Linkage Work Analysis Tool: Identifying the KSAOs Most Important for
Successful Linkage Work
OVERVIEW
This Linkage Work Analysis Tool (LWAT) is a process by which job experts in the organization
identify the Performance Domains, Work Behaviors and Knowledges, Skills, Abilities, and Other
Characteristics (KSAOs) that are important for successful performance in the target job. It is
based on the General Model of Linkage Work (See Resource1) that describes Performance
Domains, Important Work Behaviors and KSAOs required that for a generic representation of
linkage work. Many of the Performance Domains, Work Behaviors and KSAOs identified by
experts for the target job are likely to be the same as those shown in the General Model of
Linkage Work. But some will be different than what are shown in the General Model because
the target job may be different in important ways from the General Model, which was developed
to represent generic linkage work.
This tool was created with the intent of aiding decision making about improved selection
processes by providing a comprehensive, accurate description of the KSAOs required for
successful performance in the target job. For any job, these required KSAOs are the primary
consideration in the design and development of an optimal selection process. In short, optimal
selection processes assess the KSAOs that are most important for successful job performance.
LWAT is a multiphase process by which participants who are experts about the target job
perform the following major tasks.
1. They review the existing General Model for Linkage work and identify those Performance
Domains, Important Work Behaviors and KSAOs that are also important for success in the
target job.
2. They identify additional Performance Domains, Important Work Behaviors and/or KSAOs
that are important for success in the target job but are not included in the General Model.
3. Later in the LWAT process, each expert independently rates the importance of each of the
Performance Domains and Work Behaviors that were identified earlier in the process as
important to success in the target job.
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INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE LINKAGE WORK ANALYSIS TOOL
Getting Started
1. Select the participating job experts, including strong performing incumbents , supervisors and
managers, as well as appropriate HR Staff and job Trainers . Two experts is a suggested
minimum; Strive for 4 or 5, typically. The more the experts, the greater the accuracy of the
results.
2. Gather and review all available, formal job documentation that describes the target job (e.g.,
job descriptions, appraisal forms, job training materials , etc.).
3. Review the General Model for Linkage Work.
4. Review this Linkage Work Analysis Tool (LWAT) including all phases.
5. LWAT is an iterative group process in which the experts work independently to generate
information and then work as a group to review and collectively confirm information initially
generated by individual experts.
Phase 1. Identify and Confirm Performance Domains
Individual Identification Important Performance Domains from the General Model.
The experts should begin by individually reviewing Performance Domains provided in
the General Model of Linkage Work. For each Performance Domain, each expert
should independently judge whether it is important in the target job. For each of the
Performance Domains (1st column of the Tool) that are important in the target job, place
an X in the Applied space under the Performance Domain title. If a Performance
Domain is not important in the target job, leave the Applied space blank.

Refer to the General Model of Linkage Work in Resource1, for definitions and
descriptions of the five Performance Domains in the General Model.
Group Review of “Applied” Judgments. The group of experts should collectively
review the individual judgments about the importance in the target job of each of the five
General Model Performance Domains. Experts should review the definition of the
Performance Domain in question and discuss why the Performance Domain may not be
important in the target job. This will allow the facilitator and job experts to identify where
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discrepancies exist and what may be contributing to varying ideas about the job. A
group consensus is needed to exclude any one of the five Performance Domains
provided in the General Model.

It is essential to understand why a General Model Performance Domain may not be
important in the target job. This discussion among the group of experts is intended
to lead to a consensus about the importance of each General Model Performance
Domain for the target job. A General Model Performance Domain may be excluded
from the emerging target job model only if there is a consensus among the experts
that it is not important enough to be included.
Group Identification of Additional Performance Domains, If Any.
Once the experts
have collectively confirmed the inclusion and exclusion of the General Model
Performance Domains, they should convene as a group to identify and define any
additional Performance Domains that are important in the target job but were not
identified in the General Model.
In order to add a new Performance Domain, the
experts must reach a consensus that the additional Performance Domain is important for
successful performance in the target job. . This consensus-seeking process can
provide critical insights and perspectives that will help define additional Performance
Domains that do not overlap in meaning with other Performance Domains. Upon
arriving at consensus, the newly created Performance Domains may be added to the
additional Performance Domain areas at the end of the LWAT tool. Place an X in the
Applied area under the title of the Performance Domain(s) that have been added.

The primary aim of the focus group is to have a conversation between group
members for the purpose of describing and understanding meanings and
interpretations of the group members. The result is to gain an in-depth
understanding of a specific topic or issue from the perspective of the group
participants.

If additional Performance Domains have been identified through group c onsensus,
develop a definition and fill in the definition box provided. This will allow others
using this Tool at later times to better understand the meaning of the additional
Performance Domain in the target job and the way in which it differs from the
General Model.
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Phase 2. Identify and Confirm Important Work Behaviors
Individual Identification of Important Work Behaviors from the Retained General
Model Performance Domains. The experts should begin by reviewing all Important
Work Behaviors identified in the Performance Domains that were retained from the
General Model in Phase 1. Working separately, the experts should determine whether
each Important Work Behavior is important for success in the target job. For each of the
Important Work Behaviors (2 nd column of the Tool) that an expert judges to be important
for success in the target job, place an X in the Applied column. For an Important Work
Behavior that is not important for success in the target job, leave the Applied box blank.

Refer to the General Model in Resource1 for descriptions of the Important Work
Behaviors associated with each of the five Performance Domains included in the
General Model.
Group Review of “Applied” Judgments about Important Work Behaviors from the
General Model. The group of experts should collectively review the individual
judgments about the importance to the target job of each of the Important Work
Behaviors aligned with the retained Performance Domains from the General Model.
Their focus should be on any Work Behaviors that one or more of the experts have
judged is not important for the same Performance Domain in the target job.
Experts
should review the Work Behaviors in question and discuss the reasons the Work
Behaviors may not be important in the target job for the same Performance Domain they
were aligned with in the General Model. This will allow the facilitator and job experts to
identify where discrepancies exist and what may be contributing to varying ideas about
the job. A group consensus is needed to exclude any Work Behavior that was
previously aligned with a retained Performance Domain in the General Model.
Group Development of Additional Important Work Behaviors. At this point in the
process, the experts should collectively begin the process of identifying additional work
behaviors that are important to success in the target job but are not included in the
General Model. These may include additional Work Behaviors for Performance
Domains that were retained from the General Model and additional Work Behaviors for
new Performance Domains that were added in Phase 1, above. A round table process
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can be effective and efficient for this activity. Individual experts should “nominate”
specific work behaviors to be aligned to particular Performance Domains and explain
why they are important to success in the target job. Other experts can then suggest
improvements to the suggested work behavior or make a case that it is not important
enough to include. All new work behaviors require a consensus of experts to be added
to the target job model.

Important Work Behaviors that are devised by the group and related to Performance
Domains identified in the general model of Linkage Work, should be named in the
bottom Additional box for that retained Performance Domain.

For Important Work Behaviors that are devised by the group, but DO NOT relate to
Performance Domains retained from the General Model, write them in the
Definitions of Additional Important Work Behaviors box at the end of the LWAT
Tool showing their alignment to a new Performance Domain from Phase 1.
i. It is possible that new work behaviors are identified that are not aligned with
any Performance Domain developed in Phase 1, either new or retained from
the General Model or new.
All Important Work Behaviors in the target job
model must be aligned with a Performance Domain.
The options are either
to introduce another new Performance Domain to capture the new work
behavior or to revise or discard the suggested new work behavior. If another
new Performance Domain is added to accommodate an clearly important
work behavior, then 2 or 3 additional important work behaviors should also
be developed to be aligned with the new Performance Domain.

For each added Work Behaviors that have group consensus place an X in the
Applied column in the row where the new Work Behavior has been added..
If, and after, additional Important Work Behaviors have been identified through group
consensus as required for success, develop a description and fill in the description
boxes for Important Work Behaviors provided in Descriptions of Additional Important
Work Behaviors box at the end of the Tool. Consensus should also be utilized to
finalize the descriptions of the Important Work Behaviors. This will allow others using
the target job model produced by this LWAT process at a later time to understand the
meaning and importance of the additional Important Work Behaviors.
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Phase 3. Rate the Importance of Each Target Job Performance Domain.
For each Performance Domain that has been identified in the target job model, each
expert should independently rate the importance of the Performance Domain for overall
success in the target job. Performance Domains should have been previously identified
as important by placing an X in the Applied area under the title of the Performance
Domain in the respective column. Each job expert should rate the importance of the
Performance Domain by rating them from 1 (Not Important) to 5 (Critical) and placing
their individual rating in the space provided on the LWAT tool.
Definition of Performance Domain Importance
A Performance Domain is important to the extent that successful performance of that
particular domain contributes to overall success in the target job.
Importance Rating Scale
5
4
3
2
1

–
–
–
–
–
Critical to overall job success
Very important, but not critical, to overall job success
Important to overall job success
Somewhat important to overall job success
Not important to overall job success
The objective is to determine which Performance Domains are more important than
others. While some Performance Domains may be rated as less important, it does
not necessarily mean that they are not critical for success in your specific job.
Instead, the ratings can be used for other HR related tasks and decision making
activities in the future, such as training and development or performance evaluations.
Phase 4. Rate the Importance of Each Target Job Work Behavior.
For each Work Behavior that has been identified in the target job model, each expert
should independently rate the importance of the work behavior to the successful
performance of the Performance Domain the work behavior is linked to. Work
behaviors should have been previously identified as important by placing an X in the
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Applied area under the title of the Important Work Behavior column. Each job expert
should rate the importance of the Performance Domain by rating them from 1 (Not
Important) to 5 (Critical) and placing their individual rating in the space provided on the
LWAT tool.
Definition of Work Behavior Importance
A Work Behavior is important to the extent that it contributes to the successful
performance of that particular domain. That is, the importance of a Work Behavior
is relative to the Performance Domain it is linked to.
Importance Rating Scale
5
4
3
2
1

–
–
–
–
–
Critical to successful Performance Domain performance
Very important, but not critical, to successful Performance Domain performance
Important to successful Performance Domain performance
Somewhat important to successful Performance Domain performance
Not important to successful Performance Domain performance
The objective is to determine which Work Behaviors are more important than others.
While some Work Behaviors may be rated as less important, it does not necessarily
mean that they are not important for success in the target job. Instead, the ratings
can be used for other HR related tasks and decision making activit ies in the future,
such as training and development or performance evaluations.
Phase 5. Compute Average Ratings for Each Performance Domain and Work
Behavior in the Target Job Model.
The objective of the Phases 5 and 6 is to identify the KSAOs required to successfully
perform each Important Work Behavior. In order to (a) confirm that the Performance
Domains and Work Behaviors are important enough to be retained and (b) provide valuable
information for later activity, the average expert rating should be determined at this point for
each Performance Domain and each Work Behavior.
One purpose of the Work Behavior
importance ratings gathered in Phase 4 is to confirm the level of importance for each Work
Behavior. Only Work Behaviors that have an average importance rating of 3.0 or higher will
be treated as Important Work Behaviors from this point forward in the LWAT process.
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That
is. in Phase 6 of this LWAT process, KSAOs will be identified only for Work Behaviors with
average ratings of 3.0 or higher.
There are any number of specific procedures for computing the average importance rating
for each Performance Domain and each Work Behavior. Perhaps the simplest and most
convenient for the group-based LWAT process is to simply have the experts read out their
importance ratings as each Performance Domain and each Work Behavior is announced out
loud. For example, the LWAT facilitator could announce the name of the first Performance
Domain and then record on the board or paper the several ratings made by the experts as
they read them out loud. Given that each rating is a single digit and there are likely to be
only a few experts, the arithmetic of computing the average ratings will be simple.

Example: Important Work Behavior – Know Available Health Resources. Five experts
report out loud their importance ratings for Know Available Health Resources.
Suppose the five ratings were: 4, 3, 4, 5, 4. Adding the scores = 20. Divide 20 by 5
(# of raters) = 4. In this example the average rating is 4.
i. The same process would be utilized for computing the average rating for
each Performance Domain.
Phase 6. Identify Required KSAOs for Each Important Work Behavior .
The objective of the Phase 6 is to identify the KSAOs required to successful perform each
Important Work Behavior (average importance rating equal to 3.0 or higher), all of which should
now be included in the target job model. This phase focuses solely on Important Work
Behaviors, and not Performance Domains, because KSAOs are linked directly to specific work
behaviors rather than broad categories of related work activities . As with Performance Domains
and Work Behaviors, there are two sources of Required KSAOs. First, for the Important Work
Behaviors and Performance Domains retained from the General Model, Required KSAOs are
already identified. Second, for any Important Work Behavior, whether it was retained from the
General Model or has been added be the experts, the experts may identify new KSAOs that are
not identified in the General Model.
Identify Required KSAOs from the General Model. For each Important Work Behavior
that received an average rating of 3.0 or higher, move to the Required KSAOs column to
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identify the KSAOs required to successfully perform a particular Important Work Behavior in
the target job. Generally, all KSAOs should be retained from the General Model if they are
linked to the same Important Work Behavior and same Performance Domain as in the
General Model. Rarely will there be a persuasive reason for deleting such a KSAO.
However, in the rare event that all experts agree that such a KSAO is not required for the
Important Work Behavior, and the LWAT facilitator approves, that KSAO may be removed
from the target job model.
Identify Additional Required KSAOs. As the last activity, the experts should identify
additional required KSAOs. These may be for new Work Behaviors that were not from the
General Model or for Work Behaviors that were from the General Model which the job
experts determine warrant additional KSAOs that were not from the General Model.
Consensus of job experts is required to add a new KSAO. Careful thought and
consideration are key to matching the correct Required KSAOs to their related Importa nt
Work Behaviors. Our recommendation is that KSAO be suggested in a group, roundtable
process in which individual experts suggest possible KSAOs, which are then vetted by the
other group members. This vetting results either in a consensus to add the KSAO. If there
is no consensus, the KSAO should not be added. Such consensus can provide critical
insight and knowledge from varying view points of individuals who either perform or are
familiar with the job. Upon arriving at consensus, the newly identified Required KSAOs may
be added to their respective column and aligned to their related Important Work Behaviors.

*Note: If the job experts cannot identify Required KSAOs for the additional Important
Work Behaviors, we recommend consultation either with an HR professional or I/O
Psychologist who has experience with employment selection and assessments.
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Linkage Work Analysis Tool
Job Title:
Reports to:
Performance
Domain
Important Work
Behaviors
Department:
Date:
Applied Rating
(1-5)
Required KSAOs

Client
Engagement
Know available
health resources

Applied _____ 
Know community
resources

Rating _____








Communicate
effectively w ith
served population
Judge importance
of client needs w ith
respect to joining
care
Initiate and sustain
action on behalf of
client interests
Judge and plan
appropriate use of
resources
See and hear
clients’ ow n frame
of reference
Build rapport and
trust w ith clients
Influence clients’
decisions
















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
Additional:


Additional:

Relevant experience in and
know ledge of health service
work
Relevant experience /
know ledge of community
resources
Has a public health
professional netw ork
Extensive personal
experience w ith served
population
Pr ofessional Judgment and
Dec ision Making
Related successful job
experience
Action-Oriented
Dutifulness
Achievement Striving
Pr ofessional Judgment /
Dec ision making
Job Ex perience
Orderliness
Openness
Extensive exper ience w ith
served population
Interpersonal Effectiveness
Extensive exper ience w ith
served population
Communication Skills
Empathy; Trust;
Straightforw ardness
Interpersonal Effectiveness;
Communication Skills
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
Work
Process
Management
Applied _____ 
Rating _____

Write clearly and
concisely

Adhere to
employers’
prescribed
processes
Appropriately judge
roles,
responsibilities and
priorities


Learning Ability





Self-Discipline
Dutifulness
Orderliness
Rule Follow ing
Language Skills



Self-Discipline
Dutifulness
Orderliness









Judgment
Learning Ability
Competence
Deliberation
Judgment
Learning Ability
Competence
Deliberation
Pr oblem Solving Ability
Self-Discipline
Learning Ability
Dutifulness
Learning Ability

Appropriately judge
workload
management
priorities

Investigate client
information

Manage time,
performance,
agreements
Learn training
content





Additional:


Additional:


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Learn and use
information
management
systems effectively
Document actions
on time, correctly
and completely
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Collaboration 
with Others

Team Orientation

Self-Aw areness


Team Orientation
Interpersonal Effectiveness

Collaborate w ith
case management
team
Ask for help,
support, input as
needed
Build effective
relationships w ith
other service
providers
Additional:

Additional:


Self
Management
Learn from ow n and
others’ exper ience
Applied _____ 
Know and plan
search and safety
procedures
Persist on behalf of
client





Learning Orientation
Openness
Self- Management
Planfulness
Self- Management















Persistence
Self- Efficacy
Self-Discipline
Customer Orientation
Res ilience
Action-Oriented
Achievement Striving
Self-Discipline
Client Orientation
Self- Management
Self-Discipline
Achievement Striving
Self- Efficacy
Tolerance for Ambiguity
Openness

Self- Management
Applied _____ 
Rating _____
Rating _____
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



Maintain energy in
the face of
discouragement

Grow ow n
capabilities to
perform linkage role


Tolerate ambiguity /
confusion /
complexity
Manage career

Additional:


Additional:

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Organization
Support





Stays in
organizations
Supports
organization’s
direction
Helps others
Suggests
Improvements
Additional:

Additional:


Additional

Additional

Additional










Applied _____
Rating _____
Additional:
Applied _____


Rating _____
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Loyalty

Description of Performance Domain:
Additional:
Applied _____

Additional

Additional

Additional
Rating _____









Description of Performance Domain:
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Definitions of Additional Important Work Behaviors
Label
15
Description
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