Assessing skills and autonomy: The job holder versus the line manager.

Managers and their employees may have different perceptions of the skills used in jobs. We carried out a survey aimed at explaining such differences, in respect of verbal, physical, problem-solving and planning skills, the qualifications required to get the job and indicators of workplace autonomy. First, for most skills there is a reasonably good match between the perceptions of the line manager and those of the employee. But in the case of the contested skills associated with autonomy there is little agreement. Secondly, for most skills there is a small 'perceptions bias', in the sense that employees rate required skills at a higher level than their line managers. Thirdly, consistent with the hypothesis that skills are socially constructed, when the manager is male and the worker female there is a tendency for the boss to underestimate and/or the worker to overestimate their skill level by comparison with other gender combinations.