ABSTRACT
A complete, universally applicable information system for human resources allocation requires three components: information about work tasks, information about task environments, and information about desirable or required human characteristics (knowledges, skills, abilities, and orientations). An idealized model for such a system must, therefore, include fundamental taxonomies for classifying tasks, human characteristics, and task situations. This chapter focuses on what we know about two of these three taxonomies—task and human characteristics—their content, methodologies for developing them, and their role in determining and evaluating job requirements, performance, and productivity.
