbooks, etc.).He may either carry out the work himcelf or set. lipstandards and procedures for others.

5 Same as (4) above. but in addition the worker isexpected to know and employ theory so that heunderstands the whys and wherefores of the variousoptions that are available for dealing with a problemand can independently select from among them Hemay have to do some reading in the professionaland/or trade literature in order to gain thisunderstanding.

6 Various possible outputs are described that can meetstated technical or administrative needs. The workermust investigate 'le various possible outputs an_evaluate them in .egard to performance character-istics and demands.eman . ___

s. is usually requires .is

creative use of theory well beyond referring tostandard sources There is no specification of inputs.methods, sequences, sources. or the like.

7 There is some question as to what the need orproblem really is or what directions should bepursued in dealing with it In order to define it, tocont,o1 and explore the behavior of the variables.and to formulate possible outputs and their per-formance characteristics, the worker must consultlargely unspecified sources of information and deviseins estigations. surveys. or data ar.aly sis studies.

R I Information and /or direction comes to the workerin terms of needs (tactical. oiganizational. strategic.financial) He must call for staff reports andrecommendations concerning methods of dealingwith them. He coordinates both organizational andtechnical data in order to make decisions anddeterminations regarding courses of action (outputs)for major sections (divisions. groups) of his organiza-tion

69

FIGURE 8. MANPOWER MANAGEMENTINSTITUTE'S DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

DATA/REASONING RELATIONSHIPS

Data Reasoning

0 65

(Synthesizing)

654

(Coordinating)

2

(Analyzing)

654

3

(Compiling)

432

4

(Computing)

5

(Copying)

6

(Comparing)

65432

32

2

Thus, HSMS uses 16 skills scales, a knowledge scale,and a task frequency scale.

The skills scales are intended to be unidimensionaland cumulative and have reliable values. A scale isunidimensional when it measures a single skill whichis found, in progressively higher degrees, at eachhigher level. A scale on the Human Interaction skill(figure 9), then, would be concerned only with theamount and sensitivity of human interaction requiredin a given cask. By contrast, the Worker Functionsconce't can be described as multidimensional since,on the People scale for example, one level such asInstructing embraces several skills which may differfrom those encompassed in other levels such asSupervising, Diverting, or Persuading.

According to HSMS, a scale is cumulative whenits lower levels are present in all higher lc,,Pls and nohigher level is found in a lower level. It has reliablevalues when independent observers can agree on thedescriptions for each of its levels and on the valuesassigned to tf. m. Interrater reliability is another re-quirement for the HSMS scales. This means that

FIGURE 9. HEALTH SERVICES MOBILITY STUDYHUMAN INTERACTION SKILL SCALE

Vote This skill refers to the degree of sensitivity to others required of the perwrmer in the task being scaled. The skillinwhes the performer's perception of the relevant characteristics or state of being of the other persoms), the performersattention to feedback as the interaction ota.urs. and the performer's appropriate modification of his behavior so as to accom-plish the task The skill is imoked if the task requires any personal contact or interaction with others.

The level of the skill rises as the degree Lf perceptiveness and sensitivity required of the performer rises, and as thesubtlety of the feedback to which he or she must rspond increases. The scale level is not determined by the level of knowl-edge required.

ScaleValue Descriptive Statement

0 The task does not require the performer to be in contact with or to interact with other people.The task requires the performer to be in only general contact with other people. Very little sensintity to or percep-tion of the other person (s)' relevant general characteristics or state of being is required, and little awareness of very ob-vious feedback is required for the performer to adjust his behavior to perform the task.

3 The task requires the performer to interact with others in the performance of the task. The performer is required tobe somewhat senseli.e to or percept;.e of the other person(si relevant general charactenstics or state of being and tobe aware of very obvious feedback so as to adjust his behavior accordingly.

S The task requires the performer to interact with others in the performance of the task. The pei:ormer is required tobe quite sensitive to or perceptive of the otl-ier persorus)' releau characteristics or state of being and to be aware offairly obvious feedback so as to adjust his behavior accordingly.The task require_ the performer to interact with ,there in the performance of the task. The performer is required tobe keenly sensitie to or pereepte.e of the other persont.j relevant charactenstics or state of being and to be aware offairly subtle or complex feedback so as to adjust his behavior accordingly.

9 The task requires the performer to interact with others in the performance of the task. The performer is required tobe keenly sensite,,. t. or pereeptl.e of the other personisr relevant charactenstics or state of being and to be aware ofvery subtle or very complex feedback so as to adjust his behavior accordingly.

different raters, with similar qualifications, wouldtend to agree on the scale values given to the sametask observations.

The skill scales can be grouped into six broadareasmanual, interpersonal, language, general in-tellectual, decisionmaking, and responsibility.

The HSMS literature review found references toseveral manual skills. However, most of them werefelt to be more accurately defined as aptitudes in thesense that they described the individual's probableease or rate in learning the skills rather then the skillitself. Also, the HSMS approach requires that skillsbe learnable through practice. even though didacticinstruction may also be required. Three manual, es-sentially psychomotor, skills, each dealing with pre-cision and coordination in the use of the body or itsparts, were finally agreed upon. They are Locomotion(the body's movement through space ). Object Ma-nipulation (the control of objects), and Guiding orSteering (the control of objects moving in space inrelation to external stimuli).

Two Interpersonal skills were identifiedHumanInteraction and Leadership. As its name implies, thefirst of these is involved whenever the performanceof a task requires contact with other persons Centralto Human Interaction is sensitivity on the par of the

task performer to the relevant characteristics o> otherpersons involved with the task. Also important isawareness of feedback transmitted by other personsin varying degrees of subtlety. Leadership skill iscalled for when the task performer must influencehis subordinates' work behavior in order to accom-plish his own objectives. This scale contains someinteresting insights into the nature of leadership. Atask performer is considered to need high leadershipskill when:

1. He has little power over his subordinates' con-ditions of employment (firing, favorable assignments.promotions, etc.).

2. His communications channels with his subordi-nates (for assigning and reviewing work) are informaland poorly defined.

3. His subo:dinates' task are vaguely defined andrequire considerable discretionary judgment fromthem.

Thus, leadership is seen as motivation and guid-ance rather than the straightforward exercise ofwidely agreed upon and specifically delineatedformal authority. There is, after all, very little sensi-tivity required in interpersonal relationships char-acterized by nearly absolute power on one side andnearly complete submission on the other.

70

72

The Oral, Written, and Reading Use of Languageconstitute three separate HSNIS skills. These skillsare concerned with the level of precision a task re-quires in the use of language to convey or receivemeaning. They do not involve familiarity with special-ized or technical vocabularies or with the ruts ofgrammar or literary form. These are types of knowl-edge and, if required in a task, would be measuredon the Knowledge scale.

The HSMS thus separates the three kinds of lan-guage skills vhich are combined by the Labor De-partment in its General Educational DevelopmentLanguage Scale. The HSMS approach has obviousvalue in rating those tasks which __quire two typesof language use, but not all three, or which requireeach use at a different level of complexity. Thedescriptive statements for the levels on the HSMSscales are somewhat vague, however. For example.one level on the Reading Use Scale requires the taskperformer to "comprehend the general meaning ofsimple written language.- The next level calls for theperformer to "generally comprehend the meaning ofmoderately complex written language." These de-..scriptions would benefit from supplementary ex-amples to give more concrete meanings to suchterms as "simple" and "moderately complex." Thisproblem is mitigated, somewhat, by the fact thatHSMS includes written instructions with each of itsscales.

There are two HSMS scales measuring the amountof decisionmaking required in a taskDecision Mak-ing on Methods and Decision Making on Quality. Atask is rated high on the Methods Scale when thecircumstances under which it is performed can varywidely and the performer must choose from amongseveral possible ways to accomplish it. At the veryhighest level, the performer must apply his ownguidelines in selectirg the most appropriate method.A task's method includes what is done. when, inwhat order. what to use. and whom to involve

Decision Making on Quality is called for in alltasks except those in which the performer has absolu-tely no influence on the quality of his output. Twocriteria are involved in determining levelthe extentto which the performer by improving on standardsof accepatable performance, can affect the output'squality and whether or nut the output is subject toreview- or inspection before it is used.

Decisionmaking can be deduced on a piecemealbasis from some of the Worker Functions and Gen-eral Educational Development scales, but the Labor

Department approach has no direct means of identi-fying or measuring it. The Functional Job AnalysisScale of Worker Instructions offers a more compar-able tool. The HSNIS scales. like ;JA's, can be seenas portraying a prescription, discretion continuum.But no attempt is made, on the Scale of Worker In-structions to distinguish between discretion withregard to methods and that with regard to quality.Presumably this is due to the belief that no usefulanalytical purpose would be served by separatingthem.

The definitions for levels on the Scale of WorkerInstructions tend to emphasize methods over quality.Direct comparisons with HSMS are complicatedhowever, by certain conceptual differences regardingeach technique's definition of a task. One of thedeterminants of level on the Scale of Worker In-structions is the extent to which the performer mustchoose the most appropriate task output for advanc-ing the organization's objectives. The extent to whichan output is appropriate for achieving specified,_jectives is certainly a reflection of its quality. Butaccording to HSMS, any given task can have onlyone output. If some other output results, anothertask is involved. Thus it is inherently contradictory,under HSMS definitions, for an individual task to berated on the basis of the extent to which the per-former must decide his output. Both the HSMSscales and the Scale of Worker Instructions providevaluable insights into task dimensions. Persons con-templating the development of a synthesis of the twoapproaches or using the two in combination shouldbe aware, however, that each is clearly the productof. and bound by the context of, its own methodologyand definitions.

The HSMS General Intellectual Skills were heavilyinfluenced by the work of J. P. Guilford at the Uni-versity of Southern California. Guilford's "structureof intellect" model contains 120 distinct mental abil-ities (17, 18) According to this approach, an in-dividual may possess certain of these abilities to avery high degree. while being almost completely lack-ing in others and somewhere in between on the restThis contrasts with the commonly held general in-telligence theory, which holds that intelligence is uni-dimensional. Most employment examining proceduresand requirements are based, perhaps unconsciously.on the general intelligence theory. A college graduatewho scores well on a `metal intelligence test is pre-sumed to be capable of performing any of severalentry-level "professional" positions. The person whofads such a test, on the other hand, is considered to

lack the ability to do any but the least demandingof jobs (47).

Using Guilford's work as a theoretical base, theHSMS staff identified four General Intellectual Skills.Figural, Symbolic, Taxonomic, a.id Implicative. Theyare not represented as encompassing the totality ofmental actiYit,es. Rather, they were chosen becausethey seemed to be "independent of one another,"'observable and scalable in the task situation,"and "relevant for the purpose of clustering tasks intorelated hierarchies."

Figural Skills are iny oived when the worker isrequired to manipulate mentally the figural properties(size. shape, form, etc.) of visual or mental imagesand their interre:,.tionships t.) achieve some pre-determined figural standard or objective. This ma-nipulation may include evaluating, creating. arrang-ing or responding to figural relationships, patterns,or compositions. Symbolic skills are called for whenthe task performer must use or mentally manipulateabstract symbols in terms of their symbolic properties.They involve systems of notations where the symbolsstand tor characteristics, relationships, or operations.Typical systems are mathematical notations, includ-ing numbers and signs, computer languages. codes,aad musical symbols.

Taxonomic skills invoke the conscicas use of or-ganizing or classifying principles to make judgmentsconcerning conceptual materials. A librarian catalog-ing books uses this skill, as does a job analyst isolatingindividual task, from a mass of job content data andrating them on the various scales discussed. The skillmay include the application of existing organizingor classifying principles or the creation of new ones.Implicative skills in-Yoke the drawing of nonroutineinferences or coming to nonroutine conclusionsabout information in the task situation. The con-sidering of alternatives and foreseeing of consequen-ces are included. None of these processes is appli-cable, however. in the context of simple cause andeffect or of other obvious relationships.

The HSMS staff cautions against confusing ongeneral intellectual skill for another. For example, thetask of proofreading sheet music may at first seemto require Symbolic Skills since musical notations areinvolved. The proofreader, however, is interested inthe figural properties of the notation, Insuring thatthe shape and location of the individual note, cor-respond with the predetermined standards repre-sented by the originals from which the sheet music isbeing printed. The worker is not concerned with thesymbolic properties of the notation, and need not

understand the system invoked, since he is not re-quired to interpret it. Persons using these skills scalesshould study their definitions carefully to preventsuch confusion, especially if the analyst is predis-posed, by habit, to thinking of intelligence as

unidimensional.It is also important to distinguish between the four

skills scales and the knowledge scale which will bediscussed shortly. At this point, it will suffice to saythat the skills deal with mental processes or activitieswhile knowledge reflects the substantive contentwhich is being processed or acted upon.

The final set of skills in the HSMS methodologyconsists of those dealing with consequences of error.Two separate skills were identifiedFinancial Con-sequences of Error and Consequences of Error toHumans. Implicit in any task is the possibility thaterrors may be committed in performing it. TI.... con-sequences of those errors will vary accord 1-..; to thespecific tasks. Some tasks, when done improperly,result in no physical or financial harm, while othershave the gravest of consequences Workers have per-ceptions concerning the seriousness of possit'e errorsin the tasks they perform. These perceptions endowthem with a sense of responsibility, which HSMSmaintains is learnable. This sense of responsibilitycan be developed to varying degrees. Tasks with veryserious perceived consequences of error will require avery highly developed sense of responsibility.

Levels on the Financial Consequences of Errorscale are determined by the relative amount of fi-nancial damage to the employing organization whichwould result from t1.- most serious, likely error in per-forming a given task. Absolute dollar values are nota factor. A thousand dollar mistake will have a muchmore harmful impact on some organizations than onothers.

The Consequences of Error to Humans scale isalso concerned with the most serious, likely error inthe performance of a given task. The level cn thisscale rises as the seriousness of the harm increasesand the remediableness of the damage declines. Thekey factors include whether the harm L r .mediableand the extent of the victim's loss of ability to func-tion. The remediableness of the damage ranges fromvery trivial situations where no remediation is re-

quired to the most irreversible damageimmediateand inevitable death.

Knowledge is dealt with in the HSMS methodologythrough a Knowledge Classification System and asingle Knowledge Scale. According to HSMS:

knowledge is information about facts and concepts and

includes how or why things function or what to do to has;them function. Knowledge may be acquired by formaldidactic means such as in a classroom. or by less formalmeans such as selfstudy, personalized Instruction, or bywatching others.

The definitions and the categories which are part of theHSMS Knowledge Classification System reflect the uses ofknowledge in work settings. The groupings of the categoriesreflect their hierarchical relationships. The categories wereconceived of and devised to be additive and scalable in thesame way in which the HSMS skills are additive andscalable (risit g from low to high levels cumulatively.according to .caling principle,,) The categories require theeffort of being learned in the context of a curriculum. andthey can be applied in more than one setting.The concept of the transferability of knots ledge assumes thatsome kinds of knowledge are capable of being used invarying situations. or can be treated as additive from lowerto higher levels of application, i e . that knowledge isscalable. The concepts of transferability and scalability ofknowledge underlie the HSMS Know ledge ClassificationSystem.The HSMS Knowledge Classification System's categories arelimited to the following types of knowledge

1. Subject categories which represent organized bodies ofknowledge which can be conceived of as ranging incontent from simple to advanced le%els and whichcan be required at %arying levels in a 'variety of tasks.Subject categories which are not merely the names ofthe indkidual steps of tasks.

3 Subject categories which. even at lowest levels of use,require a learning effort beyond everyday experienceand beyond the usual process of maturation. Thelearning effort 'milked may be formal or informal.but it must in%ohe a conscious effort to be acquiredso that it can be applied in different situations.

This quotation has been slightly altered a, the result of atelephone coriverstation with Dr Gilpatrick

4. Subject categories which can be identified as beingrequired in competent task performance. (20. p. 3-13and 3-14)*

Figure 10 consists of a sample page from theKnov ledge Classification System.

Once it has been decided that a specific categoryof knowledge is called for in a task, that category israted on the Knowledge Scale (figure 11). A mini-mum condition for rating a category above zero onthe Knowledge Scale in a given tisk is that the knowl-edge takes some time and effon to acquire and thusis usable in another context; e.g., in a higher levelupward mobility position. A final HSMS scale is thatfor Task Frequency, which, as its name implies,measures the approximate number of times a workerperforms a given task.

Among the written materials produced by theHSMS staff are manuals which give instructions onapplying the methodology. Training in this approach,however, is not yet as r,adily available as it is forthe Department of Labor methodology. This, plus thefact that the approach is relatively time-consuming,may discourage persons contemplating a job analysisfrom giving HSMS serious consideration. It is not ourpurpose to recommend for or against any particularmethodology. It would be a mistake to ignore theHSMS work, however, since several of its componentscan serve to identify task dimensions which are dealtwith inadequately, if at all, in other techniques.

FIGURE 10. HEALTH SERVICES MOBILITY STUDYKNOWLEDGE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (Sample Page)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 810000000 NATUR ;I. SCIENCES11000000 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES11100000 Heston of the biological sciences11'200000 Genetics (For molecular and microbial genetics see Molecular biology.)11300000 Eiolution11400000 = Biogeograph%11500000 = Er oloR (Includes ecosystems and conservation ) (Fur the physical aspects of air pollution see

GEOSCIENCES. CHEMISTRY. PHYSICS. and ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY. forthe aspects of pollution see Community health and pre%enti e medicine and Epidemi-ology

I1600000 = Botan%11700000 Zoology11710000 = Int eriebrate :oolog%11720000 = Fem./mire :oo/oe% (through mammalia. but excluding humans)11730000 Human zoology11'31000 Formal structure and function (The categories listed belov, include both anatomy and phys-

iology except where otherwise specified )11'31100 = Regional anatomy (Includes head and neck. thorax iback) and abdomen. pehis and

perineum, lower and upper limbs. and Skelton )11731200 = Topographic ana..)my (relation of external manifestations to internal structure anu

function. e g location of pressure points. surface appearance of joints. muscles andhones )

11'31300 = Hematopoietic system (Includes blood. red and white blood cells. platelets, and bonemarrow. 11%er. and spleen in their blood forming function )

73

FIGURE 11. HEALTH SERVICES MOBILITY STUDYLEVELS OF KNOWLEDGE

MEMIISAME.122MVIIRMIMMI

Note This scale refers to the level of knowledge in a gien subject category required of the performer in the taskbeing scaled. The knowledge categories which are 7eqiiired fJr each task are identified, and each category is rated withthis scale To be rated above zero un scale, the tall must require knowledge beyond the simple memorization of theovert steps of the task

The scale rises with the amount of detailed knowledge which ;nu- be consciously applied and with the depth ofunderstanding required in the subject area, in terms cf the subjec area's content, the structure of its ideas, and its uses"Detailed knowledge" covets such things as technical Jr spec,..! terms -r facts "Consciously applied' means that the per-former is able to (but need not) articulate his use of the kno Al.edge in he task situation.

The level of knowledge for a category is not determined by the level of any intellectual skills required, nor by thelevel for any other knowledge category required for the task, nor by the level of the category required for any othertasks of the job involved

ScaleValue Descriptive Statement

00 The task does not require the performer to consciously apply knowledge in this subject category which has beengamed in a le...ming erperienci reqiiirina more than the memorization of the oi en steps of the specific task beingscaled

1 5 The task requires that the performer consciously apply a limited amount of detailed knoxledge in this subject cate-gory, including such things as technical or special terms or facts.

2.5 The task requires that the performer have a general awareness of this subject category in terms of its content, thestructure of its ideas. and its uses The performer must consciously apply a limited umount of detailed /nos ledge inthis subject area, including such things as technical or special terms or facts

3 5 The task requires that the performer have a general ax areness of this subject category in terms of its content. thestructure of its ideas and its uses The performer must consciously apply a moderate amount of detailed knoxledgein this subject area, including such things as technical or special terms or facts

5 5 The task requires that the performer have a co cnicrable deuce of widersiandir:2 of this subject category in termsof its content. tne structure of its ideas and its uses The performer must consciously apply a moderate amount ofdetailed knol-ileihe in this area. including such things as technical or special terms or facts

0 The task requires that the performer nave a 1.1,s,dt rune degree or UnderVanding of this subject category in terms ofits content the structure of its ideas. and its uses The performer must consciously apply a ,try great amount of de-tailed knoxle.ige in this subject area, including such things as technical or special terms or facts

80 The tasK requires that the performer have a ,en deep understanding of this subject category in terms of its content,the structure of its idea' and its uses The performer must consciously apply a moderate amount of detailed knowl-edge in this subject area. including such things as technical or special terms or facts

9 0 The task requires that the performer have .2 iery deep rclarido of this subject category in terms of its content,the structure of its ideas. and its uses The performer must consciously apply a ten great amount of detailed knoisl-edge in this subject area, including such things as technical or special terms or facts

74

Pi 2

In additien to the basic task definition discussed inappendix A, the HSMS scales on Interpersonal Re-lations, Decision Making, and Consequences ofError are primary examples. Also, the General In-tellectual Skills represent an important attempt toapply Guilford's insights into the multidimensionalaspects of intelligence to the areas of human re-source management.

Northeastern Urr1A-erQ;ty

The Northeastern University study, RestructuringParatnedhal Occupations, conducted by Drs. Horo-w7tz Goldstein did iiot use scales to measure taskdimensions (15) That information which was gath-ered, in addition to basic job content or task data,concerned such matters as the percentage of timespent on each task and whom the performer thoughtshould perform each task. Initially, the followingquestions (obviously based on the HSMS) were tobe asked concerning each task but were discardedbs.cause they were felt to be of little value.

a `'De you perform this task:i. alone

ii. with a coworkeriii. under supervisioniv. some combination of the above?"

b. "What equipment, instruments, or suppliesdo you use in performing this function?"

-What is the end result of this function?"

d. "Is there any type of patient or, whom orwith whom you cannot perform this task?"

The tasks in each hospital department studiedwere ranked in order of difficulty by the researchers

75

with the assistance of selected supervisors and per-formers. This represents the study's only attempt atdetermining task complexity.

The Northeastern University study was describedin the 1973 edition of the Labor Department's Man-power Research and Development Projects as de-veloping a "short cut" method of job analysis. Thisis evidenced by the fact that the study relies for itsconclusions primarily on the task statements them-selves, ranked in very rough order of complexity. Thisapproach should appeal to managers concerned aboutthe time-consuming nature of a more detailed analysisA caveat is in order, however, concerning the practiceof using supervisors, performers, and other expertsto determine task difficulty. This approach is some-what subjective and could easily become biased insupport of the status quo. That is, a group of taskperformers might agree that none or very few of theirown tasks are simple enough to be assigned to lower-level workers.

Also, unless the tasks are very precisely and com-pletely described, the experts may have inadequateor divergent not )ns of the activities they are ranking.One expert may interpret a task statement in one way,and rank the task accordingly, while another expertmay see the statement differently and assign a differ-ent ranking. Also, each expert may use his or herown criteria in determining task complexity. Theseare typical of the problems which can result whenthe data gathering is performed by one person andthe ranking or rating is performed by another at alater date.

It should be stated that the purpose of this proj-ect was not to produce a sophisticated job analysistechnique but, rather, to develop a simplified pro-cedure which hospital officials might be persuadedto use in analyzing their own personnel structures andprocedures.

C. Names and Addresses of Researchers in Job Analysis

U.S. Department of Labor

Inquiries regarding the U.S. Department of Labor'sjob analysis methodology may be directed to:

Mr. Leon Lewis, ChiefDivision of Occupational AnalysisU.S. Employment ServiceU.S. Department of Lator601 D Street, NW., Room 8306Washington, D.C. 20213

or to any of the Occupational Analysis Field Cen-ters:

Occupational Analysis Field CenterCalifornia Department of Employment3223 West 6th StreetNinth FloorLos Angeles, Calif 90005

Occupational Analysis Field Center1212 Florida Avenue, Room 160Tampa. Fla. 33602

Occupational Analysis Field CenterMichigan Employ ment Security Commission7310 Woodward AvenueDetroit, Mich 48202

Occupational Analysis Field CenterMissouri Division of Employment Security505 Washington AvenueSt. Louis. Mo 63101

Occupational Analysis Field CeNew York State Division of Eh ,ment

Services370 7th Avenue. Room 704New York. N.Y. 10001

Occupational Research Field Center1933 5th AvenueSeattle, Wash. 98101

Occupational Analysis Field Center310 Price Place, Room 119Madison, Wis. 53701

Occupational Analysis Field CenterState Employees' Credit Union Building119 _Asbury StreetRaleigh, N.C. 27602

Alpha

Mr. Leonard P.R. GranickExecutive DirectorNew Careers Systems Institute, Inc.8 Sicard StreetNew Brunswick, N..1 08901

Career Options Research and Development

Mr. Robert K. SoongYoung Men's Christian Association19 South LaSalle StreetChicago. III. 60603

Farn? Job Ladder

'40

Mr Donald G. BennettRural Economics Institute630 Second Street, Room 200Davis. Calif. 95616

Functional Job Analysis

Dr. Sidney A FineThe W. E. Upjohn Institute for

Employment Research1101 Seventeenth Street, NW.Washington, D.C. 20036

Health Services Mobility Study

Dr. Eleanor GilpatrickDirectorHealth Services Mobility Study346 Broadway, Room 714New York, N.Y. 10013

Job Analysis, 1970

Dr. C. Harold Stone1428 Virginia AvenueGlendale, Calif. 91209

Or

Dr. Dale Yodei.Bureau of Business ResearchCalifornia State University at Long BeachBuilding F. 0. 5, Room 219Long Beach, Calif. 90840

Job Task and Requirements Analysis

Dr. Samuel B. MarksPresidentHumanic Designs Corporation1615 Northern BoulevardManhasset, N.Y. 11030

Manpower Utilization and Cost Analysis Study ofthe Fremont (California) Police Department

4r. Ralph Showalter, PresidentSocial Development Corporation4905 Del Ray AvenueBethesda, Md. 20014

Position Analysis Questionnaire

Dr. Ernest J. McCormickOccupational Research CenterDepartment of Psychological SciencesPurdue UniversityWest Lafayette, Ind. 47907

Psychological Assessment of Patrolman Qualifi-cations in Relation to Field Performance

Dr. Melany E. BaehrIndustrial Relations Center

so 77

University of Chicago1225 East 60th StreetChicago, Ill. 60637

Restructuring Paramedical Occupations

Dr. Harold M. GoldsteinDepartment of EconomicsNortheastern University360 Huntington AvenueBoston, Mass 02115

A Task Analysis of Library Jobs in the Stateof Illinois

Ms. Mercedese M. MillerVice President for Administration

and PlanningSocial. Educational Research

and Development, Inc.Suite 1285, 5454 Wisconsin AvenueChevy Chase, Md. 20015

A Task Analysis Method for Improved Man.power Utilization in the Health Sciences

Health Manpower Council of California1 Camino SobranteOrinda, Calif. 94563

Task Analysis by Selected Criteria

Dr. J. William UllerySenior StaffTechnical Education Research Centers44 Brattle StreetCambridge, Mass. 02138

Upward Mobility Through Job Restructuring

Mr. David FutranskyBureau of Policies and StandardsU.S. Civil Service Commission1900 E Street. NW.Washington, D.C. 20415

Vocational Education in Michigan (An ExploratoryStudy to Analyze New Skill Content in Selected Oc-cupations in Michigan and the Mechanism for ItsTranslation into Vocational Education Curricula)

Battelle Memorial InstituteColumbus Laboratories505 King AvenueColumbus, Ohio 43201

D. Selected Listing of Projects Employing The W. E. UpjohnInstitute's Functional Job Analysis Technique

A Systems Approach to Health Manpower Utilization. A Technical ProceduresManual, Institute for Health Research. New Health Careers DemonstrationProject, 1973 (HSMHA-NCHSRD-Manpower Grant HS 00221).

Jobs in Instructional Media Stud) (HMS) (formerly entitled: Manpower andInstructional Media: A Study of Jobs: Personnel. and Training), Divisionof Educational Technology. National Education Association. Washington,D.C. 20036, September 1971 (Grant No. OEG-0-8-080688-4494(085).

A Systems Approach to Manpower Utilization and Training. A Report of SRSDemonstration Project 11P-5705218-02. Utah Division of Family Serv-ices, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111, October 1972 (Manpower ProjectDirector, Robert E. Lewis).

Differential Use of Staff in Family and Child Welfare Services. with ParticularReference to Sub professional Staff, A Guide, 1970, U.S Department ofHealth, Education, and Welfare. Social and Rehabilitation Service. Com-munity Services Administration. Office of Child Development.

Task Analysis and Job Design for Public 4ssistance Agencies, As Illustratedby Eligibility Determination, U.S. Department of Health, Education. andWelfare, Social and Rehabilitation Service, Assistance Payments Adminis-tration, Division of State Administrative and Fiscal Standards, SRS -73-21204, J uary 1973.

7tto.

1111MIEST.ii.MIIIMBINININDIEMZEIBIRISErie.41111111141klir,

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(56) Young Men's Christian Association of Metropolitan Chicago, A SystemsApproach to the Human Services, Chicago, Ill.: Young Men's ChristianAssociation of Metropolitan Chicago, September 1971. Grant No. OEG-0 8470329-3694, Office of Education. U.S. Department of Health,Education, and Welfare.

(57) Young Men's Christian Association of Metropolitan Chicago, CareerLadders and Core Curriculum in Human Services, Phase II Final Re-port, Chicago, Ill.: Young Men's Christian Association of MetropolitanChica o, September 1970. r -ant No. 0EG-0-8-070329-3694 (085).

(58) Young Men's Christian Association of Metropolitan Chicago, InnovativeDevelopment of Course Content and Delivery, Chicago, III.: YoungMen's Christian Association of Metropolitan Chicago, Septemper 1971.Grant No. 0EG-0-8-070329-3694.

GPO 88 5.024 83

WHERE TO GET MORE INFORMATION

For more information on this and other progr.lms of research and deselopmcnt funded by the ManpowerAdministration, contact the Manpower Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D C.20213, or any of the Assistant Regional Directors for Manpower sshose addresses are listed beloss.

Location States Served

John F Kenned,. BldgBoston, Mass 02203

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