Just how important is mental ability in predicting work performance? Over the last decade or two with the publicity associated with attributes other than mental ability, such as emotional intelligence, mental ability has taken a back seat.
Although research into the relationship bewteen mental ability and work performance may not have had the same level of publicity as emotional intelligence it has nonetheless been moving along quite nicely.
What is more, the body of research has a very long history, perhaps the longest in all of industrial psychology, dating back to the work in the US military between the two world wars. Repeated successes even in small sample studies have shown that mental ability has one of the highest predictive validities of all selection criteria.
Predictive Validity
Predictive validity (the ability to predict future job performance and other on-the-job criteria) is the most important property of an assessment procedure.
Hiring methods with increased predictive validity leads to substantial increases in value of work output.
In other words, selecting the best candidates using the best selection methods will return a greater dollar value to the business from the work of those selected than selecting the best candidates using a selection method with poorer predictive validity.
In a summary of 20 years of research findings, Schmidt & Hunter (2) show how the most valid predictor of future job performance when hiring employees with no previous experience in the job, the most valid predictor of future performance and learning is General Mental Ability (GMA), or general intelligence (3).
Schmidt and Hunter go on to discuss the importance of GMA in selection, providing the following reasons for its use:
- Out of selection methods that can be used for all jobs, whether entry level or avanced, GMA has the highest validity and lowest application cost
With thousands of studies conducted since the early twentieth century, there is more research for the validity of GMA measures predicting job performance than any other method
- GMA has been shown to be the best predictor of job-related learning, acquisition of job knowledge, and performance in job training programs
- GMA is based on theories of intelligence which have been developed and tested by psychologists for over 90 years. When a GMA assessment is conducted, the measured construct is a lot more clear than when an interview is conducted
1. Hunter, J. E., Schmidt, F. L. & Judiesch, M. K. (1990). Individual differences in output variability as a function of job complexity.( Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, 28—42.)
2. Schmidt, F.L. & Hunter, J.E. (1998) The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology- Practical and Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings. (Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262-274)
3. Ree, M. J. & Earles, J. A. (1992). Intelligence is the best predictor of job performance.( Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1, 86—89.)
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