What’s A Competency?
September 29, 2004The term “competency” is frequently used in HR, yet there is often little attempt at defining what a competency is.
On a more humorous note, I often use this term at home in connection with the expression “core competencies,” as in mowing the lawn is not one of my core competencies (therefore, I outsource “lawn mowing”). Makes sense to me!
In this article, Charles Handler defines, and explains the importance of, the term competency. He argues that the traditional term “KSAOs,” which is frequently used by I/O psychologists, has a somewhat different meaning than the term competency. Specifically, he argues that
KSAOs do help us define the requirements of a job, but they really end up defining the job more then the person. Conversely, competencies describe the person more than they do the job.
The Lominger model is an example of packaged set of competencies. The company asserts that there are four levels of competencies:
Price-of-admission competencies—important across all levels and many people are good at them.
The Lominger model assumes there are about 100 different competencies and they use these competencies to drive interviewing, training, and many other HR processes.
Competitive-edge competencies—equally important but few people are good at them.
Competitive-edge competencies that are level-driven—unique differences among levels.
Competitive-edge competencies that are job-driven—unique differences between jobs.
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