Job Complexity as Perceived by Workers and Experts

Abstract

Following a symbolic interactionist framework, a study of Chicago-area women aged 25 to 54 focused on their constructed reality including definitions of the complexity of their job. Women in even low status and task complexity occupations, as measured by Duncan and DOT scales, found some dimensions of their jobs “above average”—such as independence, responsibility, opportunities to see the product of the work, and opportunities for self-development—and were pleased by this level of perceived job complexity. There are women who feel their jobs are below average along these dimensions and are pleased with this situation, but there are fewer of them than the stereotypes of female workers predict. Women appear to judge their jobs from a social role rather a task perspective, which probably accounts for the relatively low fit between their evaluations of job complexity and the Duncan socioeconomic index or The Dictionary of Occupational Titles' complexity scale.