Skill

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A skill is the learned or innate [1] ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. [2] Skills can often[ quantify ] be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. Some examples of general skills include time management, teamwork [3] and leadership, [4] and self-motivation. [5] In contrast, domain-specific skills would be used only for a certain job, e.g. operating a sand blaster. Skill usually requires certain environmental stimuli and situations to assess the level of skill being shown and used. [6]

Contents

A skill may be called an art when it represents a body of knowledge or branch of learning, as in the art of medicine or the art of war. [7] Although the arts are also skills, there are many skills that form an art but have no connection to the fine arts. [8]

People need a broad range of skills to contribute to the modern economy.[ citation needed ] A joint ASTD and U.S. Department of Labor study showed that through technology, the workplace is changing, and identified 16 basic skills that employees must have to be able to change with it. [9] Three broad categories of skills are suggested: technical, human, and conceptual. [10] The first two can be substituted with hard and soft skills, respectively. [11]

Hard skills

Hard skills, also called technical skills, are any skills relating to a specific task or situation. It involves both understanding and proficiency in such specific activity that involves methods, processes, procedures, or techniques. [12] These skills are easily quantifiable unlike soft skills, which are related to one's personality. [13] These are also skills that can be or have been tested and may entail some professional, technical, or academic qualification. [14]

Holistic competency

Holistic competencies is an umbrella term for different types of generic skills (e.g., critical thinking, problem-solving skills, positive values, and attitudes (e.g., resilience, appreciation for others) which are essential for life-long learning and whole-person development. [15] [16]

Labor skills

Skilled workers have long had historical import (see division of labour) as electricians, masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, bakers, brewers, coopers, printers and other occupations that are economically productive. Skilled workers were often politically active through their craft guilds. [17]

Life skills

An ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to smoothly and adaptively carry out complex activities or job functions involving ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and/or people (interpersonal skills). [18] [19]

People skills

According to the Portland Business Journal , people skills are described as: [20]

A British definition is "the ability to communicate effectively with people in a friendly way, especially in business." [21] The term is already listed in major US dictionaries. [22]

The term people skills is used to include both psychological skills and social skills but is less inclusive than life skills.

Social skills

Social skills are any skills facilitating interaction and communication with others. Social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning such skills is called socialization. [23] : 5  [24]

Soft skills

Soft skills are a combination of interpersonal people skills, social skills, communication skills, character traits, attitudes, career attributes and emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) among others. [25]

Development

Development of a very high level of skill is often desirable for economic, social, or personal reasons.

In his 2008 book Outliers , Malcolm Gladwell proposed the "10,000 hour rule", that world-class skill could be developed by practicing for 10,000 hours. This principle was disputed by other commentators, pointing out feedback is necessary for improvement, and that practice is no guarantee of success.

In his 2019 book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World , David Epstein argues that a period of sampling different activities (whether musical instruments, sports, or professions) can be helpful before choosing a specialization. Epstein argues that many tasks require a variety of skills which tend to be possessed by more well-rounded people, and finding a task which is a better fit to one's personality and interests can overcome the advantage otherwise provided by having more practice earlier in life and attempting peak performance as a younger person. Someone who has demonstrated a high level of knowledge or skill in multiple disciplines is known as a polymath, or in musical performance, a multi-instrumentalist.

A long-standing question is to what extent skills can be learned versus the degree that innate talent is required for high-caliber performance. Epstein finds evidence for both sides with respect to high-performance sport in his 2013 book The Sports Gene . For thinking tasks, the heritability of IQ has been extensively studied to try to answer this question, though does not necessarily map directly onto skill level for any given thinking task.

See also

Related Research Articles

Emotional intelligence (EI), also known as emotional quotient (EQ), is the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions. High emotional intelligence includes emotional recognition of emotions of the self and others, using emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, discerning between and labeling of different feelings, and adjusting emotions to adapt to environments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leadership</span> Quality of one individual or group influencing or guiding others based on authority

Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "lead", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Team</span> Group linked in a common purpose

A team is a group of individuals working together to achieve their goal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Performance</span> Act of staging or presenting a form of entertainment

A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Team building</span> Term for activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams

Team building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks. It is distinct from team training, which is designed by a combination of business managers, learning and development/OD and an HR Business Partner to improve the efficiency, rather than interpersonal relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teamwork</span> Collaborative effort of a team to achieve a common goal

Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in an effective and efficient way. Teamwork is seen within the framework of a team, which is a group of interdependent individuals who work together towards a common goal.

Retraining or refresher training is the process of learning a new or the same old skill or trade for the same group of personnel. Retraining is required to be provided on a regular basis to avoid personnel obsolescence due to technological changes and the individuals' memory capacity. This short-term instruction course shall serve to re-acquaint personnel with skills previously learnt or to bring their knowledge or skills up-to-date (latest) so that skills stay sharp. This kind of training could be provided annually or more frequently as maybe required, based on the importance of consistency of the task of which the skill is involved. Examples of refreshers are cGMP, GDP, HSE trainings. Retraining shall also be conducted for an employee, when the employee is rated as ‘not qualified’ for a skill or knowledge, as determined based on the assessment of answers in the training questionnaire of the employee.

Employability refers to the attributes of a person that make that person able to gain and maintain employment.

Soft skills, also known as power skills, common skills, essential skills, or core skills, are psychosocial skills generally applicable to all professions. These include critical thinking, problem solving, public speaking, professional writing, teamwork, digital literacy, leadership, professional attitude, work ethic, career management and intercultural fluency. This is in contrast to hard skills, which are specific to individual professions.

Competence is the set of demonstrable personal characteristics or KSAOs that enable job performance at a high level with consistency and minimal difficulty. Competency in human resources is an organizational criterion for excellence that encompasses the behaviors, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities that enable employees to perform their roles effectively and reliably.

Emotional competence and emotional capital refer to the essential set of personal and social skills to recognize, interpret, and respond constructively to emotions in oneself and others. The term implies an ease around others and determines one's ability to effectively and successfully lead and express.

Practice is the act of rehearsing a behavior repeatedly, to help learn and eventually master a skill. The word derives from the Greek "πρακτική" (praktike), feminine of "πρακτικός" (praktikos), "fit for or concerned with action, practical", and that from the verb "πράσσω" (prasso), "to achieve, bring about, effect, accomplish".

Talent management (TM) is the anticipation of required human capital for an organization and the planning to meet those needs. The field has been growing in significance and gaining interest among practitioners as well as in the scholarly debate over the past 10 years as of 2020, particularly after McKinsey's 1997 research and the 2001 book on The War for Talent. Although much of the previous research focused on private companies and organizations, TM is now also found in public organizations.

Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable humans to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life. This concept is also termed as psychosocial competency. The subject varies greatly depending on social norms and community expectations but skills that function for well-being and aid individuals to develop into active and productive members of their communities are considered as life skills.

People skills are patterns of behavior and behavioral interactions. Among people, it is an umbrella term for skills under three related set of abilities: personal effectiveness, interaction skills, and intercession skills. This is an area of exploration about how a person behaves and how they are perceived irrespective of their thinking and feeling. It is further elaborated as dynamics between personal ecology and its function with other people's personality styles in numerous environments. British dictionary definition is "the ability to communicate effectively with people in a friendly way, especially in business" or personal effectiveness skills. In business it is a connection among people in a humane level to achieve productivity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astronaut organization in spaceflight missions</span>

Selection, training, cohesion and psychosocial adaptation influence performance and, as such, are relevant factors to consider while preparing for costly, long-duration spaceflight missions in which the performance objectives will be demanding, endurance will be tested and success will be critical.

In U.S. education, deeper learning is a set of student educational outcomes including acquisition of robust core academic content, higher-order thinking skills, and learning dispositions. Deeper learning is based on the premise that the nature of work, civic, and everyday life is changing and therefore increasingly requires that formal education provides young people with mastery of skills like analytic reasoning, complex problem solving, and teamwork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">21st century skills</span> Skills identified as being required for success in the 21st century

21st century skills comprise skills, abilities, and learning dispositions identified as requirements for success in 21st century society and workplaces by educators, business leaders, academics, and governmental agencies. This is part of an international movement focusing on the skills required for students to prepare for workplace success in a rapidly changing, digital society. Many of these skills are associated with deeper learning, which is based on mastering skills such as analytic reasoning, complex problem solving, and teamwork, which differ from traditional academic skills as these are not content knowledge-based.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Competence (polyseme)</span> Ability or capacity to perform a task effectively or successfully

Competence is a polyseme indicating a variety of different notions. In current literature, three notions are most evident. The first notion is that of a general competence, which is someone's capacity or ability to perform effectively on a specified set of behavioral attributes. The second notion refers to someone's capacity or ability to successfully perform a specific behavioral attribute — be it overt or covert — like learning a language, reading a book or playing a musical instrument. In both notions, someone may be qualified as being competent. In a third notion, a competence is the behavioral attribute itself, instead of a general or specific capacity or ability. One may for example excel at the competence of baking, at the competency of ceramics, or at the capability of reflexivity.

References

  1. ↑ Barker, Philip (29 April 2016) [2010]. "Introduction". In Barker, Philip; van Schaik, Paul (eds.). Electronic Performance Support: Using Digital Technology to Enhance Human Ability. A Gower Book (reprint ed.). London: CRC Press. p. 15. ISBN   9781317145219 . Retrieved 26 November 2024. The skills that any given individual has can be classified into two basic types: innate and acquired. An innate skill is one which someone possesses as a natural consequence of his/her existence. Examples of innate skills include: the ability to observe one's environment using visual techniques; the recognition of pleasant and unpleasant aromas using one's sense of smell, the sensing of different acoustic stimuli; tactile sensing; and the generation of sonic utterances of various sorts.
  2. ↑ Compare: "skill" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.) " 6.a. Capability of accomplishing something with precision and certainty; practical knowledge in combination with ability; cleverness, expertness. Also, an ability to perform a function, acquired or learnt with practice [...].
  3. ↑ Hepp, Nicolas; Starling, Riley Lynn; Elbracht, Greta; Miriam Sneha Rajkumar; Win Khant; Wang, Pengji (4 August 2023). "Contemporary Employability Norms for Guest-Facing Hospitality Workers: Some Empirical Evidence During Covid-19". In Eijdenberg, Emiel L.; Mukherjee, Malobi; Wood, Jacob (eds.). Innovation-Driven Business and Sustainability in the Tropics: Proceedings of the Sustainability, Economics, Innovation, Globalisation and Organisational Psychology Conference 2023 (SEIGOP 2023). Singapore: Springer Nature. p. 338. ISBN   9789819929092 . Retrieved 26 November 2024. If the emotional dynamics of a team can be considered part of teamwork as a skill, then there is strong support for teamwork as the top quality in the employability framework.
  4. ↑ Northouse, Peter G. (29 November 2023). "Understanding Leadership". Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice (6 ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications. pp. 2–3. ISBN   9781071884966. LCCN   2023038761 . Retrieved 26 November 2024. [...] six distinct ways of conceptualizing leadership are discussed, including leadership as a trait, an ability, a skill, a behavior, a relationship, and an influence process. [...] Conceptualized as a skill , leadership is a competency developed to accomplish a task effectively. Skilled leaders are competent people who know the means and methods for carrying out their responsibilities.
  5. ↑ Lussier, Robert N. (26 November 2015). "Motivating for High Performance". Management Fundamentals: Concepts, Applications, and Skill Development (7 ed.). Thousand Oaks, California. p. SAGE Publications. ISBN   9781506303291 . Retrieved 26 November 2024. Company recruiters value the skill of self-motivation and drive to succeed.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ↑ White, Melissa (June 2007). "Book Reviews: Chris Warhurst, Irena Grugulis and Ewart Keep (eds) The Skills That Matter Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004, 272 pp. ISBN: 1—4039—0639—4". Work, Employment and Society. 21 (2): 381–382. doi:10.1177/09500170070210021205. ISSN   0950-0170.
  7. ↑ "art". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary . Merriam-Webster.
  8. ↑ King, Catherine R. P.; McCall, Madelon (2 April 2024). "How the fine arts create the finest students: A design thinking study". Higher Education Quarterly. 78 (3): 1162–1174. doi: 10.1111/hequ.12521 . ISSN   0951-5224.
  9. ↑ "Publications and Research Search Results, Employment & Training Administration (ETA)". wdr.doleta.gov. U.S. Department of Labor. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  10. ↑ Sommerville, Kerry (2007). Hospitality Employee Management and Supervision: Concepts and Practical Applications. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 328. ISBN   9780471745228.
  11. ↑ Rao, M.S. (2010). Soft Skills - Enhancing Employability: Connecting Campus with Corporate. New Delhi: I. K. International Publishing House Pvt Ltd. p. 225. ISBN   9789380578385. Both technical and human skills can be substituted by hard and soft skills respectively in the present context.
  12. ↑ DuBrin, Andrew (2008). Essentials of Management. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. p. 16. ISBN   9780324353891.
  13. ↑ Connett, Wendy (31 March 2023). "Hard Skills: Definition, Examples, and Comparison to Soft Skills". Investopedia. Archived from the original on 7 May 2023. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
  14. ↑ Carter, Jenny; O'Grady, Michael; Rosen, Clive (2018). Higher Education Computer Science. Cham: Springer. p. 223. ISBN   9783319985893.
  15. ↑ Chan, Cecilia K.Y.; Fong, Emily T.Y.; Luk, Lillian Y.Y.; Ho, Robbie (November 2017). "A review of literature on challenges in the development and implementation of generic competencies in higher education curriculum". International Journal of Educational Development. 57: 1–10. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.08.010.
  16. ↑ Chan, Cecilia K. Y.; Yeung, Nai Chi Jonathan (27 May 2020). "Students' 'approach to develop' in holistic competency: an adaptation of the 3P model". Educational Psychology. 40 (5): 622–642. doi:10.1080/01443410.2019.1648767. S2CID   201383143.
  17. ↑ Cowan, Ruth Schwartz (1997). A Social History of American Technology. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 179. ISBN   0-19-504605-6.
  18. ↑ "Partners in Life Skills Education : Conclusions from a United Nations Inter-Agency Meeting" (PDF). World Health Organization . 1999. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  19. ↑ WHO 1993, p.  14: °decision-making - problem-solving; °creative thinking - critical thinking; °communication - interpersonal relationships; °self-awareness - empathy; °coping with - emotions and stressors.
  20. ↑ Rifkin, H. (18 July 2008). "Invest in people skills to boost bottom line". Portland Business Journal. Archived from the original on 18 July 2008. Retrieved 14 October 2009.
  21. ↑ “Macmillan Dictionary” Archived 5 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2009-08-18
  22. ↑ Dictionary.com definition. Retrieved on 2009-08-18
  23. ↑ Clausen, John A. (ed.) (1968) Socialisation and Society, Boston: Little Brown and Company
  24. ↑ Macionis, John J. (2013). Sociology (15th ed.). Boston: Pearson. p. 126. ISBN   978-0133753271.
  25. ↑ Robles, Marcel M. (12 August 2016). "Executive Perceptions of the Top 10 Soft Skills Needed in Today's Workplace". Business Communication Quarterly. 75 (4): 453–465. doi:10.1177/1080569912460400. S2CID   167983176.


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