The Development of the Occupation Analysis Inventory: An 'Ergometric' Approach to an Educational Problem.

The recent emphasis on career education accentuates the problem of transforming and organizing information work domain into information that can be applied to educational problems. A comprehensive taxonomy of human work and accompanying measurement devices suitable for educational purposes is needed. This report describes a systematic procedure for describing, comparing, and grouping jobs and occupations for educational purposes. Emphasis is on the ergometric approach, with its application of psychometrics to the study of human work. As the first phase in a program to promote articulation between the educational and work domains, the Occupation Analysis Inventory provides: (1) conceptual structure, (2) work elements with widespread applicability, (3) tests in the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains, and (4) scaling procedures providing for quantitative job descriptions. (BH)