The Content of Management Work: Formation of Task and Job Skill Composite Classifications

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and integrate classifications of managerial tasks and job skills based on results of job analysis surveys using the questionnaire approach. Twenty-one studies which focused on the task composition of managerial jobs and 10 studies which focused of the job skill content of management work were obtained for analysis and evaluation. A qualitative analysis was then performed to group representative task and job skill content into homogeneous dimensions based on judged similarity. The resulting 21 dimension task and and 22 dimension job skill classifications were evaluated in terms of internal consistency using the kappa statistic (Fleiss, Nee, & Landis, 1979) and with reference to a standard or "correct solution" using the statistic G (Light, 1971). In both cases (task and job skill classifications), a sample of industrial psychologists (n = 10) and a sample of business managers (n = 10) demonstrated overall group agreement and agreement with the "correct" solution in their assignment of representative descriptors to the classification solutions. The resulting classifications constitute a composite description of management jobs in terms of task composition and job skill requirements. The results are compared to previous findings and the applications to major areas of human resource management are discussed.