2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

474
INTRODUCTION
JOB AND OCCUPATIONAL INTEREST IN THE NAVY
Stephen E. Watson, Ph.D.
Director, Navy Selection and Classification
Bureau of Naval Personnel
Washington, DC 20370-5000
Stephen.E.Watson@Navy.Mil
The United States Navy is currently taking an innovative approach to improving the
match between enlisted personnel (Sailors) and their jobs (Ratings). The Rating Identification
Engine (RIDE) is the Navy’s decision support system designed to help enlisted classifiers
provide initial guidance counseling to Applicant-Sailors (i.e., potential enlistees), and re-assign
Sailors to new Ratings during their career. During accessions, RIDE provides a rank ordered list
of recommended Navy Ratings to the Classifier and Applicant-Sailor and presents a wide variety
of educational and career information about these jobs (i.e., enlistment periods, bonuses,
promotion rates, civilian education and job equivalents). Current inputs to RIDE include an
ability component, which utilizes scores on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, and
a Navy Need input providing available training opportunities and emphasizing critical Navy
Ratings.As the Navy strives to improve the Sailor-Rating match, a collection of independent
variable measurements are being investigated as additional inputs to RIDE, including measures
of personality (Farmer, Bearden, Borman & Hedge, 2002), general time sharing ability (Watson,
Heggestad, & Alderton, 1999), and vocational interest. The most mature of these additional
measures is the job interest measure known as Job and Occupational Interest in the Navy (JOIN).
In the development of JOIN, reviews suggested traditional approaches and existing
inventories were insufficient for the Navy’s intent (Lightfoot, Alley, Schultz, Heggestad and
Watson, 2000). In general, these approaches failed to provide sufficient differentiation between
Navy jobs. Navy Ratings (and military specialties in general) tend to fall into technical and
scientific interest domains, rather than a more evenly distributed representation across the
Holland domains (1999). Likewise, the interests of military personnel should follow this limited
distribution pattern as compared to college or college-bound populations (see Lightfoot et al.,
2000, for a complete discussion of these issues).
For specificity, rather than attempting to tap into established interest factors or
personality traits which may indicate potential job satisfaction in a broad collection of jobs
(Holland 1999) the author decided to focus on a componential classification (or taxonomy)
indexing approach. In the approach presented here, preferred jobs are retrieved through
collections, or profiles, of indices, rather than matching a person’s “type” to a broad job area, and
then retrieving jobs in that area. Campbell, Boese, Neeb and Pass (1983) have made compelling
arguments for similar taxonomic approaches.
The creation of an interest taxonomy requires the creation and categorization of some
elements of job interest. Primoff (1975) has defined a “job element” as a worker characteristic
that influences success in a job, and includes interest as a job element. Unfortunately, there does
not exist a consensus definition for the phrase “vocational interest” (Hindelang, Michael &
45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003