Development of a performance taxonomy for entry-level military occupations

Area of Science:

• Military psychology
• Human resources management
• Organizational behavior

Background:

• The U.S. military annually selects and classifies approximately 150,000 enlisted personnel using assessments like the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB).
• Evaluating the effectiveness of these selection and classification tools is challenging due to varying performance criteria across different military branches and occupations.
• Existing job performance measurement (JPM) research, spanning from the 1980s-1990s to recent studies, provides a foundation for developing standardized performance metrics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a unified, cross-service job performance model for creating effective measures of first-term enlisted job performance.
• To establish a hierarchical taxonomy of job performance dimensions applicable across all U.S. military services.
• To provide a framework for future joint-service research and criterion development in personnel assessment.

Main Methods:

• Synthesized existing job performance research and Job Performance Measurement (JPM) project findings.
• Developed a hierarchical taxonomy of performance dimensions, categorized into 33 dimensions, 11 categories, and four broad categories.
• Evaluated the dimension structure through expert retranslation and assessed the importance of dimensions by a sample of military experts.

Main Results:

• The developed hierarchical taxonomy includes four broad performance categories: Technical, Organizational Citizenship and Peer Leadership, Psychosocial Well-Being, and Physical.
• Military experts confirmed the high relevance and cross-service generalizability of these four broad performance categories.
• All 33 performance dimensions were deemed important, with Psychosocial Well-Being dimensions being rated as the most critical by each service.

Conclusions:

• The established cross-service job performance model provides a robust framework for developing and refining performance measures for enlisted military personnel.
• The model's four broad categories and 33 dimensions are relevant and generalizable across different military services, facilitating joint-service research.
• The emphasis on Psychosocial Well-Being highlights its critical role in overall job performance within the military context.