A number of approaches to occupational analysis are reviewed and categorised. Their respective strengths and weaknesses are illuminated by considering a number of critiques of each approach. The concept of role is introduced and defined, a distinction being drawn between a functionalist and an interactionist view of role. Role strain and role conflict are defined, showing how the concept of role may be used to illuminate some of the complexities of working in an organisation. The concept of function is briefly defined and several of the inherent difficulties of functional analysis are listed. A fuller treatment of the concept of skill follows. A broad definition is offered, followed by exploration of: management research into ‘soft skills’; developments in cognitive psychology that attempt to represent superior performance; and the work on transferable skills, that is taking place largely in an education context. The author notes the need for more effective forms of occupational analysis that permit balanced consideration not only of performance, but also of the intellectual processes that inform it, here highlighted by discussion on skills, and of the social phenomena that interactionist approaches to role can explore. © 1999 Journal of Vocational Education and Training All rights reserved.
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