ABSTRACT
An FJA focus group is an exercise in communication, group dynamics, and creativity. The job analyst—or as we prefer, the facilitator—is challenged in the most profound sense. Training, skill and sensitivity to feelings are on the line. The facilitator is called on to be a conductor of human behavior and to produce music with a very sketchy score. The music is in the psyches of the focus group participants. The analyst, functioning as a facilitator, accesses this music by applying understanding of the human need for acknowledgment, recognition, and acceptance. The analyst as facilitator creates an environment in which experienced workers express personal knowledge they alone have and ”jointly interpret shared experience” (Shapiro & Carr, 1991).
