The review mentioned earlier illustrates that competence
at continuous learning should include possessing a
combination of (1) a development orientation or the tendency
to pursue developmental activities and endeavors
that are important to oneself, (2) inner work standards or
the tendency to strive to do one’s best, even when a lesser
level of performance would be acceptable, (3) scholastic
aptitude or the ability to learn new things readily, and (4)
self-objectivity or the ability to recognize one’s own
strengths and weaknesses. Although these four component
dimensions are distinguishable, in the current study, it is
the combination of these four constructs that together make
up the construct of competence at continuous learning.
Work that demands these skills requires competence at
continuous learning. While we might have simply measured
continuous learning skill demands using a global
measure and asking respondents to rate ‘‘continuous
learning skill demands,’’ this would leave the definition
relatively open to interpretation and might mean different
things to different people. In the present study, we instead
made the definition more concrete and specific by
employing four key skills from the literature and asking
respondents to rate each of them. This had the effect of
removing some of the subjectivity and variability across
respondents in defining continuous learning skill and tied it
to valid constructs from the literature.
2 J Bus Psychol (2010) 25:1–13
123
It is important to know that this study employed both an
analysis of the worker attributes required to perform a job
and an analysis of the task dimensions that make up the
task content of the job. Both analyses focused on the job
requirements and demands, although the former focused on
the individual attributes required of an incumbent to perform
the work while the latter focused on the work itself.
Both reflect on the nature of the work: what is required to
perform the work from a human individual difference point
of view as well as what comprises the work from a task
content point of view. Both are important approaches to job
analysis. The prior section dealt with worker attributes
required to perform the work while the next section of the
paper addresses task dimensions in detail.