Interests: Work Orientation Scale
Nature of questionnaire: A questionnaire querying the respondent’s interest in performing 16 types of activities most often performed in a business organisation at work levels 1 to 3.
Purpose: To determine the degree of interest that a person has in performing 16 distinctly different work sets or activities. In this way the respondent’s interest profile can be compared with the activities that the position requires. Where there is a good fit between required position activities and the respondent’s interest, it can be assumed that the incumbent will perform at higher levels of productivity, be more inclined to work overtime, go the extra mile, be more inclined to train and develop him/herself and spend more time thinking about his/her work. A good fit generally leads to higher job satisfaction and motivation. Where the profile of the person does not meet the position requirements, we can assume low personal application to the work, higher levels of boredom, more errors and a disinclination to learn and grow in the position.
Interest Fields:
Interest in the following work sets are measured:
- Managerial
- Strategic thinking
- Numerical activities
- Evaluating data
- Communicating
- Staff management
- Organising and planning
- Inspiring people
- Counselling and advising
- Training and educating
- Operations
- Designing work-flows
- Issuing documentation
- Data capturing and backup
- Stock control and distribution
- Mechanical activities
- Clients
- Selling and negotiating
- Serving clients
- Entertaining
Deliverable: A two-page report indicating each dimension measured in the form of a bar chart, with descriptions interpreting low and high scores.
Question type: The WOS consists of 12 sets of eight activities each and the respondent is required to indicate the degree to which s/he would be interested in performing each of the eight activities in the set.
Duration: 20 minutes
Application: Useful in making promotional, placement, or selection decisions, in developmental situations as well as diagnosing performance problems. Also very powerful in career guidance situations. Applicable to staff at all levels, but best utilisation at lower to middle job grades, with a minimum requirement of English literacy at secondary school level.
Research: Research into the correlation between a candidate’s interest and actual job performance and potential has yielded surprisingly positive results, beyond what personality test usually deliver. This has led us to include interests as an assessment tool in all our solutions. Interest provides a measurement of passion to perform the required activities and this aspect is not easily measured through personality tests.