Job Analysis

JOB ANALYSIS. This term, widely used since the World War, was applied by the personnel division of the American army to the analysis of occupational activities into their components, by means of which job specifications were drawn up showing ex actly what a worker in each occupation was expected to do and be. On the basis of these specifications men were selected to fill positions such as those of chauffeur, gunsmith, etc. After the war the concept of job analysis was carried into industry, education and allied fields.

Under the term "vocational analysis," investigators in voca tional guidance have for some years analyzed vocational activi ties into their component parts so as to secure a basis on which a person can choose a vocation. A pioneer study of this nature, The Machinist, was made in 1910 by Frederick J. Allen for the Vocation Bureau of Boston, Massachusetts. Similar studies have followed in a number of other communities and for a number of other occupations. Again, the technique, if not the name, was used by the efficiency engineers of the early part of the loth cen tury. Taylor and others, in endeavouring to discover the unneces sary motions made by workers in industrial operations and in establishing standards of efficient performance, made analyses, di viding each job into units as minute as possible. The U.S. Em ployment Service, following its expansion under the Wagner Peyser Act (1933), prepared job descriptions for many jobs which are used in selecting applicants.

Community Surveys.

Educators have used the term and the method in seeking to establish a scientific basis for organizing and teaching courses in vocational training. In 1914 the city of Rich mond, Va., organized a survey of the community in order to dis cover its vocational opportunities and needs. Similar surveys fol lowed in other cities, one of the most thorough being that of Cleveland. These surveys employed the method of job analysis, and their reports contain fairly detailed classification and descrip tions of the operations involved in the various vocational activities in the communities. In addition to these surveys, analyses have been made in a more or less laboratory manner, having as their aim the dissection of vocational activities for the purpose of formulat ing methods of giving instruction.

Analyses by even more strict laboratory procedure have been carried out, chiefly by psychologists, in the effort to discover facts about learning which could be put to use in the training of ap prentices. Bryan and Harter investigated telegraphing and dis covered the rate at which learners could receive and send at vari ous stages of their progress. W. F. Book made a similar study of typewriting. Wells and, later, Hoke investigated, among other things, the nature of the errors which a typist makes. On the basis of these facts a teacher of typewriting can direct a learner in the avoidance of errors and the more rapid acquisition of skill. Psy chological analyses in the form of occupational ability patterns were developed by the University of Minnesota Employment Stabilization Research Institute (1931-35). These patterns, pre sented in the form of profiles, resulted from a statistical study of test scores made by groups of workers in various occupations.

Procedure.

Analysis should be made from a number of points of view. Especially is this necessary when made for the purpose of drawing up job specifications or qualifications that must be pos sessed by the worker. Economic questions should be answered, such as how much money may be earned, how the demand for workers fluctuates, etc. From the physical point of view the an alysis should specify the movements that the worker makes, the weights to be lifted and the like. Physiological data should be gathered showing such things as preferable age, height, sensory acuity and also liability to accident or to occupational disease.

The psychological phase of the analysis involves a statement of the mental processes involved in the work, the degree of intelli gence required, amount and kind of education and temperamental requirements. From the sociological point of view, enquiry should be directed toward the class of workers engaged in the occupa tion, their nationality, family status, etc. Thus true analysis re quires and results in a complete view of occupational activity.