Perceived variations in work style of the professional employee (“actual” and “ideal”) at nots

In the spring of 1961, 24 high-level supervisory personnel at U. S. Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) were asked to sort the cards in a Q-sort deck twice; once as descriptive of “the professional employee at NOTS” and again as descriptive of “what you feel the professional employee at NOTS should be.” The two perceived “actual” work styles which emerged from the analysis of the data were clearly differentiated and could be clearly defined. Two “ideal” work styles also emerged from the analysis, but they were much less clearly differentiated. The discrepancy between the perceived work style of the “actual” and “ideal” NOTS professional appeared to have potential value as an index of the perceiver's satisfaction with the organization.