Occupational Analysis

for the 21 Century

st

Opportunities and
Challenges
http://www.icodap.org/
http://www.codap.com/
• The Swan Song of the
Last Dinosaur
What are we talking about?

• Job Analysis – Sponsored by

Business Management – typical goal
– Faster, Better, Cheaper

• Occupational Analysis – Sponsored

by Large Institutions or Government
– typical goal – Faster, Better, More
Stable in the Long Term (Right
Person, Right Training, Right Job)
 A HISTORY OF JOB
ANALYSIS
Jimmy L. Mitchell, Ph.D., Director
Institute for Job & Occupational Analysis
http://www.icodap.org/papers/Reports/Job%20Analysis%20History.ppt
 Government
Managers
& Executives

CHINA - 1115 B.C. - The Imperial Court

Problem: Selection & Retention of

All Government Officials
 Six Factor Model

• Writing
• Arithmetic
• Music
• Archery
• Horsemanship
• Ceremonies and Rites

P.H. DuBois, 1970

A History of Psychological Testing
 United States
• 1860 - 1900 U.S. Civil Service Reform
• Lincoln - “inefficient and wasteful results
of political appointments”
• Lessons of the Civil War
• Civil Service Reform League
• Exams to measure abilities & skills
relevant to the job vice academic prowess
• Info from supervisors, observation, letters
 1890 - 1915

• F. W. Taylor - Scientific Management

• Hugo Munsterberg - Harvard
– father of industrial Psychology
– job analysis critical to define tests
– invented validity study
– published first Industrial Psychology text
• Frank & Lillian Gilbreth
– Industrial Engineering - time & motion studies
 World War I

• Need for mobilization

• Committee on classification
– Group of imminent psychologists
– Headed by W.D. Scott & W.V. Bingham
– Need to improve Army placements
• Outcomes (by the end of the war)
– Army Alpha and Army Beta tests
U. S. Civil Service Commission
• 1919 report USCSC Chief Examiner
• Impact of scientific management …
– “it has at least one good result in forcing
employers of labor, especially the larger
corporations, to consider methods of
employment, to make job analyses, and to
ascertain as closely as possible the ultimate
cost of their method or lack of method of
employment.”
 World War II

Engineering Psychology
Selection & Training
Equipment/Systems Design
Operator Procedures - Training
Pilot Selection Program
Army Air Force - San Antonio, Texas
Aptitude/Abilities Testing
Link Trainer - Spatial Orientation
 Peterson, Mumford,
Borman, Jeanneret, &
Fleishman, 1995

• Department of Labor initiative

• Replacement for the DOT
• Define Generic Characteristics of Jobs
• 1200 items for each occupation
• New technologies
www.onet.org
The Future of the World of Work
Historical Job Analysis Update
• China – 1115 BC
• Industrial Revolution & Early 1900s
• World Wars I & II
• Beyond Corporate America – the 1960s
• The Global Economy – the 1990s
• The Star Trek Economy – the 21st
Century and beyond
 Job Analysis in the Military
• Military Provides all employee training
• Military structures job families to balance
training cost & utility of force
• Many occupations undergo major technology
shifts & mission broadening
• Major changes lessens the value of senior
personnel in targeting training
• Military Promotes from Within*
• Military is a model for enlighten corporations
 Department of Defense
1947

• JCS Memo, August 1949

– “Initiate a study to determine the most appropriate
methodology and techniques of military job analysis and
job evaluation; determine the extent to which the
unilateral analyses accomplished to date are valid with
relation to methodology; provide for such further job
analysis as may be required; and initiate a study to relate
all Army, Navy, and Air Force jobs to a common
occupational structure.”
 Secretary of Defense

• Approved such a study

• Appropriate way to know requirements
• Military must prove needs to Congress:
– “Such proof can be best presented by the
Department of Defense only after job
analysis of military jobs..”
R.R. Van Cleve, 1974
 Taxonomy of Terms

• Occupation
• Job or Job Type
• Position
• Duty or groups of tasks (modules)
• Task
• Performance Steps
 Task Based
Approach

• AF Occupational Research Project (1957)

• Task Inventory approach (Morsh, 1964)
• Comprehensive Occupational Data Analysis
programs (CODAP)
• Operational Program in Training (1967)
• Continuing R&D (Christal, 1974)
• Transfer of Technology (1967 - present)
 Recent Projects
• Integrated OA with Cross-linked Testing
and Training at the module level (J-LAP)
• Generated Job Structuring Technologies
• Studied Global Pay Equity
• Determined Curriculum for Industrial &
Systems Engineers for the 21st Century
 Opportunities Ahead
From Computerization
• Faster data collection (start-to-report)
• Farther Reach (Internet, Floppy, Paper)
• Smarter Surveys (better branching)
• Broader Surveys (multi-career areas)
• More flexible analysis, linkage, and
utilization (at the module rather than job
level)
 Challenges Ahead
• Fragmentation of Occupational Families –
called “Multi-skilling” and “Agile
Workforce” by Management
• Greater computer testing capabilities
outstrips the “classical” and “item
response theory” ability to rank individuals
• Assessment will need to move to the
module level rather than job title
 The Star Trek Economy
The master in the art of living
makes little distinction between
his work and his play,
his labor and his leisure,
his mind and his body,
his education and his recreation,
his love and his religion.
He hardly knows which is which.
He simply pursues his vision of excellence
in whatever he does,
leaving others to decide
where he is working or playing.
To him, he is always doing both.
-- From a Zen Buddhist quoted in
"Head to Head" by Lester Thurow,
Dean of M.I.T.'s Sloan
School of Management