ASSESSING COGNITIVE CAPABILITY IN ORGANIZATIONS

It is generally accepted that the key pre-requisite for strategically directing any organization within the increasingly complex business world, is a people issue. An individual’s capacity to deal with vagueness; the level of complexity that he/she is comfortable with; open-mindedness; a learning orientation; creativity, intuition; good judgment; logic; political savvy; level of awareness; personal energy and drive; as well as commercial orientation, amongst others, are critical.

Internationally, consultants and companies still utilize IQ tests, the results of which are often inadequate in the strategic environment. These are often combined with personality and Emotional Intelligence (EI) assessments using questionnaires that provide information on the person’s leadership and interpersonal skills. Combining IQ and EI measures in its current form only provides information on a limited aspect of critical thinking and EI. It is thus time for a fresh and more holistic approach to cognitive assessment for selecting and placement, succession, development and coaching, and a host of other HR activities.

Rethinking the issue of cognitive assessment

Capitalizing on cognitive and learning potential requires an in-depth understanding of the way in which an individual processes information, understands issues, creates new ideas, and solves problems. No single score can reflect this. The Cognitive Process Profile (CPP) was developed in response to the above mentioned limitations to IQ tests with the aim of meeting challenges such as:

• Cross-cultural applicability
• Measurement of learning potential
• Tracking of thinking processes (as dynamic data), for diagnostic and developmental purposes
• Measuring meta-cognitive strategies
• A methodology characterized by technical rigor and acceptable metric properties
• Applicability and predictive validity in the work environment
• Non-transparency (the assessment cannot be manipulated)

Cognitive assessment in the work context

At present, the CPP is used as a basis for a variety of people management and development practices internationally. About 70,000 people have been assessed with the CPP so far. Various research studies in these countries across industries showed that a key benefit of the CPP is its predictive validity in the work context. Of particular interest was the degree to which the CPP dimension of “Judgment” correlated with job effectiveness. It also seems that the CPP accurately predicts learning potential in the work environment.

For selection purposes the CPP is particularly useful in cases where there is no relevant track record of behavior to refer to. This happens with entry level positions and situations, such as transformation, where the organization is looking for people who need to carry out very different roles from those existing in the organization at the time. In these cases, the CPP’s ability to determine underlying cognitive styles and its ability to indicate potential provides the organization with good information to make decisions.

In a development context, the CPP’s output can be used to focus specific development activities on problem solving strategies for individuals or groups with similar needs and the indication of potential helps the organization decide which investments in people will yield the best return.

About the tool itself

What makes the CPP different from any other existing cognitive tool, is that it is a computerized computer “game” that externalizes thinking processes and tracks the person’s application of these on 10,000 measuring points. The results are then interactively integrated to provide a comprehensive report, and developmental guidelines which provide insight in a person’s exploration, analysis, structuring, logical reasoning, lateral creation, memory, judgment, self-awareness and learning capabilities.

The CPP has been designed to be, as far as possible, culture neutral and research has shown this objective to be realized. It does require a basic knowledge of language proficiency – although the language requirements are relatively low level.

It takes about two hours for an individual to do the test.

Assessment is utilized as a starting point of the training and development process.