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Over the past 10 years, human resource and organizational development professionals have generated a lot of interest in the notion of competencies as a key element and measure of human performance. Competencies are becoming a frequently-used and written-about vehicle for organizational applications such as:
* Defining the factors for success in jobs (i.e., work) and work roles within the organization
* Assessing the current performance and future development needs of persons holding jobs and roles
* Mapping succession possibilities for employees within the organization
* Assigning compensation grades and levels to particular jobs and roles
* Selecting applicants for open positions, using competency-based interviewing techniques
Competencies include the collection of success factors necessary for achieving important results in a specific job or work role in a particular organization. Success factors are combinations of knowledge, skills, and attributes (more historically called "KSA's") that are described in terms of specific behaviors, and are demonstrated by superior performers in those jobs or work roles. Attributes include: personal characteristics, traits, motives, values or ways of thinking that impact an individual's behavior.
Origin of Management including Competency Mapping:
Chanakya's Arthshastra, an ancient Indian script/ book on Political Science and Administration, written some 3000 years ago. Other names of Chanakya were Mr. Kautilya, and Mr. Vishnu Gupt. Constitutions of all the major countries have origin in this book. It could be Indian Constitution, Irish, Canadian, USA, Australian, etc. and even British unwritten constitutions have roots imbibed in this book. It is the towering book in which you find the basics and applications of Management Sciences, Chemistry, Physics, Military and War techniques, Basic Engineering and Technologies, Ethics, Legal and Judiciary and Fiduciary system, Values, Psychology, and Anthropology, Organization Behavior, Human Resource Management. In fact major basics of all Marketing Management, Human Resource Management, basics of Management Models, are been directly lifted with some modification from this book. Great efforts of Chanakya by all means; and one of the greatest contributions to the world. You may call Arthshastra as a Classical book once if you read, you will find other subjects easy any time in your life.
If Geeta, Bible, Kuran, Gurugranthsahib, Adi Granth, Vedas, Vedanta are classical scripts in spirituality then Arthshastra is one of the classical book for above mentioned subjects. In fact all the classical scripts have everything put in gist to live normal life happily. It is said that once you master classical books everything becomes easier in later part of life and work.
Competence
is a standardized requirement for an individual to properly perform a specific job. It encompasses a combination of knowledge, skills and behavior utilized to improve performance. More generally, competence is the state or quality of being adequately or well qualified, having the ability to perform a specific role.
For instance, management competency includes the traits of systems thinking and emotional intelligence, and skills in influence and negotiation. A person possesses a competence as long as the skills, abilities, and knowledge that constitute that competence are a part of them, enabling the person to perform effective action within a certain workplace environment. Therefore, one might not lose knowledge, a skill, or an ability, but still lose a competence if what is needed to do a job well changes.
The competencies have five characteristics, namely:
* Motives: Things a person consistently thinks about or wants that cause action, motives drive, direct and select behavior towards certain actions. Example achievement motivation people consistently set challenging goals for themselves, take responsibility for accomplishing them and use the feedback to do better
* Traits: Physical characteristics and consistent responses to situations. Good eyesight is physical traits of a pilot. Emotional Self Control and initiative are more complex consistent responses to situations.
* Self Concept: A person's attitude value or self image. A person's values are reactive or respondent motives that predict what a person would do in the short run. Example: A person who values being a leader would be more likely to exhibit leadership behavior.
* Knowledge (Information a person has in a specific work area) Example: An accountant's knowledge of various accounting procedures.
* Skill (is the ability to perform certain mental or physical tasks) Example: Mental competency includes analytical thinking. The ability to establish cause and affect relationship.
The four general competences are: - Meaning Competence: Identifying with the purpose of the organization or community and acting from the preferred future in accordance with the values of the organization or community.
- Relation Competence: Creating and nurturing connections to the stakeholders of the primary tasks.
- Learning Competence: Creating and looking for situations that make it possible to experiment with the set of solutions that make it possible to solve the primary tasks and reflect on the experience.
- Change Competence: Acting in new ways when it will promote the purpose of the organization or community and make the preferred future come to life.
Types of competencies
1. Organizational competencies � unique factors that make an organization competitive
2. Job/Role competencies�things an individual must demonstrate to be effective in a job, role, function, task, or duty, an organizational level,
or in the entire organization.
3. Personal competencies�aspects of an individual that imply a level of skill, achievement, or output
Types of competencies
MANAGERIAL
Competencies which are considered essential for staff with managerial or supervisory responsibility in any service or program area, including directors and senior posts.
Some managerial competencies could be more relevant for specific occupations, however they are applied horizontally across the Organization, i.e. analysis and decision-making, team leadership, change management, etc.
GENERIC
Competencies which are considered essential for all staff, regardless of their function or level, i.e. communication, program execution, processing tools, linguistic, etc.
TECHNICAL/FUNCTIONAL
Specific competencies which are considered essential to perform any job in the Organization within a defined technical or functional area of work, i.e. environmental management, industrial process sectors, investment management, finance and administration, human resource management, etc.
Levels of Competency
1. Practical competency - An employee's demonstrated ability to perform a set of tasks.
2. Foundational competence - An employee's demonstrated understanding of what and why he / she is doing.
3. Reflexive competence (An employee's ability to integrate actions with the understanding of the action so that he / she learn from those actions and adapts to the changes as and when they are required.
4. Applied competence - An employee's demonstrated ability to perform a set of tasks with understanding and reflexivity.
Application levels of a competency
ADVANCED
Demonstrates high level of understanding of the particular competency to perform fully and independently related tasks.
Frequently demonstrates application that indicates profound level of expertise. Can perform adviser or trainer roles. Work activities are carried out consistently with high quality standards.
PROFICIENT
Demonstrates a sound level of understanding of the particular competency to adequately perform related tasks, practically without guidance. Work activities are performed effectively within quality standards.
KNOWLEDGEABLE
Demonstrates a sufficient understanding of the particular competency to be used in the work place, but requires guidance Tasks or work activities are generally carried out under direction.
COMPETENCY MAPPING
Competency mapping is a process through which one assesses and determines one's strengths as an individual worker and in some cases, as part of an organization. It generally examines two areas: emotional intelligence or emotional quotient (EQ), and strengths of the individual in areas like team structure, leadership, and decision-making. Large organizations frequently employ some form of competency mapping to understand how to most effectively employ the competencies of strengths of workers. They may also use competency mapping to analyze the combination of strengths in different workers to produce the most effective teams and the highest quality work.
The steps involved in competency mapping with an end result of job evaluation include the following:
1) Conduct a job analysis by asking incumbents to complete a position information questionnaire (PIQ). This can be provided for incumbents to complete, or you can conduct one-on-one interviews using the PIQ as a guide. The primary goal is to gather from incumbents what they feel are the key behaviors necessary to perform their respective jobs.
2) Using the results of the job analysis, you are ready to develop a competency based job description. A sample of a competency based job description generated from the PIQ may be analyzed. This can be developed after carefully analyzing the input from the represented group of incumbents and converting it to standard competencies.
3) With a competency based job description, you are on your way to begin mapping the competencies throughout your human resources processes. The competencies of the respective job description become your factors for assessment on the performance evaluation. Using competencies will help guide you to perform more objective evaluations based on displayed or not displayed behaviors.
4) Taking the competency mapping one step further, you can use the results of your evaluation to identify in what competencies individuals need additional development or training. This will help you focus your training needs on the goals of the position and company and help your employees develop toward the ultimate success of the organization.
Behavioral event interview
A behavioral interview is a structured interview that is used to collect information about past behavior. Because past performance is a predictor of future behavior, a behavioral interview attempts to uncover your past performance by asking open-ended questions. Each question helps the interviewer learn about your past performance in a key skill area that is critical to success in the position for which you are interviewing. The interview will be conducted face-to-face whenever possible.
Using the STAR Technique
In a behavioral interview, the interviewer will ask questions about your past experiences. A useful way to prepare for this style of questioning is to use the STAR technique. The STAR technique is a way to frame the answers to each question in an organized manner that will give the interviewer the most information about your past experience. As you prepare to answer each question, consider organizing your response by answering each of the following components of the STAR technique:
What was the S ituation in which you were involved?
What was the Task you needed to accomplish?
What Action(s) did you take?
What Results did you achieve?
Repertory grid
The repertory grid is a technique for identifying the ways that a person construes his or her experience. It provides information from which inferences about personality can be made, but it is not a personality test in the conventional sense.
A grid consists of four parts.
1. A Topic: it is about some part of the person's experience
2. A set of Elements, which are examples or instances of the Topic. Any well-defined set of words, phrases, or even brief behavioral vignettes can be used as elements. For example, to see how I construe the purchase of a car, a list of vehicles within my price range could make an excellent set of elements
3. A set of Constructs. These are the basic terms that the client uses to make sense of the elements, and are always expressed as a contrast. Thus the meaning of 'Good' depends on whether you intend to say 'Good versus Poor', as if you were construing a theatrical performance, or 'Good versus Evil', as if you were construing the moral or ontological status of some more fundamental experience.
4. A set of ratings of Elements on Constructs. Each element is positioned between the two extremes of the construct using a 5- or 7-point rating scale system; this is done repeatedly for all the constructs that apply; and thus its meaning to the client is captured, and statistical analysis varying from simple counting, to more complex multivariate analysis of meaning, is made possible.
Step 1
The individual or group begins with a repertory grid, pen or pencil, and five to eight blank cards.
Step 2
Then the elements are written across the top of the grid.
Step 3
After this, the subject(s) write numbers on one side of the cards which correspond with the elements at the top of the grid.
Step 4
The cards are turned face down, shuffled, and then three cards are drawn at random.
Step 5
The subject(s) mark on the grid which three elements were drawn with an "X". They then decide: "Out of the three elements chosen, which two seem to have something more in common with each other?" These two elements are connected with a line.
Step 6
Always on the left side of the grid, the subject(s) will describe what aspect these two elements share. On the right side, they will express what it is that makes the third element different from the other two. (If this is too difficult, people are allowed to write something they believe to be the opposite of the left hand construct).
Step 7
Finally, the elements are rated to the constructs. Each element is rated to the constructs on a scale of one to five, with the left construct as "1" and the right construct as "5". For example, on a scale of 1 to 5, with "1" being most like a "lesson carefully designed for students needs" and five as "giving students second language activities just to kill the time", we see that the subject(s) rated the element, "students are happy" as more like the left construct, with a rating of "2", the element, "students are active" as like the right construct, with a rating of "5", "students retain L2" as like the left side with a rating of "1", and so on.
One the first row has been rated, the individual or group turn the three cards over, shuffle them, and begin the process all over again. They may reshuffle in the case of drawing the same three card combination as before.
Repertory grids were an invention of the late George Kelly, a mid-West American engineer turned psychologist/psychotherapist who wrote up his work in the '50s. They consist of a rectangular matrix of ratings of things called "elements" (usually placed in the columns) each rated on adjectival phrases or simple adjectives known as "constructs".
The following is an example, a grid from an (imaginary) forensic psychotherapy patient:
| "You to your mother" | "Your mother to you" | "You to your father" | "Your father to you" | "You to your partner" | "Your partner to you" | "You to your victim" | "Your victim to you" | "You to your therapist" | "Your therapist to you" | | Domineering | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | | Sexually attractive | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | | Easily controlled | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4 | | Rejecting | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | | Loving | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 3 | | Neglecting | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 5 | | Sexually intimidating | 2 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | | Protective | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | | Understanding | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
The elements here are directional relationships:
"Your therapist to you"
i.e. the first element represents the way he thinks he is toward his mother, the second is how he thinks she is toward him.
Critical incident technique
The CIT is a method for getting a subjective report while minimising interference from stereotypical reactions or received opinions. The user is asked to focus on one or more critical incidents which they experienced personally in the field of activity being analysed. A critical incident is defined as one which had an important effect on the final outcome. Critical incidents can only be recognised retrospectively.
CIT analysis uses a method known as Content Analysis in order to summarise the experiences of many users or many experiences of the same user.
The Critical Incident Technique (or CIT) is a set of procedures used for collecting direct observations of human behavior that have critical significance and meet methodically defined criteria. These observations are then kept track of as incidents, which are then used to solve practical problems and develop broad psychological principles. A critical incident can be described as one that makes a significant contribution - either positively or negatively - to an activity or phenomenon. Critical incidents can be gathered in various ways, but typically respondents are asked to tell a story about an experience they have had.
CIT is a flexible method that usually relies on five major areas. The first is determining and reviewing the incident, then fact-finding, which involves collecting the details of the incident from the participants. When all of the facts are collected, the next step is to identify the issues. Afterwards a decision can be made on how to resolve the issues based on various possible solutions. The final and most important aspect is the evaluation, which will determine if the solution that was selected will solve the root cause of the situation and will cause no further problems.
Advantages - Flexible method that can be used to improve multi-user systems.
- Data is collected from the respondent's perspective and in his or her own words.
- Does not force the respondents into any given framework.
- Identifies even rare events that might be missed by other methods which only focus on common and everyday events.
- Useful when problems occur but the cause and severity are not known.
- Inexpensive and provides rich information.
- Emphasizes the features that will make a system particularly vulnerable and can bring major benefits (e.g. safety).
- Can be applied using questionnaires or interviews.
Disadvantages - A first problem comes from the type of the reported incidents. The critical incident technique will rely on events being remembered by users and will also require the accurate and truthful reporting of them. Since critical incidents often rely on memory, incidents may be imprecise or may even go unreported.
- The method has a built-in bias towards incidents that happened recently, since these are easier to recall.
- It will emphasize only rare events; more common events will be missed.
- Respondents may not be accustomed to or willing to take the time to tell (or write) a complete story when describing a critical incident.
COMPETENCY ASSESSMENT
Competency assessment involves the measurement of an individual's competencies. Measures include cognitive ability tests, biodata instruments, structured interviews, job knowledge tests, diagnostic and promotion tests, and measures of customer service, and social skills. With the advent of increased agency responsibility for staffing decisions, valid personnel selection assessments are more critical than ever. The Office of Personnel Management's research and development staff are experts in producing selection methods that can be tailored to specific agency needs.
Key Features - Selection methods cover the entire spectrum of job-relevant abilities, including reasoning and social skills, and are offered in a variety of formats:
o Multiple-choice tests, either computer-based or paper and pencil
o Structured interviews
o Biodata questionnaires
o Job-knowledge tests
o Social skills inventories
o Executive assessment centers
o Language-learning ability tests
o Physical performance tests
o Professional examinations for managers and executives
- Complete documentation of development process and validity analysis
- Nationwide network of test administrators can effectively and efficiently administer tests of OPM design
Why You May Want To Use These Services - Increased productivity
- Enhanced diversity of candidates
Assessment Center Exercises An Assessment Center can be defined as "a variety of testing techniques designed to allow candidates to demonstrate, under standardized conditions, the skills and abilities that are most essential for success in a given job" (Coleman, 1987). The term "assessment center" is really a catch-all term that can consist of some or all of a variety of exercises. Assessment centers usually have some sort of in-basket exercise which contains contents similar to those which are found in the in-basket for the job which is being tested. Other possibilities include oral exercises, counseling simulations, problem analysis exercises, interview simulations, role play exercises, written report/analysis exercises, and leaderless group exercises (Coleman, 1987; Filer, 1979; Joiner, 1984). Assessment centers allow candidates to demonstrate more of their skills through a number of job relevant situations (Joiner, 1984).
360 DEGREE FEEDBACK
In human resources or industrial/organizational psychology, 360-degree feedback, also known as 'multi-rater feedback', 'multisource feedback', or 'multisource assessment', is employee development feedback that comes from all around the employee. "360" refers to the 360 degrees in a circle. The feedback would come from subordinates, peers, and managers in the organizational hierarchy, as well as self-assessment, and in some cases external sources such as customers and suppliers or other interested stakeholders. It may be contrasted with upward feedback, where managers are given feedback by their direct reports, or a traditional performance appraisal, where the employees are most often reviewed only by their manager.
The results from 360-degree feedback are often used by the person receiving the feedback to plan their training and development. The results are also used by some organizations for making promotional or pay decisions, which is sometimes called "360-degree review."
Benefits - Individuals get a broader perspective of how they are perceived by others than previously possible.
- Increased awareness of and relevance of competencies.
- Increased awareness by senior management that they too have development needs.
- More reliable feedback to senior managers about their performance.
- Gaining acceptance of the principle of multiple stakeholders as a measure of performance.
- Encouraging more open feedback � new insights.
- Reinforcing the desired competencies of the business.
- Provided a clearer picture to senior management of individual's real worth (although there tended to be some 'halo' effect syndromes).
- Clarified to employees critical performance aspects.
- Opens up feedback and gives people a more rounded view of performance than they had previously.
- Identifying key development areas for the individual, a department and the organization as a whole.
- Identifying strengths that can be used to the best advantage of the business.
- A rounded view of the individual's/ team's/ organization's performance and what the strengths and weaknesses are.
- Raised the self-awareness of people managers of how they personally impact upon others � positively and negatively.
- Supporting a climate of continuous improvement.
- Starting to improve the climate/ morale, as measured through the survey.
- Focused agenda for development. Forced line managers to discuss development issues.
- Perception of feedback as more valid and objective, leading to acceptance of results and actions required.
- Gaps are identified in one's self-perception versus the perception of the manager, peer or direct reports.
- Customizing the questions to one's organizational competencies.
References:
1. Ganesh Shermon ,Competency based HRM, ,1st edition.2004
2. Seema Sangvi ,A Hand book of Competency Mapping ,.2004
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