Competency Development in Organizations

Are you engaged with competencies as a feature within your organization’s human resources or organization development processes? Are you a student of organization psychology or human resources management? Are you an assessor for competencies? This course offers provides a rich source of theoretical and practical content to support your subject understanding and decision-making.

The course offers a strategic, conceptual, critical, and technical foundation to competency development. It explores the concept and history of competencies in organizations, the different approaches to how it is defined and practiced, and a supporting framework for decision-making. Competencies have been long practiced across most large organizations globally, but as yet, there is no universally accepted definition of what we mean by a ‘competency.’ Research data suggests it struggles with establishing demonstrable evidence of impacts in organization performance, and whether the resource and cost implications for practice through selection and assessment, performance management, succession, and talent management exhibit a clear benefit.

We know intuitively that competencies are welcomed and needed in all organizations. But what they are and how we can illustrate a formal value is challenging. Traditional methods of job analysis, work analysis, role design, and KSAOs (Knowledge, Skills, Attributes, Other) demonstrate an effective support for on-the-job-performance (OJP) because over time we develop confidence in the connections between employee characteristics and OJP. But it is competencies which really determine OJP and organization capability development (behavior, values, culture). In many cases, competencies are defined as KSAOs or results – in which case, a competency is unclear. The course provides a challenging insight into the concept of competencies and the variety of thinking and practical use.

For decision-makers, pursuing competency development is a strategic choice. It offers powerful opportunities for organization capability, but at the same time it may be worth focusing on other aspects of human resource strategies and organization development first. Competencies need a clear positioning within the design of capability processes, and a clear value from their practice.

Our approach consolidates theory and practice and offers a strategic and technically-robust direction for developing and using competencies formally. Over 32 lectures, we chart the theoretical and conceptual factors, practice-based issues and impacts, and development considerations. We present a unique and theoretically-founded methodology for developing competencies and frameworks, and leave you with a solid foundation for decision-making and your approach to development and implementation.

A comprehensive Resources & Information pack provides detailed study and supporting information for lectures. It includes research references, conceptual and practical illustrations, and a sequential development approach, from theory to practice.