Chapter 10

Ability

©McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom. No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
 Class Agenda

Ability
What Does It Mean for an Employee to Be “Able”?
• Cognitive Ability
• Emotional Ability
• Physical Ability
How Important Is Ability?
Application: Selecting High Cognitive Ability Employees

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 An Integrative Model of Organizational Behavior

Access the text alternative for slide images

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Ability

The relatively stable capabilities people have to perform a particular

range of different, but related, activities
• In contrast to skills, which are more trainable and improvable
over time
• A function of both genes and the environment, which play
roughly equal roles

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 What Does It Mean for an Employee to Be “Able”?

Three classifications of abilities:

• Cognitive
• Emotional
• Physical
Ability refers to what people can do.
Personality refers to what people are like.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Cognitive Ability

Cognitive ability: Capabilities related to the acquisition and application of

knowledge in problem solving
It’s relevant to most jobs and occupations. Different types of cognitive
ability contribute to employee effectiveness.
• Verbal
• Quantitative
• Reasoning
• Spatial
• Perceptual

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Table 10-1 Types and Facets of Cognitive Ability
TYPE MORE SPECIFIC FACET JOBS WHERE RELEVANT
Verbal Oral and Written Comprehension: Understanding written and spoken words and Business executives; police,
sentences fire, and ambulance
Oral and Written Expression: Communicating ideas by speaking or writing so that dispatchers; clinical
others can understand psychologists
Quantitative Number Facility: Performing basic math operations quickly and correctly Treasurers; financial
Mathematical Reasoning: Selecting the right method or formula to solve a problem managers; mathematical
technicians; statisticians

Reasoning Problem Sensitivity: Understanding when there is a problem or when something may Anesthesiologists; surgeons;
go wrong business executives; fire
Deductive Reasoning: Applying general rules to specific problems inspectors; judges; police
Inductive Reasoning: Combining specific information to form general conclusions detectives; forensic
Originality: Developing new ideas scientists; cartoonists;
designers
Spatial Spatial Orientation: Knowing where one is relative to objects in the environment Pilots; drivers; boat captains;
Visualization: Imagining how something will look after it has been rearranged photographers; set
designers; sketch artists

Perceptual Speed and Flexibility of Closure: Making sense of information and finding patterns Musicians; firefighters; police
Perceptual Speed: Comparing information or objects with remembered information or officers; pilots; mail clerks;
objects inspectors

Sources: Adapted from E.A. Fleishman, D.P. Costanza, and J. Marshall-Mies, “Abilities,” in An Occupational Information System for the 21st Century: The Development of O*NET, ed. N. G. Peterson,
M. D. Mumford, W. C. Borman, P. R. Jeanneret and E. A. Fleishman (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1999), pp. 175–95; O*NET Website, The O*NET Content Model: Detailed
Outline with Descriptions, http://www.onetcenter.org/content.html/1.a?d=1#cm_1.a, accessed May 20, 2009.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Verbal Ability

Refers to capabilities associated with understanding and expressing oral

and written communication
• Oral comprehension is the ability to understand spoken words and sentences.
• Written comprehension is the ability to understand written words and
sentences.
• Oral expression refers to the ability to communicate ideas by speaking.
• Written expression refers to the ability to communicate ideas in writing.
Most important in jobs in which effectiveness depends on understanding
and communicating ideas and information to others

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Quantitative Ability

Refers to two types of mathematical capabilities:

• Number facility refers to the capability to do simple math operations such as
adding, subtracting, etc.
• Mathematical reasoning refers to the ability to choose and apply formulas
to solve problems that involve numbers.

Important to jobs and occupations involving statistics, accounting, and

engineering
Also important to lower-level jobs such as cashiering

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Reasoning Ability

A diverse set of abilities associated with sensing and solving problems using
insight, rules, and logic
• Problem sensitivity is the ability to sense when there is a problem or one is likely to
occur.
• Deductive reasoning refers to the use of general rules or hypotheses as a starting
point to solve a problem.
• Inductive reasoning refers to the ability to generate a hypothesis and plausible
solution from pieces of information.
• Originality refers to the ability to develop clever, novel ways to solve problems.

Reasoning ability is crucial to diverse jobs including medicine, law and criminal
justice, designer, or writer.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Spatial Ability

Capabilities associated with visual and mental representation and

manipulation of objects in space
• Spatial orientation refers to a good understanding of where one is relative to
other things in the environment.
• Visualization is the ability to imagine how separate things will look if they are
put together in a particular way.

People with these abilities are good at finding their way without a map
or good at interior design or fashion styling.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Perceptual Ability

Refers to being able to perceive, understand, and recall patterns of

information
• Speed and flexibility of closure refers to being able to pick out a pattern of
information quickly in the presence of distracting information.
• Perceptual speed refers to being able to examine and compare numbers, letters,
and objects quickly.

Jobs requiring high perceptual ability include code-breaking,

proofreading, sorting or categorizing things.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 General Cognitive Ability

An explanation for the consistency in the levels of different cognitive

abilities within a person
• For example, people higher than average on verbal abilities also tend to be
higher than average on reasoning, quantitative, spatial, and perceptual abilities.
• Sometimes referred to as the g-factor or simply g

Similar to ability tested by intelligence quotient, or IQ, tests

• High IQ related to better health, economics, and life satisfaction

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 10-1 The “g-Factor”

Access the text alternative for slide images

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Emotional Ability

Emotional intelligence
A set of abilities related to the understanding and use of emotions
that affect social functioning
Influences the degree to which people tend to be effective in social
situations, regardless of their level of cognitive abilities

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Self-Awareness

The appraisal and expression of emotions in oneself

• Includes the ability to understand the types of emotions being
experienced, the willingness to acknowledge them, and the capability to
express them naturally
Example of low self-awareness is someone who doesn’t want to admit
to himself or show to others his anxiousness when starting a new job.
• Not expressing the emotion can increase stress, and behavior can be
misinterpreted by others

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Other Awareness

The appraisal and recognition of emotions in others

Refers to the ability of an individual to recognize and understand the
emotions that other people are feeling
• People high in this aspect are sensitive to others’ feelings and can
anticipate the emotions that people will experience in different
situations.
• People low in this aspect do not effectively sense others’ emotions and
may act in a way that worsens a situation.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Emotion Regulation

The ability to quickly recover from emotional experiences

Refers to both negative and positive emotions
Examples:
• Not holding on to a negative encounter with another driver during rush
hour
• Not allowing the good news of a pay raise to interfere with normal
workday productivity

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 OB on Screen:

Phantom Thread

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Use of Emotions

The degree to which people can harness emotions and employ them
to improve their chances of being successful in whatever they are
seeking to do
When employees harness their positive emotions they can produce
solutions that are more creative.
• For example, psyching oneself up to overcome a challenge is more
helpful than giving in to self-doubt.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Applying Emotional Intelligence

How can understanding emotional intelligence be useful to managers?

Used in staffing and training practices
• Recruiters who are high in some aspects of emotional intelligence
are more effective than those who score lower in the same areas.
• New hires selected on the basis of high emotional intelligence performed
better and stayed longer in case studies such as U.S. Air Force and L’Oréal.
Dark side: Emotional intelligence may give individuals the gift of
influencing others, which can be abused (gossiping, harassment, even
theft).

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Assessing Emotional Intelligence

Tests that measure emotional intelligence

• SAT-style assessments with questions having correct or incorrect
answers
• Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) asks 133 questions about behaviors
and preferences; may measure personality traits more than emotional
abilities
• Short assessments designed specifically to assess each of the four facets
of emotional intelligence

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Emotional Intelligence Assessment

Average
Score:
19

Average
Score:
19

Average
Score:
19

Average
Score:
19
Sources: K.S. Law, C.S. Wong, and L.J. Song, “The Construct and Criterion Validity of Emotional Intelligence and Its Potential Utility for Management
Studies,” Journal of Applied Psychology 89 (2004), pp. 483–96; and C.S. Wong and K.S. Law, “The Effects of Leader and Follower Emotional Intelligence on
Performance and Attitude,” The Leadership Quarterly 13 (2002), pp. 243–74.

Access the text alternative for slide images

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Physical Ability

Importance varies according to the nature of the job

• Strength: The degree to which the body is capable of exerting force
• Stamina: Ability of lungs and circulatory system to work efficiently for
prolonged period
• Flexibility and coordination: Ability to stretch, bend, twist, or reach
• Psychomotor: Capacity to manipulate or control objects
• Sensory: Capabilities associated with vision or hearing

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Table 10-2 Physical Abilities
1 of 2

TYPE MORE SPECIFIC FACET JOBS WHERE RELEVANT

Strength Static: Lifting, pushing, pulling heavy objects Structural iron and steel
Explosive: Exerting a short burst of muscular force to workers; tractor trailer and
move oneself or objects heavy truck drivers; farm
Dynamic: Exerting muscular force repeatedly or workers; firefighters
continuously
Stamina Exerting oneself over a period of time without Athletes; dancers;
circulatory system giving out commercial divers;
firefighters
Flexibility and Coordination Extent Flexibility: Degree of bending, stretching, Athletes; dancers; riggers;
twisting of body, arms, legs industrial machinery
Dynamic Flexibility: Speed of bending, stretching, mechanics; choreographers;
twisting of body, arms, legs commercial divers; structural
Gross Body Coordination: Coordinating movement of iron and steel workers
body, arms, and legs in activities that involve all three
together
Gross Body Equilibrium: Ability to regain balance in
contexts where balance is upset

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Table 10-2 Physical Abilities
2 of 2

TYPE MORE SPECIFIC FACET JOBS WHERE RELEVANT

Psychomotor Fine Manipulative Abilities: Keeping hand and arm steady while Fabric menders; potters;
grasping, manipulating, and assembling small objects timing device assemblers;
Control Movement Abilities: Making quick, precise adjustments to a jewelers; construction
machine while operating it drillers; agricultural
Response Orientation: Quickly choosing among appropriate alternative equipment operators;
movements photographers; highway
Response Time: Quickly responding to signals with body movements patrol pilots; athletes
Sensory Near and Far Vision: Seeing details of an object up close or at a Electronic testers and
distance inspectors; highway patrol;
Night Vision: Seeing well in low light pilots; tractor trailer, truck,
Visual Color Discrimination: Detecting differences in colors and shades and bus drivers; airline
Depth Perception: Judging relative distances pilots; photographers;
Hearing Sensitivity: Hearing differences in sounds that vary in terms of musicians and composers;
pitch and loudness industrial machine
Auditory Attention: Focusing on a source of sound in the presence of mechanics; speech
other sources pathologists
Speech Recognition: Identifying and understanding the speech of
others
Sources: Adapted from E.A. Fleishman, D.P. Costanza, and J. Marshall-Mies, “Abilities,” in An Occupational Information System for the 21st Century: The Development of O*NET, ed. N. G. Peterson,
M. D. Mumford, W. C. Borman, P. R. Jeanneret and E. A. Fleishman (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1999), pp. 175–95; O*NET Website, The O*NET Content Model: Detailed
Outline with Descriptions, http://www.onet center.org/content.html/1.A?D=1#Cm_1.A, accessed May 20, 2009.
©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 10-2 What Does It Mean for an Employee to
Be “Able”?

Source: Adapted from J.J. Johnson and J. B. Cullen, “Trust in Cross-Cultural Relationships,” in Blackwell Handbook of Cross-
Cultural Management, ed. M. J. Gannon and K. L. Newman (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002), pp. 335–60.

Access the text alternative for slide images

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 How Important Is Ability?

General cognitive ability is a strong predictor of job performance.

Smarter employees fulfill the requirements of their job descriptions
more effectively than do less smart employees across all jobs.
Cognitive ability is more strongly correlated with task performance
than with citizenship behavior.
No correlation is found between cognitive ability and organizational
commitment.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 10-3 Effects of General Cognitive Ability on
Performance and Commitment

Sources: J.W. Boudreau, W.R. Boswell, T.A. Judge, and R.D Bretz, “Personality and Cognitive Ability as Predictors of Job Search among Employed
Managers,” Personnel Psychology 54(2001), pp. 25–50; S.M. Colarelli, R.A. Dean, and C. Konstans, “Comparative Effects of Personal and
Situational Influences on Job Outcomes of New Professionals,” Journal of Applied Psychology 72 (1987), pp. 558–66; D.N. Dickter, M.
Roznowski, and D.A. Harrison, “Temporal Tempering: An Event History Analysis of the Process of Voluntary Turnover,” Journal of Applied Psychology
81 (1996), pp. 705–16; and F.L. Schmidt and J. Hunter, “General Mental Ability in the World of Work: Occupational Attainment and Job Performance,
” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 86 (2004), pp. 162–73.

Access the text alternative for slide images

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Application: Selecting High Cognitive Ability
Employees

One of the most widely used measures of cognitive ability is the

Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test.
• 50 questions in 12 minutes
• A score of 17 is the minimum suggested score for an
unskilled laborer.
• A score of 21 is equivalent to an IQ of 100, which is average.
• A score of 28 is the minimum suggested score for upper-
level managerial and executive work.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 10-4 Sample Wonderlic Questions
1 of 2

Source: Wonderlic WPT—Sample Questions. Reprinted with permission of Wonderlic, Inc.

Copyright 2007 Wonderlic, Inc with permission.

Access the text alternative for slide images

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 10-4 Sample Wonderlic Questions
2 of 2

Source: Wonderlic WPT—Sample Questions. Reprinted with permission of Wonderlic, Inc.

Copyright 2007 Wonderlic, Inc with permission.

Access the text alternative for slide images

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Table 10-3 Suggested Minimum Wonderlic Scores for
Various Jobs
JOB MINIMUM SCORES
Mechanical Engineer 30
Attorney 29
Executive 28
Teacher 27
Nurse 26
Office Manager 25
Advertising Sales 24
Manager/Supervisor 23
Police Officer 22
Firefighter 21
Cashier 20
Hospital Orderly 19
Machine Operator 18
Unskilled Laborer 17
Maid-Matron 16
Source: Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test and Scholastic Level Exam: User’s Manual (Vernon
Hills, IL: Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test, Inc., 1992), pp. 28–29. Reprinted with permission.
©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Cognitive Ability Tests and Discrimination in Hiring

Use of cognitive ability tests for hiring may unintentionally

discriminate against groups of individuals who tend to score lower.
Tests are not technically biased, but should be used cautiously.
Possible to use a combination of hiring tests to avoid biased hiring
• For example, combine cognitive ability test with assessments of
emotional intelligence and personality
• Another option is to deemphasize cognitive ability in hiring and
instead train employees in cognitive skills needed for the job.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Next Time
Chapter 11: Team Characteristics and Diversity

©McGraw-Hill Education.