I__. - International Military Testing Association

APPLICATION OF THE JOB ABILITY ASSESSMENT SYSTEM TO
COMMUNICATION SYSTEM OPERATORS
WILLIAM J. YORK, JR. and DOROTHY L. FINLEY
U.S. ARMY RESEARCH INSTITUTE FIELD UNIT
FORT GORDON, GEORGIA
As the Army introduces major new equipment into its
inventory,there is a need to restructure Military Occupational
Specialties (MOS) and to reclassify soldiers from old MOSS into
new MOSS. Identification and quantification of specific soldier
abilities required to perform in new a MOS would enhance both the
training development and personnel management decision process
associated with major reclassification actions. A method for
mapping soldier abilities requirements from old to new MOSS would
provide Army managers with a useful tool in the areas of force
structure design and personnel or job classification.
In support of this, the AR1 Fort Gordon Field Unit is
conducting research using the JAAS methodology developed by
Fleishman to determine if significant differences in terms of the
JAAS abilities exist among Signal MOSS and if unique ability
patterns are significant enough to support mapping from old MOSS
to new MOSS. Moreover, we hope to identify a group of abilities
that could be measured by existing tests. This effort, to digress
for a minute, supports a need to determine how best to reclassify
soldiers from several existing Signal MOSS into two new MOSS.
These two new MOSS support a recently introduced area
communication system that is to replace the majority of the
current division and Corps Signal equipment and structure.
Reclassification and training of current MOSS holders to perform
in the new MOSS is a critical issue. The feasibility of using the
JAAS methodology to determine which new MOS is most similar to
existing MOSS is the primary research goal.
Our initial effort focused on existing communication MOSS.
Using the JAAS abilities shown in figure 1 (pg.4) and the ability
description and scale shown in figure 2, (pg.4) two groups of
subject matter experts (SMES) rated four Signal operator MOSS -
31C, 31M, 31L and 72E. Group A, consisting of seven senior
personnel, rated all four MOSS. Group B, Consisting Of nine t0
eleven MOS SMEls, rated only their MOS. Mean scores by ability
and ability cluster were calculated for each MOS. Interrater
reliability was determined by applying Kendall's Coefficient of
Concordance to the rank-ordering of the eight ability clusters.
As shown in table 1, (pg.2) rater agreement varied significantly
among the four Moss, as well as, between the two groups of
raters. Figures 3 and 4 (pg.5) depict the difference in profiles
between the two groups. Table 2 shows examples Of actual ratings
for two MOSs- the best and the worst- in terms of rater
agreement.
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