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The prevalence and stability of marriage has declined in the United States as the economic lives of men and women have converged. Family change has not been uniform, however, and the widening gaps in marital status, relationship stability, and childbearing between socioeconomic groups raise concerns about child well-being in poor families and future inequality. This paper uses data from a recent cohort of young adults – Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health – to investigate whether disparities in cognitive ability and non-cognitive skills contribute to this gap. Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions of differences in key family outcomes across education groups show that, though individual non-cognitive traits are significantly associated with union status, relationship instability, and single motherhood, they collectively make no significant contribution to the explanation of educational gaps for almost all of these outcomes. Measured skills can explain as much as 25 percent of differences in these outcomes by family background (measured by mother’s education), but this effect disappears when own education is added to the model. Both cognitive and non-cognitive skills are strongly predictive of educational attainment but, conditional on education, explain very little of the socioeconomic gaps in family outcomes for young adults.

The main purpose of this paper is to assess the degree of complementarity between cognitive skills and non-cognitive skills, and to evaluate their joint impact on individual wages.

The author uses a survey representative of the Polish working-age population with well-established measures of cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

Non-cognitive skills are important in the labour market, not only as separate factors that influence wages, but as complements to cognitive skills. Specifically, the analysis showed that the more neurotic an individual is, the lower his or her returns to cognitive skills are. Social skills were not shown to be complementary to cognitive skills in Poland unlike the recent results in the United States.

To the best of author's knowledge, this is the first study to provide evidence that neurotic individuals have lower returns to cognitive skills. It also tests the existence of the complementarity between social and cognitive skills.

Literature is replete with studies indicating the need to develop students’ language skills; however, little research has emphasized the importance of language proficiency in enhancing learning or performance in specific content-area courses. This study investigates whether a student’s English language proficiency can be associated with her performance in specific cognitive skills (knowledge, comprehension, application, and analysis) in an introductory accounting course. Data is summarized from students’ performance on their first financial accounting examination as well as from students’ academic history records as maintained by the university. A correlation analysis of the cognitive skills score with student language proficiency is used to identify initial relationships; and multiple regression analysis is subsequently used to identify interrelations between combined multiple dependent variables and the language proficiency variables. While the results show no association between TOEFL and overall performance, the mean of the English composition courses do show a significant association with knowledge and comprehension cognitive skills scores on the first financial accounting course. No associations are attached to the application and analysis cognitive skills. The results are meaningful to faculty in balancing language proficiency with quality instruction in content-area courses.

This study explored the relationship between employees' cognitive capabilities and firm performance by exploring the moderating role of decision-making style and the mediating effect of knowledge creation. Understanding the role of cognitive capabilities in value creation is crucial for human resource management to achieve the anticipated organizational performance.

Structural equation modeling, cognitive skills theory, cognitive skills acquisition theory and a knowledge creation framework were applied.

The first finding suggests that only A-shaped skills predict higher knowledge creation, while T-shaped skills do not. Second, knowledge creation predicts higher financial performance and a lower level of financial uncertainty. Third, T-shaped skills have no indirect effect on financial performance or financial uncertainty. Fourth, A-shaped skills exerted significant indirect effects on financial performance and uncertainty. Fifth, the rational decision-making style did not moderate the link between knowledge creation and financial performance, as opposed to the intuitive decision-making style.

A review of existing research indicates a lack of studies examining the effect of cognitive skills on organizational outcomes and contingencies under which cognitive skills lead to superior outcomes. This study advances research on T-shaped and A-shaped skills and knowledge creation by empirically exploring their interrelationships with financial performance. Managerial implications and suggestions for future research are also highlighted.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate self-competence—the ability to act responsibly on one's own—and likely nonlinear wage returns across different levels of self-competence as part of training curricula.

The authors identify the teaching of self-competence at the occupational level by applying machine-learning methods to the texts of occupational training curricula. Defining three levels of self-competence (high, medium, and low) and using individual labor market data, the authors examine nonlinearities in wage returns to different levels of self-competence.

The authors find nonlinear returns to teaching self-competence: a medium level of self-competence taught in an occupation has the largest wage returns compared to low or high levels. However, in occupations with a high cognitive requirement profile, a high level of self-competence generates positive wage returns.

This paper first adds to research on the importance of teaching noncognitive skills for economic outcomes, which recently—in addition to personality traits research—has primarily focused on social skills by introducing self-competence as another largely unexplored but important noncognitive skill. Second, the paper studies not only average but also nonlinear wage returns, showing that the right level of self-competence is crucial, i.e. neither teaching too little nor too much self-competence provides favorable returns because of trade-offs with other skills (e.g. technical or professional skills). Third, the paper also examines complementarities between cognitive skills and noncognitive skills, again pointing toward nonlinear returns, i.e. only in occupations with a high cognitive requirement profile, high levels of self-competence generate positive wage returns.

The purpose of this paper is to learn more about demand for competences is crucial for revealing the complex relationship between employee selection, different strands of education and training and labor market regulation.

Content analysis and statistics of job advertisements.

Employer skills requirements even for low- and medium-skilled jobs are highly specific. Formal education requirements are higher than they “should” be. No detectable “basic package” of general cognitive skills for low- and medium-skilled jobs was found. Employer demand focusses on non-cognitive skills and specific cognitive skills. Specificity of skill requirement across different sectors or occupation groups differs vastly between different types of low- and medium-skilled jobs and is linked to the interactive nature of the job, not to the qualifications or the experience required.

The analysis can be considered an initial feasibility test for a larger comparative cross-country project that would aim to understand labor demand in different EU countries.

The analysis could be used as input in designing labor market policy and life-long learning programs to integrate low-skilled and unemployed.

The research provides a tool to match disadvantaged workers to jobs for which they possess greater capabilities or to help them develop crucial skills for a given occupation.

This paper contributes to the HRM literature with a more demand-led approach to labor market policy. The authors reveal what role skills and upskilling can play in alleviating the problem of unemployment. The results can be useful for HR specialists and policy makers.

Leaders in education face diverse challenges in an increasingly competitive and changing environment. Although women numerically dominate the workforce, senior managers are predominately men. The purpose of this paper is to examine leadership skills required for senior management roles in vocational education training (VET); determine if the ranking of importance of skills differs by gender and if the ranking contributes to women not advancing to senior management roles. As skills are abilities that can be developed and learned focusing on leadership skills will provide further insight into leadership and influence leadership development programs in VET to re-orientate women into senior management roles.

The methodology was based on the theoretical framework of the Leadership Skills Strataplex Model (LSSM). The model categorises leadership skills into cognitive, interpersonal, business and strategic skills and determines skill requirement based on management level. A quantitative study with data collected from an online survey completed by 100 senior managers employed in Australian VET, with an even distribution of men and women, identified leadership skills and ranked the importance of the skills. Analysis of the data was conducted using correlation test and principal factor analysis.

Both men and women identified that cognitive, interpersonal, business and strategic skills were required for senior management roles in VET; however, they ranked the importance of these skills differently. Men ranked business and strategic skills as the most important whilst women ranked cognitive and interpersonal skills. The findings provide insight into how gender influences leadership with men focused on task-orientated leadership skills whilst and women focused on relationship development leadership skills.

The major limitation of this study was that the results were derived from the employees’ perspective and not that of the employer. However, the limitation does not detract from the overall contribution, this study makes to leadership, leadership skills and VET. The findings of this study suggest that further education leadership research is warranted as most studies are predominately focused on leadership theory with limited reference to leadership skills.

The findings of this study provide practical implications to inform VET leadership professional development programs for teachers and managers to focus on leadership skills. The difference in ranking of importance of leadership skills by men and women highlights that focusing on specific leadership skill development of cognitive, interpersonal, business and strategic skills for aspiring managers may help re-orientate women into senior management roles.

The use of the LSSM, previously used in government and higher education to identify leadership skills, the online survey as the data collection tool and quantitative analysis provides originality in the methodology rarely seen in VET education. The study adds value to education management, VET, leadership, and gender research by providing insight into leadership skills.

This paper investigates, theoretically and empirically, differences between blacks and whites in the United States concerning the intergenerational transmission of occupational skills and the effects on sons’ earnings. The father–son skill correlation is measured by the correlation coefficient (or cosine of the angle) between the father’s skill vector and the son’s skill vector. The skill vector comprises an individual’s occupational characteristics from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). According to data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), white sons earn higher wages in occupations that require skills similar to those of their fathers, whereas black sons in such circumstances incur a wage loss. A large portion of the racial wage gap is explained by the father–son skill correlation. However, a significant unexplained racial wage gap remains at the lower tail of the wage distribution.

The research measures the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and changes in skills in the UK during the 1980s. Using input‐output data and the Census of Population, the indicators are constructed according to 25 reclassified industrial divisions for the whole economy. These indicators show that accompanying the diffusion of ICTs there was a shift from motor skills (relatively decreasing) to cognitive skills (relatively increasing). Diffusion of ICT during the 1980s is captured through the amount of computer equipment usage. The skill changes are examined through multi‐faceted aspects: occupational change; educational improvement; increased female participation; and employment change by industry. The research sheds light on two issues analysed in relation to technological change and skills change: measurement of technological change should be considered as a complex pattern rather than a monotonically increasing pattern; and skill changes should be examined through multi‐faceted aspects rather than any single aspect.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the principal qualities that define a good worker for microenterprises of the trade sector according to the contemporary literature of the human capital and associated with the Big Five personality traits. It also determines the effect of those skills over the success of trade microenterprises in the context of a developing country.

A total of 393 owners/managers of microenterprises located in six trade zones of Lima district in Peru were involved in this study. They were randomly selected and asked to answer a survey of perceptions about the microenterprise’s performance and workers’ behavior.

The results demonstrate that workers that possess mainly non-cognitive skills would be considered as good workers for trade microenterprises. These skills are associated with four of the Big Five personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, openness or autonomy and conscientiousness. Also, the results show that punctuality, honesty and assertiveness, associated with the traits such as extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness, are the principal non-cognitive skills that impact positively over microenterprises’ success.

The performance of workers is only based on owners/managers’ perceptions.

The owners/managers’ role is important to help workers to develop the necessary skills that can contribute to the microenterprise. In that sense, if the direct contact that exists between them is leveraged, owners/managers could implement strategies such as mentoring to promote the personal and professional growth of their workers.

This study provides useful information about how specific non-cognitive skills of workers can contribute to the success of trade microenterprises in developing countries like Peru.