职业信息网络的框架、特征和应用

传统岗位分析方法在适应环境变化和实施成本等问题上存在不足,职业信息网络(Occupational Information Network,O*NET)的开发可以应对上述问题.O*NET的核心框架是内容模型,它整合了工作和工作者两方面信息.它的主要特征体现在减少描述单元数量,成本有效性和及时性、多层嵌套指标体系、跨职业描述指标等方面.O*NET对个人发展和组织管理都有重要作用.O*NET在研究上的应用主要围绕岗位分析和职业分类两大领域展开,建议未来国内的研究可以在多方面深入.     

MATCHING INDIVIDUALS TO OCCUPATIONS USING ABILITIES AND THE O*NET: ISSUES AND AN APPLICATION IN CAREER GUIDANCE

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is a modern computerized occupational database with the potential to be an important resource for numerous work-related applications. However, developing any O*NET-based application requires working through conceptual, methodological, and practical issues. This article discusses a set of major issues in the context of using the O*NET for person-occupation matching purposes, providing examples of how these issues were addressed in a systematic ability-based matching application developed for career guidance. Specifically, we (a) describe the O*NET and its potential for career guidance, (b) explain person-occupation fit and its positive consequences for individuals and organizations, (c) compare person-occupation fit with person-job fit, (d) discuss matching individuals to occupations empirically using abilities, (e) highlight issues faced in using the O*NJST in this process and give examples of how these issues were addressed in our matching application, and (f) evaluate the functioning of this example matching method.     

Creating a Recovery Filled Weekend: The Moderating Effect of Occupation Type on the Relationship between Non-work Creative Activity and State of Feeling Recovered at Work

The activities workers engage in during their personal time are likely to influence whether workers return to work feeling reenergized, refreshed, and fully rested. Two longitudinal studies were conducted to examine the importance of nonwork creative activity during the weekend on workers’ state of feeling recovered at work on Monday. Job titles were coded using the Occupation Information Network (O*NET) to gain an objective indicator of each worker’s occupational requirements for creativity. As expected, the occupational requirements for creativity moderated the relationship between nonwork creative activity during the weekend and state of feeling recovered at work on Monday. Specifically, workers with low occupational requirements for creativity (e.g., cashier, security guard, nuclear equipment technician) are likely to benefit from nonwork creative activities, whereas workers with high occupational requirements for creativity (e.g., interior designer, architect) are not likely to benefit from nonwork creative activities. These results have important implications regarding the development of organizational efforts to educate workers about the benefits of nonwork creative activities.     

THE TRANSPORTABILITY OF JOB INFORMATION ACROSS COUNTRIES

Three Occupational Information Network (O*NET) instruments (Generalized Work Activities, Basic and Cross-Functional Skills, Work Styles) were administered to 1,007 job incumbents, from 369 organizations, performing 1 of 3 jobs (first-line supervisor, office clerk, computer programmer) in New Zealand, China, and Hong Kong. Data from these countries were compared with archival data collected from 370 incumbents holding similar jobs in the United States. Hypothesized country differences, derived from cross-cultural theory, received limited support. The magnitude of differences in mean item ratings between incumbents from the United States and the other 3 countries were generally small to moderate in size, and rank-orderings of the importance and level of work activities and job requirements were quite similar, suggesting that, for most applications, job information is likely to transport quite well across countries.     

Winning at work: Trait competitiveness,personality types,and occupational interests

This study examined the relationship between trait competitiveness and occupational interests of under-graduates prior to entering the work force. The findings indicate that competitiveness is related to Investigative and Realistic types within Holland’s model of vocational choice and that competitive individuals are attracted to jobs involving competition and competitive pressure based on O*NET job characteristic ratings. Implications for future research are discussed.     

How similar is similar enough? Job profile similarity benchmarks using occupational information network data

Job comparison research is critical to many human resources initiatives, such as transporting validity evidence. Job analysis methods often focus on critical attribute (e.g., tasks, work behaviors) overlap when assessing similarity, but profile similarity metrics represent an alternative or complementary approach for job comparisons. This paper utilizes Occupational Information Network (O*NET) data to establish a distribution of job profile correlations across all job pairs for five attributes – generalized work activities, knowledge, skills, abilities, and work styles. These correlations represent effect sizes, or degree of shared variance between jobs. Practitioners may reference these correlational distributions as benchmarks for gauging the practical significance of the observed degree of similarity between two jobs of interest compared to the broader world of work.     

The relation of job control with job strains: A comparison of multiple data sources

This study represents a secondary analysis of existing data that were used in Spector and Jex's (1991) paper. The self‐report and rater‐report job‐stress data were identical to those used in the study by Spector and Jex (1991) . To gain a greater insight into the connections between the objective work environment and employees' job strains, this study added the job‐stress data from a newly developed objective data source – the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database. We found that an O*NET stressor was related to physical and behavioural strains. There is something in the objective environment that plays a role in employees' physical well‐being and behaviour. Objectively measured stressors, however, were unrelated to psychological strains. Explanations were given to the lack of the relationship. Based on these findings, we suspect that there may be somewhat different factors at work for each type of strain.     

Individuals and environments: Linking ability and skill ratings with interests

Holland's (1997) theory of corresponding person and work environment structures was evaluated by comparing the integration of individual and occupational ratings of interests, abilities, and skills. Occupational ratings were obtained from the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database (U.S. Department of Labor, 2007). College students (494 women, 526 men) provided self-ratings of their interests, abilities, and skills. Property vector fitting was used to embed ability and skill ratings into the Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC) interest structure, and bootstrapping was used to generate confidence intervals for the angles of the vectors and the magnitude of their fit to the Holland model. Across the individual and occupational ratings, 18 of 45 (40%) ability vectors and 41 of 48 (85%) skill vectors were fit into the RIASEC model. No significant gender differences were found in the integration of self-rated abilities and skills into the RIASEC circumplex; however, some differences were found between individual and environmental ratings. Obtained results highlight the potential utility and limitations of using Holland's model for representing both individual and occupational data in a common structure.     

LINKING O*NET JOB ANALYSIS INFORMATION TO JOB REQUIREMENT PREDICTORS: AN O*NET APPLICATION

This is an exploratory study that examined the possible application of the job component validity (JCV) model to identify potential employee selection instruments and to determine job requirement levels from O*NET job analysis data, following a research paradigm established with the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ). Job requirements were measured by mean aptitude test scores on the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB), and the ratings on the O*NET Generalized Work Activities (GWAs) were selected as representative O*NET job analysis data. Multiple correlation coefficients ranging from .35 to .89 were found when predicting mean GATB test scores from GWAs. Similar to JCV research some 30 years ago, predictions were strongest for cognitive aptitudes and weakest for manual dexterity. The data were examined under both rational and cross-validated empirical models. The results have positive implications for the development of a database that would support JCV estimates derived from O*NET job analysis data and allow practitioners to use O*NET data to help identify useful employee selection instruments.     

工作分析研究的新趋势

社会和组织环境的变化对工作性质的影响及法律制度的规范,给传统工作分析带来了重大挑战。文章首先介绍了未来导向的工作分析和战略性工作分析对工作未来需求和组织特定需求的关注;接着对有关工作分析和胜任特征关系的研究进行了介绍,并提出了将胜任特征和工作分析结合的观点;之后文章回顾了工作分析结果影响因素研究的新进展及新测量理论在该领域的应用。最后文章简要介绍了该领域最新的O*NET工作分析系统,并指出了未来工作分析研究的几个发展方向     

Motivational reserve: motivation-related occupational abilities and risk of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease

Midlife motivational abilities, that is, skills to initiate and persevere in the implementation of goals, have been related to mental and physical health, but their association with risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) has not yet been directly investigated. This relation was examined with data from the German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe). A total of 3,327 nondemented participants (50.3% of a randomly selected sample) aged 75-89 years were recruited in primary care and followed up twice (after 1.5 and 3 years). Motivation-related occupational abilities were estimated on the basis of the main occupation (assessed at follow-up II) using the Occupational Information Network (O* NET) database, which provides detailed information on worker characteristics and abilities. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the relative risk of developing MCI and AD in relation to motivation-related occupational abilities, adjusting for various covariates. Over the 3 years of follow-up, 15.2% participants developed MCI and 3.0% developed AD. In a fully adjusted model, motivation-related occupational abilities were found to be associated with a reduced risk of MCI (HR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.64-0.92). Motivation-related occupational abilities were associated with reduced risk of AD in ApoE ε4 carriers (HR: 0.48; CI: 0.25-0.91), but not in noncarriers (HR: 0.99; CI: 0.65-1.53). These results suggest that midlife motivational abilities are associated with reduced risk of MCI in general and with reduced risk of AD in ApoE ε4 carriers. Revealing the mechanisms underlying this association may inform novel prevention strategies for decelerating cognitive decline in old age.     

Worker estimation of ability requirements of their jobs

A modified version of the Minnesota Job Requirements Questionnaire (MJRQ), representing the GATB aptitudes, was used by workers in 11 selected jobs to rate the ability requirements of their jobs. Worker MJRQ ratings were compared with supervisor MJRQ ratings. Modified Occupational Ability Patterns (OAPs) derived from worker ratings were compared with OAPs based on supervisor ratings, OAPs from expert ratings in the DOT, and OAPs from the empirical GATB approach. Reliability of worker MJRQ ratings was comparable to that of supervisor ratings. Comparisons of mean ratings and variability of ratings of workers in a job category with workers in other jobs, and with supervisors rating the same job, showed construct validity for worker MJRQ ratings, as did intercorrelations of the worker ratings. OAPs derived from worker MJRQ ratings compared favorably with OAPs derived from supervisor MJRQ ratings, from the DOT, and from the GATB. Differences among workers on variables such as satisfaction, age and tenure did not significantly affect their MJRQ ratings. Implications of the worker MJRQ ratings are discussed.     

FACTOR ANALYSIS OF WORKER TRAIT REQUIREMENTS

The purpose of the factor analysis was to reorganize and simplify the sometimes bewildering array of occupational requirements and occupational characteristics that employment counselors and their clients must cope with in their planning. A knowledge of the factor structure of worker trait requirements may enhance the counselor's comprehension of the world of work.     

The Occupational Information Network: An Updated Dictionary of Occupational Titles

All of the articles in this issue demonstrate the richness of military research being conducted in the area of occupational analysis. Several of them also present findings and observations that have implications for the utility of an important occupational database currently being developed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Labor. This database is called the Occupational Information Network (O*Net; Peterson, Mumford, Borman, Jeanneret, & Fleishman, 1995) and is intended to supplant the Dictionary of Occupational Titles.     

The emergence of positive occupational health psychology

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the emerging concept of Positive Occupational Health Psychology (POHP). We discuss the usefulness of focusing on positive constructs in order to understand the path to health and well-being at work. We describe research findings on several POHP topics, including engagement, psychological capital, and job crafting. Additionally, we review the first positive interventions in this field and conclude by identifying some specific questions for future research.