Job Task Systems Management of Government Organizations

Abstract

Job Task Analysis (JTA)1 holds promise as a means of providing an integrated approach to governmental management. In particular, a combination of Management by Objectives (MBO)2 and JTA, termed Job Task Systems Management (JTSM), may provide an objective strategy for managing many governmental organizations. JTSM is not a strategy for day-to-day management of people within an organization. It is, rather, an underlying structure which day-to-day management can rely on for support and for a base line for change. It assumes a knowledgeable work force that requires an innovative, flexible management style. The first step in JTSM is to define the work that the organization has been chartered to perform. Unlike most profit-motivated organizations, many governmental organizations are given general mandates to serve the public in terms of broad missions or purposes. The challenge, therefore, is to define what constitutes the public interest given different expectations of the public, Congress, interest groups, the media, the agency, and its employees and to develop a management system to ensure that these expectations are met to the fullest extent possible within the resources allocated to the organization. The basic building block of JTSM-the job task analysis-is a detailed description of each job task performed by the employees of a work unit, along with related average time requirements for performance and measures of successful accomplishment. A job task is defined as a work activity which has a distinct beginning and an end product such as a report, which completes the activity. The JTA, then, becomes a means to reach an agreement as to the appropriate work of the agency and to manage the accomplishment of that work. Within the JTSM concept, JTA is not merely a basis for the development of training as it is routinely used today, but it is also a foundation for other aspects of the organization's management. The job tasks defined by the analysis must, of course, embody the legal mandate for the agency. Job tasks are then used as the basis for the development of each part of the organization's operating system, from staffing to training, to work program management. This results in a standardized, integrated system built around the legal authority for the organization. Job task accomplishment, therefore, becomes measurable to facilitate evaluation. Accomplishment of objectives set by job tasks in each part of the management system integrates MBO and JTA theory in an operationally feasible way.