Fred Nichols asks about schemes used to describe work. A few years ago the
Department of Labor replaced the old Dictionary of Occupational Titles with
the Occupational Information Network, or O*NET. O*NET contains six domains
that can be used to describe jobs (worker characteristics, experience
requirements, occupation requirements, occupation specifics, occupation
characteristics, and worker requirements). Each domain is composed of a
cascading hierarchy of descriptors. For example, worker requirements
includes basic skills, cross-functional skills, general knowledge, and
education.
A good place to start learning about O*NET is
http://www.onetcenter.org/
William A. Weech (
WeechWA@state.gov)
Leadership and Management School
Foreign Service Institute
OpenNet:
http://fsi.state.gov
Telephone: (703) 302-7198
This e-mail is UNCLASSIFIED based on definitions provided in Executive Order
12958.
As I continue digging through the BLS occupational data, I've
settled on a couple of coding schemes that seem to be to be useful. One
looks at the work in terms of the kinds of behaviors required (i.e., mental,
verbal, physical) and the second looks at the locus of the interactions
between the person doing the work and his or her task environment. A worker
interacts with or operates upon something in the course of doing his or her
work. The three main ones seem to be materials or things, information and
other people.
A surgeon, for example, literally operates upon people. A surgeon
also engages in quite a bit of verbal interaction with patients (before and
after surgery) as well as with other medical professionals, especially those
on the surgical team (before, during and after the surgery). Obviously, a
great deal of mental, verbal and physical skill is required to perform well
as a surgeon. A salesperson's work is also marked by a great deal of verbal
interaction as well as no small amount of information processing. Except
for lugging samples, doing demos, etc, physical exertion seems not to be
central for most sales positions. Managers, for the most part, interact
with other people and with information (physical interactions are not the
central component in most managers' jobs). On and on the variations go.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone knows of any studies or analyses
done in terms of mental, verbal physical skills AND the kinds of
interactions that characterize a given occupation's work interactions (i.e.,
with information, people and materials). I know task analysts, training
developers, work analysts, compensation specialists, etc look at these kinds
of things but I don't know the precise frameworks used by all of them.
Pointers gratefully accepted...
Regards,
Fred Nickols, CPT
Distance Consulting
"Assistance at a Distance"
nickols@att.net
www.nickols.us