Module 5

COMPETENCY MAPPING

WHAT IS COMPETENCY MAPPING?

Competency mapping refers to studying the on the job behavior of a person to identify their knowledge, skills, self concept, attitude, traits and motive which leads to the success or failure in a given job role.

DEFINITIONS
HAYES (1979)- COMPETENCIES ARE GENERIC KNOWLEDGE MOTIVE, TRAIT, SOCIAL ROLE OR A SKILL OF A PERSON LINKED TO SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE ON THE JOB. ALBANESE (1989) COMPETENCIES ARE PERSONAL
CHARACTERISTICS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO EFFECTIVE MANAGERIAL PERFORMANCE.

UNIDO (2002)- A COMPETENCY IS A SET OF SKILLS, RELATED

KNOWLEDGE AND ATTRIBUTES THAT ALLOW AN INDIVIDUAL TO SUCCESSFULLY PERFORM A TASK OR AN ACTIVITY WITHIN A SPECIFIC FUNCTION OR JOB.

WHY DO WE NEED IT?

People will have to know their respective * Roles * Key competencies Address employee needs * What am I on skills? * What are the gaps? How to improve on skills? * What is expected of my role? * What are possible future roles? People have to know about competencies which help them deliver better to customers Address organizational / business needs * High performance * Expectation management on career and promotions * Higher productivity with improved skills

COMPONENTS OF COMPETENCY
Competency

has three major components which are as follows: 1)Knowledge: It refers to the information a person possesses about specific areas, knowledge comprises many factors like memory, numerical ability, linguistic ability, and is, therefore, a complex competency. It can be either: Scientific Knowledge Technical Knowledge Job Knowledge

2)Skill:

It represents intelligent application of knowledge, experience, and tools. This is the procedural "know how" knowledge (what one can do), either covert (e.g., deductive or inductive reasoning) or observable e.g. "active listening" skill in an interview.

3)Attitudes:

Attitudes are predispositions to other individuals, groups, objects, situations, events, issues etc. Attitudes decide our approach or avoidance behavior. They are normally conceptualized as positive or negative.

 Advantages

of Competency Mapping

FOR THE COMPANY: Establishes expectations for performance excellence. Improved job satisfaction and better employee retention.

Increase in the effectiveness of training and professional development programs because of their link to success criteria.
Provides a common, organization wide standard for career levels that enable employees to move across business boundaries & help companies raise the bar of performance expectations.

FOR THE MANAGERS:

Identify performance criteria to improve the accuracy and ease of the selection process. Provide more objective performance standards. Easier communication of performance expectations. Provide a clear foundation for dialogue to occur between the managers and employees and performance, development and career-oriented issues.

FOR THE INDIVIDUALS: Identify their strengths ,weaknesses & behavioral standards of performance excellence. Provide a more specific and objective assessment of their strengths and the tools required to enhance their skills. Enhances clarity on career related issues. Helps understand where they stand.

Disadvantages of Competency Mapping

Some of these are discussed below: There may be no room for an individual to work in a field that would best make use of his or her competencies. If the company does not respond to competency mapping by reorganizing its employees, then it can be of little short-term benefit and may actually result in greater unhappiness on the part of individual employees. If too much emphasis is placed on 'inputs' at the expense of 'outputs', there is a risk that it will favor employees who are good in theory but not in practice and will fail to achieve the results that make a business successful.

HISTORY OF COMPETENCIES

A team of Educationists lead by Benjamin Bloom in the USA in mid fifties laid the foundation for identifying educational objectives and there by defining the knowledge attitudes and skills needed to be developed in education. Competency mapping is the process of identification of the competencies required to perform successfully a given job or role or a set of tasks at a given point of time. It consists of breaking a given role or job into its constituent tasks or activities and identifying the competencies (technical, managerial, behavioral, conceptual knowledge, an attitudes, skills, etc.) needed to perform the same successfully.

Latter McBer a Consulting Firm founded by David McClelland and his associate Berlew have specialized in mapping the competencies of entrepreneurs and managers across the world. They even developed a new and yet simple methodology called the Behavior Event Interviewing (BEI) to map the competencies.