Chapter 7

Competency Based Performance Management Systems

 For organizations customers are the ultimate source of competence. It is the customers who dictate their

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terms, and organizations need to respond to such needs of the customers leveraging their core
competencies.
 Core competencies are the collective learning in the organization, especially the capacity to coordinate ©

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diverse production skills and integrate streams of technologies.
 Competencies are important in human resource and knowledge management approaches.
 Through competency development organizations achieve performance excellence.

Managerial Skills and Competencies

Skill is a coordinated series of actions that serve to attain some goal or accomplish a particular task.
Operationally, skills are overt responses and controlled stimulation.
 Overt responses may be verbal, motor or perceptual. Verbal response typically stresses on speaking
(which requires memorisation of words); motor responses stress on movements of limbs and body.
Perceptual responses stress on understanding of sensory response.
 Controlled stimulations are energy inputs to the workers, which we express in units of frequency, length,
time and weight

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There are four general types of skills as under:

Technical relates to specific concepts, methods and tools specific to an organization

Supervisory enables one to effectively supervise others

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Interpersonal enables people to communicate and interact effectively
General Business lines of business and support infrastructure
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Skill Inventories
A skill inventory is a device for pin-pointing information about individuals and their suitability for different
jobs. Skills inventories include the name of the employee and a listing (or inventory) of job ‑related skills,
training, and/or experience which could prove useful in a future assignment.

Multi-Skilling
Multi-skilling is the process to train employees in variety of skills, even crossing the traditional trade-specific
or craft-specific skill sets.

To develop multi-skills, employees require additional training to enable them to perform more jobs within the
same job family or to do the entire jobs from a holistic point of view.

Multi-skilling facilitates intra-occupational and inter-occupational job mobility and thereby reinforces
organizational effectiveness and excellence.

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Skills for the new millennium

In the changed global business scenario, organizations need to develop following skills in all cross-sections of
employees to sustain in competition and to achieve excellence.

1. Partnerships and collaborations skills

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2. Quick decision making skill
3. Skill to attract and retain the talent
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4. Skills to predict the future

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5. Skills to integrate technology with the business
6. Skill to balance the stakeholders need

Type of Competencies

Daniel Katz has classified competencies into following areas:

 Technical or Functional Competencies

 Managerial Competencies
 Human Competencies
 Conceptual Competencies

Competencies are not mere knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) and should ideally include values, motives
and traits and self concept.

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 Competency characteristics

Based on the organizational experiences, we can identify following characteristics of competencies:

 Motives-The things a person consistently thinks about or wants and that which causes action.

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 Traits-Physical characteristics and consistent responses to situation or information.
 Self-concept-A person’s attitudes, values or self-image.
 Knowledge-Information a person has in specific content areas. ©

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 Skill-The ability to perform a certain physical or mental task.

Competency identification and assessment process

To diagnose competencies organizations adopt several approaches.

Based on organizational practices, we can list the methods of competency identification through the
process of competency mapping.

 Competency Mapping is a process of identifying key competencies for a company or institution and
the jobs and functions within it.
 Competency mapping makes use of different frameworks/models. Some of these commonly known
frameworks/models are; job competence assessment model (JCAM), single job competency model,
one -size – fits – all model, multiple job models, role set based competency model (RSBCM) etc.

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Irrespective of the models all competency mapping approach generally uses a combination of:
 Interviews
 Work Studies
 Group work
 Task forces

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 Questionnaire
 Use of job descriptions, performance appraisal formats etc ©

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Competency mapping is always done in the defined job context following a set of approaches, like:
(i) Workforce Skills Analysis
(ii) Job Analysis
(iii) Supply and Demand Analysis
(iv) Gap Analysis
(v) Situation Analysis

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Steps of a competency identification process
Based on the above discussions, we can list the steps of competency identification as under:
 Examining the purpose and setting of competency modeling
 Selecting a position and a group of employees
 Selecting the set of performance outcomes

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 Performing competency elicitations
 Obtaining individual competence-performance structures ©
 Obtaining organizational competence-performance structures

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 Validating the results

Steps to introduce competency based system

 The following critical factors are important for competency mapping:
 Vision and Mission of the organization
 Hierarchical Levels
 Role
 Organizational Life Cycle
 Culture

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Advantages of a competency based approach
 Recruitment and Selection
 Performance / Potential Assessment
 Compensation Management

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 Training
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Competency Based Performance Management Systems

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 Competency-based performance-management system establishes the skills and behaviours that employees.
 Define the organizational short-term and long-term goals and then identify the skills and behaviours
requirements.
 Weigh in terms of available skills and behaviours, gap if any then addressed through competency
development programmes.
 A competency map helps employees to understand where they stand vis-à-vis the competency
requirements.

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Generic set of Individual competencies
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Analytical Anticipation/Proactive Thinking Attention to Detail
Change-handling Skills Coaching Ability Commercial Awareness

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Communication Cost Consciousness Creativity/Innovation
Customer Focus Decision-Making Ability Delegation ©

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Dependability Diversity Focus Drive Motivation
Emotional Intelligence Ability Empathizing Ability Empowerment Ability
Feedback (Giving and Receiving)Leadership Ability Listening

Perception/Judgement Persistence/Perseverance Planning and Organizing

Stress Management Problem Solving Ability Quality Focus
Results Focus Safety Focus Self Development
Strategizing Ability Taking Initiatives/Responsibility Teamwork Ability
Technology Application Technology Application Time Management Ability

Written Communication

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Competency Dictionary
A structured approach to competency definition for any specific set of competencies requires developing of a
competency dictionary. Competency dictionary becomes a valuable guide for the organizations, for future

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references, like; recruitment and selection, training and development, setting of performance standards, etc.
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