I__. - International Military Testing Association

quantitative comparison of the sorter categorizations. A list of 32 defined
work behaviors was developed. Final categories were named and definitions
were added tl, suggest the commonality among duty statements making up each
category.
In the present study we began by reviewing OPM's Classification and
Qualification Standards for each of 113 professional and administrative
occupations. For- each occupation, the major job specific duty stataments were
extracted from the Standards. Approximately 10 to 15 major duty statements
were obtained for each occupation. In total, over 1,400 job-specific duty
statements were developed.
Using the 32 GWB's developed by Outerbridge, we had four psychologists sort
each of the 13OOt job specific duties into the 32 GWB';, if applicable.
Sorters were instructed to sort the duties on the basis of war-k behaviors.
Job-specific duties that could not be sorted into the 32 GM's were placed
into a miscellaneous category. Sorters were advised to put job-specific
duties into the miscellaneous category if they had reservations about placing
them in any one of the generalized work behavior categories. Sorters were
also instructed to develop new generalized work behavior categories if they
found that several job-specific duties did not fit into any of the GkB's
categories but seemed to describe a common underlying work behavior.
For the group of sorters, the average time required fcr the sorting tash was
approximately 8 hrs. Sorters generally broke up the task into 2 half-day
segments. If three out of the four sorters classified a specific job duty into
a GWB category, we considered it to be a match. Using this criterion,, about
75% of the 1400t job specific duties were able to be classified into the 32
GWB's.
The original sorters also developed 18 additional GWE categories. using the
332 job specific duties that could not be sorted into the original 32 GWB's,
another group of 4 psychologists sorted these job specific duties into ttle 18
additiorlal GWB's and were also told to develop new GWB's if necessary and
appropriate.
In total, 25 additional GWB's were developed. Using the same 75% agreement
criterion, 290 more job-specific duties wet-e classified into & generalized
work behavior category. Out of a total of 1,438 job-specific duties, only 42,
or about 3% could not be classified into d generalized work behavior. T&ble 1
shows two examples out of the total 57 GM's developed.
Table 1 Examples of Generalized Work Behaviors
1. Presents information about work of the organization to others: e.g.,
Describes agency programs and servictis to individuals or groups in community
or to higher management.
2. Applies regulations to organizational programs and activities: e.g.,
Selects and interprets laws to ensure uniform application on wage and hour or
safety and occupational health issues and in the sale arid leasing of property.
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