A study of job characteristics and job dimensions as based on the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

Abstract

The lst phase of this study consisted of a factor analysis of data on "worker-oriented" job elements for 536 jobs based on data from the PAQ, a structured job-analysis questionnaire developed by the authors. This analysis resulted in the identification of reasonably meaningful job dimensions of human behaviors. The 2nd phase tested the hypothesis that communality across jobs based on similar behaviors have implications in terms of common aptitude requirements and corresponding rates of pay. The PAQ was administered to a total of 124 job analysts, supervisors, and incumbents in 70 business and industrial organizations. Results indicate that aptitude requirements and rates of pay can be predicted reasonably well from such quantified job-analysis data, suggesting that conventional test-validation and job-evaluation procedures might sometimes be eliminated. (42 ref.) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)