Secretarial Work Sampling

[Music] a manager must have accurate data about the personnel he supervises there are many ways of gathering such data but one of the most effective is work sampling by direct observation work sampling is an established proven method of gathering management data about workers it can be applied to many different work situations by personnel with relatively little training the purpose of this film is to provide a practical exercise in work sampling techniques this is jean phillips a secretary in a typical office she handles the typing and other tasks for several men her day is from 8 a.m to 5 p.m monday through friday this film will show brief scenes of her activities at 10-minute intervals throughout the five days of a typical week each person observing this film will use this simple form at the top is a diagram of the office floor plan which shows the various work stations this helps management in many aspects of work planning the secretary's job has been divided into eight activities typing filing using the telephone walking operating the reproduction machine receiving instructions out of the area and idle the figures in this column show the actual percent of the secretary's time devoted to each activity over a week's time we'll discuss this a little later this film will show 48 scenes for each workday a total of 240 scenes for the week to simulate five full days of work sampling for example the first scene shows the secretary at 8 a.m monday the second shows her at 8 10 then at 8 20 at 8 30 8 40 8 50 and so on throughout the day however each person participating in this exercise will be interested only in those scenes matching the times listed in the random times column of his particular worksheet form no two forms have the same random times listed to record an observation look at the scene and put a tally mark opposite the appropriate activity but remember record an observation only at the time indicated on your worksheet i will call off the time of each scene and you will see it superimposed on the scene as well let's get started monday 8 a.m 8 10 8 20 8 30 8 40 8 50 9 9 10 9 20 9 30 9 40 9 50 10 10 10 10 20 10 30 10 40 10 50 11 11 10 11 20 11 30 11 40 11 50 1 pm 1 10. 120 130 140 150 2 pm 2 10 2 20 2 30 2 40 2 250 3 310 320 3 30. 350 4 410 420 four thirty four forty four fifty tuesday 8 am 8 10 8 20 8 30 eight forty eight fifty nine nine ten nine twenty 9 30 9 40 9 50 10 10 10. 10 20 10 30 10 40 10 50 11 11 10 11 20 11 30 11 40. eleven fifty one pm one ten one twenty one thirty 140 150 2 210 220 230 240 250 3 310 320 330 340 350. 4 410 420 430 40 4 50. wednesday 8 a.m 8 10 8 20 8 30 8 40 8 50 9 9 10 9 20 9 30 9 40. 950 10 10 10 10 20 10 30 10 40 10 50 11 11 10 11 20 11 30 11 40 11 50. 1pm 110 120 130 140 150 2 210 220 230 240 250 3 310 320. three thirty three forty three fifty four four ten 420 430 440 450. thursday 8 a.m 8 10 8 20 8 30 eight forty eight fifty nine nine ten nine 20 9 30 9 40 9 50 10 10 10 10 20 10 30 10 40 10 50 eleven eleven ten eleven twenty eleven thirty eleven forty eleven fifty one pm one ten one twenty 140 150 2 210 220 230 240 250 3 three ten three twenty three thirty three forty three fifty four four ten four twenty four thirty 4 40 4 50. friday 8 a.m 8 10 8 20 8 30 8 40 8 50. 9 9 10 9 20 9 30 9 40 950 10 10 10 10 20 10 30 10 40 10 50 11 11 10. 11 20 11 30 11 40 11 50 1 pm 110 120 130 140 150 2 210 220 230 two forty two fifty three three ten three twenty 330 340 350 4 410 420 430 440 450. you have just sampled the work of a typical office secretary over a period of one week although the film showed 48 scenes for each of the five days you were asked to record only 12 observations per day or twenty five percent for a total of sixty observations for the week with only twenty five percent observations your individual margin for error may be relatively large taking activity one as an example our secretary in the film spent 52.5 percent of her time typing however it's reasonable to expect that an individual observer with only 60 observations could get as high as 65.4 percent or as low as 39.6 percent it can be demonstrated that by adding the 60 observations from one person and 60 observations from another and thereby accumulating the number of observations to 600 the accuracy of the resulting percentage more nearly approaches the true figure of 52.5 percent in other words the more observations the more accurate the results work sampling is a proven method of gathering statistically accurate management data and it can be applied to your situation [Music] you