Before proceeding further, we attempt to clarify two terms for the reader, and explain
how we use them for the purpose of this study. First, we view job analysis as a systematic
process of discovery of a job by dividing it into smaller units (Brannick and Levine,
2002). Second, job classification is the process of grouping positions into jobs and/or jobs
into job families. By these definitions, job analysis is a broader conceptualization, and
often job classification is a specific application of job analysis data (Colihan and Burger,
1995). While we use both terms throughout the current study, our project specifically
focused on placing jobs into groupings and, therefore, was technically focused on
job classification. However, the tools and concepts we describe are equally applicable
to job analysis and job classification. Both terms are used throughout this paper,
and the selection of the term used is based on the context and the specific point we are
trying to make.