Backdrop

In the previous chapter, we had the opportunity to know about the foundation or main story of human skills in the "individual differences". Individual differences are personal attributes that vary from one person to another. Skills and abilities are to do with work and performance. Every human resource development manager is greatly concerned with not only perfect match between a given job or a task and the person, but the performance by developing the human skills and abilities. Hence, this chapter plans to go into the details of human skills and abilities, which are input for human performance. An attempt is made to know 'skills' and 'abilities' and different types of human skills and abilities in so far as organisational work is concerned. The chapter ends with summary and the chapter-based questions.

The Man-Job Relationship

When one considers people at work, the human resource problem results from the interaction of two forces, namely the work to be done and the people selected for doing the work. In the good old past, there was a very strong personnel thinking better known as "the square peg in the square hole" theory and not "the square peg in the round hole". It was meant that a given job had definite requirements in terms of educational qualifications and exposure to the work. Hence, the task of personnel manager was merely to match the two - to make a good fit. This theory fails to account for four significant reasons as pointed out by Professor A.C.Croft: (1) Jobs are not definite, fixed, unalterable. They tend to become what employees make them. (2) Employees are not human beings with fixed qualifications, training and/or motivation. They can change. (3) The interaction of an employee with his job is important. It can yield him satisfaction, dissatisfaction or an admixture of the two. (4) The climate under which the work is performed is important say, supervision, working conditions, fellow-workers, social recognition of the task and the like.

Professor A.C.Croft is very right when he says, "The relationships between employees and their jobs are not static parts of a machine. Rather, they are the results of many factors impinging on them internal and external forces and varying in intensity from time to time." Therefore, the personnel managers; problem is ever-changing, ever-challenging, never solved in toto.

What Is Work?

Dissipation of human energy is work if it brings monetary benefit. Mr. L. A. Sylvester says, "Energy extended is work, when it adds to the supply of goods or services that contribute the economic stream". Let us take certain examples that clear the meaning of 'work' in real sense. If a painter is painting his own house, is not a work in real sense as he is doing it for pass-time. If a tennis player plays trophy or a league match, he is working; his practice for the match is not a work. When a pianist working, is he practising? No, he is working; however when he plays piano for his amusement, he is not working. The work can be described in one of the ways, (1) The things to be accomplished; and (2) The human attributes needed to get them done. The first way would require millions of words because of the endless variety of things to be done, in say agriculture, fishing, manufacture, mining. commerce, communication, transportation, services, government and so on. The second approach is simpler that calls for a study of work in terms of human qualifications essential to perform. This eases the selection process - a match between the work requirements and man requirements or abilities and skills required.

Skills And Abilities

Human skill is the ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people, both individually and in groups. Skill refers to the quality of the performance. Thus, not all athletes, pianists, artists and the like are skilled. However, all who can carry on their occupation with a high quality of output or performance are skilled. Skill, therefore, is synonymous with proficiency.

An ability represents a broad and stable feature responsible for a person's performance. It includes both what a person can do now and what he can learn to do in future. A mechanic has mechanical ability. an actor his acting ability, a singer has singing ability, a player has playing ability. The possession of an ability is manifested by one's performance or performing ability.

Ability and skill' are mostly interchangeably used. However, there is difference between an "ability" and a "skill". An ability refers to performance on physical and mental tasks. However, skill is the specific capacity to physically manipulate objects. Thus, mechanics, musicians, magicians, carpenters, painters, pilots, players have skills. What is important is successful performance of a task is a skill, whereas ability is the performance of both physical and mental tasks.

The perfect performance of a given task depends on the right combination of ability, skill and effort. This can be configures as shown in above diagram, Performance = A+S+E

The modern writers instead of using 'abilities' and 'skills' separately, use the word "competencies". Competencies include knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes for performing a given task. That is why lakhs of organizations throughout the world are looking for competencies or competent persons. The clusters of competencies are knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes, which are needed to perform different jobs. Competencies, hence, become the very basis for hiring, training and retaining the personnel.

The significant competencies are initiative, problem solving ability, ease in communication, tolerance. adaptability and the like.