The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2 - 111

The Competent Housing Officer: Evolving Perspectives

upon achieving an agreed-upon standard
of performance (Horton, 2000). Then the
1930s saw the rise of scientific and human
relations management with their emphases
on the organization of work and the motivation of workers (Horton, 2000). During the
Great Depression era, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt's administration embarked upon
functional analyses of work roles, publishing
the first compendium linking functional work
roles and responsibilities to specific job titles
(McGlagan, 1997). More pertinent to immediate purposes, the competency movement
evolved in the mid-1900s as psychologists
and human resources personnel leveled an increasingly skeptical eye toward the dominant
practice of intelligence and aptitude testing
(Thorndike & Hagen, 1959). Thorndike and
Hagen (1959) analyzed data from more than
10,000 participants, correlating aptitude test
results with later occupational performance.
Contrary to the prevailing understanding of
the time, they found that those correlations
fell within the margin of error, striking a blow
to the notion that aptitude alone could predict
job performance. The researchers suggested
that differences in occupational performance
were more a product of the job environment
and selection effects than of aptitude. In other
words, employees with lower aptitude scores
were as likely as those with higher scores to
exhibit competent job performance in their ultimate field of practice.

their demonstrated performance in areas
such as leadership, the arts and sciences,
writing, and speech, among others. The
College Entrance Examination Board itself
signaled forthcoming change in 1970 when it
recommended that college entrance standards
ought not be based on academic aptitude
alone, but on a broader panel of achievement
and practical aptitudes that should be reported to colleges as part of a student profile (see
McLelland, 1973). In his seminal paper on the
subject, McLelland (1973) asserted that "the
'validity' of these new measures really ought
to be not grades in school, but 'grades in life' in
the broadest theoretical and practical sense"
(p. 7). These evolving perspectives on worker
aptitude and its role in job success helped
to refocus workforce development efforts
toward more tangible outcomes in the form
of competencies.

Within the postsecondary landscape,
studies by Holland and Richards (1965) and
Elton and Shevel (1969) found either no relationship or conflicting relationships between
the aptitude scores of college students and

associated with student affairs

Skills and traits such as
personal integrity, cooperation,
administration, management,
and facilitation dominated
the literature . But these
competencies do little to describe
the functional responsibilities
work as it is experienced on
a practical level .

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2

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