Job Performance Quality of Thermal Power Plants Operational Employees with Various Levels of Professionalism

Introduction. This paper examines professionally important qualities of thermal power plants operational employees with various levels of professionalism when solving professional tasks in standard and emergency situations. Methods. The sample size was 134 operational employees, 123 of whom were men and 11 – women; the mean age was 37 years. The level of professionalism was determined by expert assessments of their professional knowledge, skills, abilities, and problem-solving performance – qualities that the authors deemed to be important for ensuring high work performance. The study used: (a) the Prognoz technique for examination of neuro-mental stability; (b) the questionnaire for measuring the Level of Subjective Control (LSC) by Golynkina, Bazhin, and Etkind; (c) the test questionnaire for Studying Volitional Self-Regulation by Eidman and Zver'kov; (d) the Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT) in Buzin's modification; (e) the Spielberg–Hanin test; and (f) and the Kirton Adaptation-Innovation Inventory (KAI). Statistical data analyses included the t-test for independent samples, the Kruskal-Wallis H test, analysis of contingency tables, and factor analysis. Results and Discussion. The results of expert assessment enabled authors to distinguish among three groups of specialists with different levels of professionalism; these were ‘pre-professionals', ‘professionals', and ‘super-professionals'. Super-professionals demonstrate high effectiveness, high level of professional knowledge, abilities, and skills, good and satisfactory levels of neuro-mental stability, increased indices of responsibility in various activities, volitional self-regulation, persistence, intellectual capacities, innovative cognitive style, and low level of personal and situational anxiety. Factor analysis revealed subsystems of professionally important qualities in the three groups. Responsibility, volitional qualities, and cognitive styles undergo qualitative changes in the process of the professionalism development. At a high level of professionalism, the qualities of responsibility, volitional qualities, and innovative cognitive style provide operational employees with professional and personal reliability and help them cope with anxiety in stressful situations.