ABSTRACT
Workers experience their jobs in depth and with an intimacy rarely appreciated by their managers. After all, jobs are a significant part of workers’ lives, providing not only a livelihood for them and their families but often also providing the basis for the expression of their potential. Job descriptions can only faintly reflect the richness and meaning in any work experience, although FJA comes closer than many job analysis methods by working within the experience of incumbents and writing the task bank in their language. As a worker makes sense of the work and grows in the work situation, he or she modifies the work in ways both large and small to suit personal style and growth needs and to make the work-doing system more productive—most often without the awareness of management. To expect workers to do any less is to deny their need to express their sense of self and their competency.
