Work, Jobs, and Occupations A Critical Review of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (1980) / Chapter Skim
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9 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
9 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Pages 214-234
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From page 214... ...
2. Substantial improvements in the procedures and products of the occupational analysis program are required in order to meet the national need for occupational information.
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From page 215... ...
For this reason, then, a document that defines terms is essential to the Employment Service's operation; some mechanism for constantly revising such a document must be maintained as new terminology comes into use and new activities arise.
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From page 216... ...
In addition, the DOT classification should also be compatible with other widely used classifications to facilitate the reporting and comparison of occupational statistics. OCCUPATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS Closely related to the classification system are the attributes of occupations and of workers that the Employment Service calls worker functions and worker traits.
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From page 217... ...
, 1 15,1 15 copies of the fourth edition DOT have been sold. Evidence for conclusion 2 that substantial improvements are needed in the occupational analysis program is found throughout the report: chapter 4 identifies the kind of occupational information that is needed but not currently available; chapter 5 identifies various organizational difficulties in the program; chapters 6 and 7 evaluate the procedures used to collect the occupational information contained in the DOT as well as its quality; and chapter 8 assesses the classification structure of the DOT from the standpoint of its usefulness in matching workers and jobs.
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From page 218... ...
The Job Search Branch is an effective unit, but it relies on information furnished by local Employment Service offices and has no particular connection to the major activities of the occupational analysis program. Moreover, its presence in the Division of Occupational Analysis may distract resources from the occupational analysis activities that should be the primary concern of the division.
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From page 219... ...
We thus envision a research unit that is larger than the current Occupational Analysis Branch in the national office of the Division of Occupational Analysis. We recognize that this is a period of budgetary restraint, but we would be derelict in our responsibiity if we did not express our strong conviction regarding what is needed for a viable federal occupational analysis program simply because of current (and perhaps short-run)
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From page 220... ...
SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS The remainder of this chapter presents a set of recommendations suggesting ways to improve the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and, more generally, to facilitate the development of high-quality occupational information. Recommendations 4-8 concern data collection procedures; recommendations 9 and 10 concern the worker function and worker trait scales; recommendations 11-13 concern the classification structure of the DOT and the keyword system; recommendations 14 and 15 propose needed areas of research; and recommendations 1~22 deal with various organizational and administrative issues.
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From page 221... ...
In our judgment, however, they have value for at least three other purposes that would substantially improve the occupational analysis program. First, staffing schedules could be used as a check on the representativeness of establishments selected for job analysis by comparing staffing schedule data with the occupational structure of industries revealed through other sources (for example, the decennial census and the occupational employment survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics)
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From page 222... ...
Industry assignments vary widely in scope: an assignment may be as wide as "retail trade," a category covering establishments engaged in diverse activities, or as narrow as "button," covering establishments engaged in "manufacturing buttons, parts of buttons, button blanks, etc." Neither the basis for the national office's decision to make an assignment broad or narrow nor the procedure by which a field center decides among the possibilities in an industry of broad scope is clear. The procedures involved in the selection of jobs for analysis are also unclear.
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From page 223... ...
A range of sources could be continuously or periodically monitored to identify occupational titles not already included in the DOT. Potential sources include the occupational employment surveys of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job orders received by local Employment Service offices (indeed, such job orders are already a major source in the form of occupational code requests)
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From page 224... ...
As chapter 4 documents, the DOT iS widely used outside the Employment Service because it is the most comprehensive source of occupational information available anywhere. As such it should attempt to be complete in its coverage of the occupations practiced in the United States today.
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From page 225... ...
Ranges of scale scores are also published for groups of occupations in volume 2 of the third edition DOT. Scores on the worker traits scales for the fourth edition had not been published as of January 1980, although they are available on computer tape.5 The development of a new set of scales of occupational characteristics is a research activity that should be undertaken prior to the publication of the next edition of the DOT and then continued as an ongoing activity of the research unit.
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From page 226... ...
scales are inappropriately used as substitutes for training time scales. This may occur because of lack of knowledge of the worker trait scales, since worker functions are included in the basic occupational code, while worker traits are treated as separate dimensions and, in the third edition DOT, were published in supplementary volumes.
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From page 227... ...
We wish to emphasize, however, the need for continued research and experimentation in the use of automated data processing in both the job analysis and placement operation of the Employment Service. The exploratory work done by our staff (presented in Appendixes G and H)
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From page 228... ...
Therefore an essential task is to ensure that occupational information generated by the Employment Service can be translated to allow reporting in terms of a standardized occupational classification. Congress has established a National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (Public Law 94-482; October 12, 1976)
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The Employment Service could do a great deal to improve its ability to place workers in jobs through research on the processes by which workers acquire jobs. In chapter 8 we proposed an empirical procedure for defining
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From page 230... ...
The Employment Service, in particular the occupational analysis program, is in a unique position to conduct research on such questions. Job history data currently collected routinely in the course of job placement interviews and establishment studies currently conducted on a regular basis for the purpose of job analysis are valuable sources of data that should be exploited in the interest of improving the ability to match workers and jobs.
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From page 231... ...
The problems of coordination by the national office may be reduced by a reduction in the number of field centers, but the problems of communication between the occupational analysis program and local office operating staff will certainly be increased.
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From page 232... ...
Although we recognize that the Employment Service is an operating agency whose purpose is to deliver service, such a service cannot be delivered for the highly complex and continuously changing world with which the Employment Service deals on the basis of ad hoc decisions that are never documented or systematically communicated to persons in operational roles. The lack of documentation makes the review and evaluation of Employment Service occupational information difficult for users, who should be supplied with this essential information.
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From page 233... ...
20. A tabulation program should be instituted immediately to aggregate monthly data from Employment Service operations to the revised Standard Occupational Classification unit groups used in the 1980 Census of Population and subsequent current population surveys.
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There is no need to rush to a fifth edition of the DOT, especially if a program of continuous updating and dissemination of occupational information is developed as proposed above. Such a program would serve the needs of users for up-to-date occupational information by keeping the fourth edition current.
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