Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities - Essay Example As the paper outlines, the knowledge statement makes adequate performance on the job possible while the skill statements refer to the proficient manual, verbal or mental manipulation of data or things. On the other hand, the ability statements refer to the power to perform an observable activity at the present time. Integrating these statements can serve as a basis for distinguishing the 'qualified candidates' from the 'unqualified candidates' for a position.  The development and selection of job performance tools depend upon the type of job. Not all kinds of performance instruments can be attributed to a person and therefore different tools such as Monitoring, Testing, Observations etc are employed. Because competence is multi-dimensional and individual assessment approaches have limitations, it is unlikely that a single approach to assessment will be adequate.  The primary question with any personnel instrument is of overall effectiveness. This is considered an extremely import ant factor in selecting a job performance instrument. This includes the feasibility and cost-benefit analysis of developing a specific type of instrument. It caters to factors like time and training required to implement the assessment, equipment or technology required, number of assessments required per examinee, financial cost, and the extent to which an assessment has been used. If an instrument that is not practical to be tested upon the candidates, then it is useless and therefore it must be rejected. Similarly, if the time and cost incurred to train and test the candidate are more than the value that can be derived from assessing the instrument then again the instrument it useless. Also, the assessment should provide new and useful information that facilitates teaching and learning. For instance, the assessment should allow the collection of enough detailed information that it is possible to know what performance improvements or curricular modifications are needed. If this is not provided by the performance instrument then again the instrument must be rejected.  Another factor that is equally important to effectiveness is the validity of the data. Valid data provide accurate information about what is being assessed. Different types of evidence may be used to infer validity. It may be inferred when assessment results help to predict performance in actual practice. Validity may be inferred also when it is possible to detect the responsiveness. Data that is invalid is of no use to the company and hence an instrument that extracts invalid data must not be considered for measuring job performance.  Apart from the factors mentioned above, job performance instruments must be broad so that they cater to various aspects of an employee. This helps in diminishing any bias that may arise in the instruments.