A STUDY OF THE ACTIVITY CONNOTATIONS OF JOB-RELATED VERBS
Abstract
Semantic problems in job description were explored. An attempt was made to classify verbs used in job descriptions along a continuum of orientation, where the end points were defined as: (1) Job-Oriented--those words which characterize what is accomplished in a work activity in terms of job objectives, but do not specifically characterize what the worker is doing. (2) Worker-Oriented--those words which characterize what the worker is doing, that is, the human behaviors that are involved in the job. A sample of approximately 1000 verbs was extracted from over 4000 job definitions of the U. S. Employment Service. These words were subjected to two sorting procedures to identify those which had some degree of worker orientation associated with them. A total of 300 words were identified in this manner and these were judged along a 7-point scale of orientation. This scale was constructed in such a manner that subjects could indicate the inapplicability of a work to this type of classification. The distinction between 'job orientation' and 'worker orientation', as applied to verbs relating to human work activities, was one which was differentiated, to a statistically significant degree, by both naive and sophisticated raters. The pooled judgments of several raters resulted in categorizations which had very substantial reliability.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1962
- Accession Number
- AD0285295
Entities
People
- Ernest J. McCormick
- George C. Gordon
Organizations
- Purdue University