That’s what Bryan W. Booker, a doctoral candidate at Western Michigan University wants to know. And he needs your help!

“The job fit between a youth leader and their organization’s expectations is critical for successful youth ministry,” says Bryan, who has already talked to hundreds of youth workers. “I’m conducting research to see how an organization’s leadership to make better person-job fit occur.

Help Bryan get more data so he can help us all sort this out, OK?

You can visit this URL to take his survey, or you can contact him via e-mail.

Here’s more info about his research project:
Bryan Booker, a doctoral candidate at Western Michigan University, is conducting research to measure the impact of better knowledge worker-job fit and to offer justification for initiating a process with an organization’s leadership to make that happen. The label knowledge worker describes a job classification in which the job design has: day-to-day task variation, little formal structure, professional training requirements, the need to gain experience under a mentor and high task variety. The youth leader role clearly fits the classification of a knowledge worker. The study assesses the value of customizing a job designed to fit a knowledge worker‘s knowledge, skills, abilities and characteristics (KSAC) better.

There are two primary objectives: First, to assess the expected value of the customization of a knowledge worker‘s job design and job description to improve Person-Job (P-J) fit. Fit is expected to be improved by closing the gaps between the job requirements and the job incumbent’s KSAC. Second, to develop a task assignment tool to guide a leader through an effective knowledge worker task assignment process. The tool will incorporate person and job characteristics that affect P-J fit in terms of job-demands fit with person abilities and job-needs fit with behaviors the person supplies.

Data is being collected to assess the affect of modifying a job design and the related job description on knowledge worker P-J fit gaps. Five hypotheses will be tested to determine the affect of customizing jobs to better fit a person’s KSAC on the outcomes of job satisfaction, task effectiveness and intent-to-quit. Survey instruments are collecting job design and incumbent data from knowledge workers who were classified as youth leaders and manufacturing lean leaders. The survey may be accessed via this Web link.

The data will be used to test the hypotheses and to establish baseline data for a task assignment tool. The task assignment tool is designed using factors that were identified during the literature review.