Technical, organizational, and communicational dimensions in modeling for job analysis

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A conventional approach, to job analysis consists of the listing of technical tasks performed in the job and the identification of a number of worker requirements without full assessment of requirements of the total work situation. The approach of this study is that a “job” is a “work position” with three major dimensions, the Technical, the Organizational, and the Communicational dimensions (TOC). An attempt is made to develop a job-design model, according to which variables of these major dimensions can be measured and indices developed. The SAMOA system (Systematic Approach to Multidimensional Occupational Analysis) has been adopted as a label for this methodology. Major Technical variables are complexity and variety. Major Organizational variables are organizational position and supervision exercised and received. Major communicational variables are volume, scope, status level, and complexity of interpersonal contacts. The basic analytical unit is a “cluster” of men whose patterns of tasks performed exhibit a maximum degree of compositional homogeneity, as determined by a computer clustering program, which generates multiple “coefficients of compositional similarity.” “Cluster profiles” are developed which characterize the different clusters in terms of the TOC variables. Different occupational clusters reveal characteristic TOC patterns. This methodology can be used as a basis for the development of occupational personnel classification structures. Model occupational structures will be developed in terms of the TOC variables.