Basic Abilities

After understanding basic skills, we will turn our focus to basic abilities. As noted earlier, an ability represents a broad and stable characteristic responsible for a person's performance. An ability includes what a person can do now and what he can learn to do in future.

Types of Abilities

Experts on the subject classify these human abilities in different ways as they thought fit in attempt to communicate with the readers. One group classifies them into six types as: 

1. Physical 

2. Mental 

3. Mechanical

4. Psychomotor 

5. Visual and 

6. Special aptitudes 

Professor A.C.Croft and his associates classify them into FIVE types, namely 

1. Muscular 

2. Sensory 

3. Mental 

4. Social 

5. Conceptual

Irrespective of the way we classify these abilities, one thing is sure that all jobs require some degree of each of these abilities, but some tasks emphasize one or two abilities. The following configuration shows this weightage or accent for five distinct jobs. To explain this concept. Professor A.C.Croft has taken cases of a Labourer, Telephone Operator, Cost-Clerk, Travelling Salesman and the President of a Company.

Short Discussion of Basic Abilities

To have better understanding, an attempt is made to explain each type of basic ability required to perform a work.

1. Muscular Ability

Muscular ability is the physical ability where physicist defines work in terms of force - times and distance. Human muscles consist of many fibres, each of which has the ability to contract (flex) and relax. Each fibre is actuated by a nerve ending attached to it. The blood stream supplies the fuel (glycogen) for regeneration (anabolism) of muscle cells, which have been destroyed (catabolism) through contraction. Then muscular work is contraction of muscles? If the bloodstream fails to remove the end products of cell destruction - largely lactic acid - as fast as they are produced, fatigue piles up that finally paralyses a muscle so that it can no longer contract or function.

However, fatigue can result from causes other than muscular activity. Worry say fear, hatred. quilt and the like-can cause muscle tenseness, which will slowly result in muscular fatigue. Monotony and boredom can bring about a feeling of fatigue, which to its possessor seems just as genuine as muscle-use fatigue. Fatigue can be measured by chemical, mechanical, electrical and electronic devices. It can also be observed as a reduced capacity to work.

These muscular abilities can be broadly grouped into three categories (1) Strength factors, (2) Flexibility factors and (3) Other factors

The strength-based muscular abilities are: 

a) Dynamic Strength-an ability to exert muscular force repeatedly or continually over a period of time. 

b) Trunk Strength-an ability to exert muscular strength using the trunk - particularly abdominal muscles. 

c) Static Strength-is an ability to exert force against external objects

d) Explosive Strength - is an ability to expand a maximum of energy in one or a series of explosive acts.

Flexibility-based muscular abilities are two, namely 

a) External flexibility – is an ability to move the trunk and back muscles as far as possible. 

b) Dynamic flexibility – is an ability to make rapid, repeated, flexing movements.

Other factors based muscular abilities are three  

a) Body coordination - is an ability to coordinate the simultaneous actions of different parts of the body. 

b) Balance - is an ability to maintain equilibrium despite forces pulling off the balance

c) Stamina - is an ability to continue effort requiring prolonged effort over a time.

2. Sensor or Sensory Abilities

We hardly realize that sensory qualities or abilities provide starting point for many kinds of work, because we take our senses for granted. In fact, all muscular work is initiated by seeing object to be handled, hearing the one to do it or through senses of touch, taste or smell. In fact, much work is termed as "sensory-muscular" work.

Observation, check up, and repetition can train the senses. The typist sees her copy, hears the keystrokes, feels the pressure of the keys through these medias she senses when she has committed an error. However, the same senses can be trained specifically for operation of an engine, lathe, a printing press, or textile loom. Beginners in these occupations do not have the needed sensory accuracy and must develop it before they can have good sensory motor coordinations for work performance

Eye sight and good hearing are fundamental to successful performance of most tasks. Visual and audio testing can readily determine the need for eye glasses or hearing aids. Though most jobs use vision, in some jobs various kinds of visual skills are needed, which are very important. An inspector of small parts, a worker in a watch factory must have keen vision for seeing objects at close distances. Truck-drivers, crane operators and signalmen must have keen vision for greater distances. They must also have the ability to discriminate between colours. "Visual activity" or sharpness of vision, is the ability to discriminate black and white details at certain distances. In this respect, requirements for vision, that is - seeing the object at a distance are different from requirements for near vision seeing objects within 13" to 16". Near visual ability requires that a person be able to see details of objects when objects are very near the person, say at a distance of 13 inches. Another aspect of visual ability is that of colour visual ability. Good colour vision ability involves to discriminate between the reds and greens or between the blues and the yellows and among various shades of different colours.

3. Mental Abilities

Mental ability or general intelligence is not a single trait. It is a fine combination of sub-abilities like memory, vocabulary, mathematical facility, space perception and reasoning. These and other intellectual attributes are integrated as they tend to support each other. Conversely, a weakness in any one tends to vitiate the others.

Interest in mental abilities goes back to the research by Sir Francis Galton (1883). In 1927, Mr.Spearman proposed that all cognitive performance is governed by two types of abilities. These are: (1) general mental ability needed for all cognitive tasks and (2) an ability that is specific to the given task. For instance, an individual's ability to solve crossword puzzles depends on his general mental abilities as well as the specific ability to perceive patterns in partially completed words. Later in 1948, Mr. Thrustone sorted out these mental ability into seven categories. These are verbal comprehension, word fluency, number aptitude, spatial visualisation, perceptual speed, inductive reasoning and memory.

"Verbal comprehension" is the ability to understand what words mean and to comprehend what is read or heard. "Word fluency" is the ability to produce isolated words that fulfill specific symbols or structural requirements such as all words that begin with the letter "b" and have two vowels. "Number aptitude" is the ability to do speedy and accurate arithmetical computations such as adding and subtracting. "Spatial visualisation: is the ability to perceive spatial patterns and to visualize how an object would look if its shape or position is transformed. "Perceptual speed" is the ability to perceive figures, identity similarities and differences, and carry out tasks involving visual perception. "Inductive reasoning" is the ability to reason from 'specifics' to 'general conclusions. "Memory" is having good rate memory for paired words, symbols, list of numbers or other associated items.

All intellectual abilities can be improved by training or they can be supported by aids such as tickler file for memory, dictionary for vocabulary, a calculator for mathematical facility, a measuring device for space perception or a syllogism for reasoning.

What is important is jobs differ in their requirements for the use of mental abilities. In general, for jobs which involve processing information, general intelligence and verbal abilities will be necessary to perform the job successfully. A careful review of evidence shows that tests that assess verbal, numerical. spatial and perceptual abilities are good indicators of job proficiency at all levels of jobs.

4. Social Abilities

Good number of studies have shown that lack of social development or sociability is responsible for more failures in business than any other cause. This speaks of the importance ob sociability or social quality one should possess. Among other social abilities, the most important are extroversion, dominance and emotional maturity.

Extroversion' is a social ability of freely mixing with the people opening oneself so that others understand him and let him or her to openness of their side. Extroversion helps to pull together people of same feelings, philosophies, outlooks, attitudes come together and share their ideas, Social dominance implies having continuous relations for the longest period on the basis of being human beings. Emotional maturity' is the strongest feeling for others making the person to see the world through the eyes of others.

However, some people seem successful despite a violation of one of these attributes. At the same time, success in some fields will require more than these personal traits. Any organisation, which has socially adjustable people, has the assured harmony and working force stability. 

5. Conceptual Ability

In recent decades, it is more brightening that high level executives and leaders of any national economy possess rare combination of imagination and risk-taking courage. This is nothing but conceptual ability. This ability conceives the relationship of parts to the whole; it determines important end results and constructs plans to achieve them; it inspires weaker minds with the boldness of the vision.

Conceptual ability is well epitomized in the epigram, "Dream no little dreams for they have no power to stir the imaginations of men". Personnel managers should on the lookout for signs of ability. There are no adequate aptitude tests to detect this conceptual ability. Those individuals, who reveal it at an early stage, are likely to be astonishing, mono-conformists, dreamers, screamers, even trouble makers. It is a It is even wiseruperior, who can distinguish between conceptual ability and emotional immunity. superior, who can guide and nurture it to become full-blown conceptual power coupled with decision-making courage.

Stressing again, different tasks require different combinations of these five abilities - muscular, sensory, mental, social and conceptual. Not all persons can develop all the five abilities to the same degree. Heredity seems to place ceilings on them. However, few - very few - individuals develop themselves fully. As revealed in human beings, it seems likely that each one of the five abilities will conform to a normal distribution curve. A small percentage will have a low ability in one particular trait, another small percentage will show a high ability. The majority will be the average.

Society is likely to compensate well for higher degrees of any trait - the champion boxer, the professional tennis player, the outstanding novelist, the great actor, the industrial tycoon. However, the traits themselves are not equally distributed among mankind. Conceptual ability is rare; high social development is not usual. Hence, jobs which require these attributes pay more.