A final concern is the use of global versus decomposed job analysis ratings. Some
have questioned the adequacy of global job analysis ratings (Gibson et al., 2007),
however, the task we asked participants to perform was not a rating task. Instead, we
asked them to make global judgments of job similarity. At least two studies support a
global approach. First, Sackett et al. (1981) found that global judgments resulted in the
same job groupings as those derived from a detailed task oriented job analysis. Second,
Pearlman et al. (1980) found that global information about occupational type was enough
to provide generalizability of test validities among occupational groups. Thus, we feel
comfortable recommending this approach to other researchers and practitioners.