q.66

EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

item  which  provides  for  just  such  a  contingency.  There
are,  to  be  sure,  many  jobs  which  require  ability  of  a  very
high  degree,  and  in  order  to  get  any  comprehensive  idea
of  this  ability,  it  is  necessary  to  go  into  much  greater  detail
concerning  the  work  than  has  been  done  in  the  foregoing
analysis.  However,  the  discussion  of  job  analysis  has
been  here  confined  to  the  more  fundamental  and  common
elements  and  the  more  advanced  kinds  of  trades  are  discussed ­
  in  other  chapters.
Now  that  it  has  been  made  clear  what  is  implied  by  a
comprehensive  job  analysis,  the  three  remaining  conditions ­
  can  be  taken  up  in  comparatively  brief  form.  The
second  condition  named  is  that  such  an  analysis  must  be
brief.  Brevity  is  always  a  self-evident  virtue.  But  as
applied  to  the  work  of  interviewing  and  choosing  applicants, ­
  the  importance  of  brevity  becomes  even  more
obvious.  When  an  interviewer  needs  to  look  up  the
characteristics  of  a  job,  he  must  be  able  to  find  them  in  the
shortest  possible  time  and  with  the  least  possible  trouble.
All  the  items  contained  in  the  outline  given  can  be  put  on
a  single  card  four  inches  by  six  inches  in  size.  Conformity
to  a  standard,  the  third  condition  named,  contributes  to
brevity  although  this  is  not  its  only  merit.  The  importance ­
  of  having  jobs  described  in  standard  terms  is  almost
the  same  as  having  people  make  out  application  blanks
which  are  standard.  It  promotes  simplicity  and  definiteness, ­
  makes  sure  of  the  essential  features  and  excludes  the
non-essential,  and  in  fact  fulfills  a  large  number  of  requirements. ­
  Unless  the  description  of  jobs  is  made  to
conform  to  some  such  standard,  the  results  will  be  a
heterogeneous  mass  of  facts  and  figures  which  can  be  used
only  with  the  utmost  inconvenience.
The  fourth  condition  calls  for  a  description  of  the  job