Competency Mapping
Competency Mapping
Executive Summary
In today’s competitive world it is becoming very important to build on the competitive activities
of the business, particularly regarding what competencies a business needs to have in order to
compete in a specific environment. Top management is identifying corporate core competencies
and working to establish them throughout the organization. Human Resource Development
builds competency based models that drive business results
Competency modeling addresses the development of people from process design through
succession. But most of the organizations of all sizes are still struggling with defining, designing
and implementing competency model projects.
The process is completely customizable. The decisions of competency design are driven by
number of organizational factors, including management philosophy, customer requirements,
business needs and in-place processes. These factors vary from one organization to another,
requiring a customized approach to competencies in the workplace. Customization is essential to
the overall success of competency efforts, since every organization must integrate competency
concepts into its own job design, recruitment, hiring orientation, development and succession
processes.
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Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Today organizations are all talking in terms of competence. Gone are the days when people used
to talk in terms of skill sets, which would make their organizations competitive. There has been a
shift in the focus of the organizations. Now they believe in excelling and not competing. It is
better to build a core competency that will see them through crisis. And what other way than to
develop the people, for human resource is the most valuable resource any organization has.
Organizations of the future will have to rely more on their competent employees than any other
resource. It is a major factor that determines the success of an organization. Competencies are
the inner tools for motivating employees, directing systems and processes and guiding the
business towards common goals that allow the organizations to increase its value. Competencies
provide a common language and method that can integrate all the major HR functions and
services like Recruitment, Training, performance management, Remuneration, Performance
appraisal, Career and succession planning and integrated Human resource management system.
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.
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Attributes include: personal characteristics, traits, motives, values or ways of thinking that
impact an individual’s behavior.
Any underlying characteristic required for performing a given task, activity or role successfully
can be considered as competency. Competency may take the following forms:
• Knowledge
• Attitude
• Skill
• Other characteristics of an individual including
• Motives
• Values
• Traits
• Self Concept
Competency includes observable behavior as well as aptitudes, skill and knowledge. It can
be compared with an iceberg as shown in the figure below:
Observable
Behavior
Aptitudes
C Attitudes / Traits
o
m
pe Skills
te
Knowledge
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Competency was first popularized by BOYATZIS (1982) with Research result on clusters of
competencies:
“A capacity that exists in a person that leads to behavior that meets the job demands within
parameters of organizational environment, and that, in turn brings about desired results”
• 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.
• RANKIN (2002):
Competencies are definition of skills and behaviors that organizations expect their staff to
practice in work.”
• MANSFIELD (1997):
“Underlying characteristics of a person that results in effective a superior performance.”
• WOODRUFFE (1991):
Competency: A person- related concept that refers to the dimensions of behavior lying
behind competent performer.
Competence: A work- related concept that refers to areas of work at which the person is
competent
Competencies: Often referred as the combination of the above two.
• ALBANESE(1989) :
Competencies are personal characteristics that contribute to effective managerial
performance.
• HAYES(1979) :
Competencies are generic knowledge motive, trait, social role or a skill of a person linked
to superior performance on the job.
• Behavior Indicator
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These behaviors are demonstrated by excellent performers on-the-job much more consistently
than average or poor performers. These characteristics generally follow the 80-20 rule in that
they include the key behaviors that primarily drive excellent performance.
KNOWLEDGE
Relates to information
Cognitive Domain
Set of Attribute
Relates to
SKILLS
qualitative
Relates to the
aspects
ability to do,
Personal
Physical domain
Characteristics
or traits
COMPETENCY
Outstanding
Performance of
tasks or activities
The competencies in the companies can be broadly defined into the following categories based
on the skill set required. The competencies are divided based on the necessity of the skill for the
employees.
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• Generic Competencies
Competencies which are considered essential for all employees regardless of their
function or level. - Communication, initiative, listening etc. These are basic competencies
required to do the job, which do not differentiate between high and low performers
• Managerial Competencies
Competencies which are considered essential for employees with managerial or supervisory
responsibility in any functional area including directors and senior posts
• Threshold or Performance:
Performance competencies are those that differentiate between high and low performers.
For the measurement of the competency parameters the following conditions are considered
essential
Competencies in organization are mostly a mix and match of the above categories and generally
tend to fall in the following two categories
• Functional/Technical Competencies.
These competencies include specific success factors within a given work.
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Chapter 2
Historical Perspective
Michael Crosier shocked the management community by defining the organization as imperfect
social compromises .Far from being scientific constructs he depicted a complex organization as a
reflection of its actual degree of competency.
Despite a growing interest of competency among mangers and human resource professionals in
recent years, the modern competency movement in industrial-organizational psychology actually
dates from the mid1950’s and early 1970’s.
In that regard, John Flanagan’s work (1954) and Dave McClelland’s studies (1970) might be
cited as two landmark efforts that originally invented the concept of competency. Concept maps
were invented by Joseph Novak in the 1960s for use as a teaching tool. Later in 1986 William
Trochim developed the concept map into a strategic planning tool for use in the design of
organizational components. Trochim's technique differs significantly from Novak's original
school of thought. While Novak's maps are generated for an individual, Trochim's are generated
by a group.
A seminal article published by John Flanagan in 1954 established Critical Incidents Technique as
a precursor to the key methodology used in rigorous competency studies. Based on studies of US
Air Force pilot performance, Flanagan concluded that “the principle objective of job analysis
procedures should be the determination of critical requirements. These requirements include
those which have been demonstrated to have made the difference between success and failure in
carrying out an important part of the job assigned in a significant number of instances”. From
here, critical incidents technique was originally discovered.
Critical incidents itself can be defined as a set of procedures for systematically identifying
behaviors that contribute to success or failure of individuals or organizations in specific
situations.
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Flanagan’s work, while not strictly about competencies, was important because it laid the
foundation for a new approach to examining what people do. In a later form, the critical incidents
technique would resurface to focus around significant behavioral events that distinguish between
exemplary and fully-successful performers.
It is Flanagan’s critical incidents technique that sixteen years later inspires David McClelland to
discover and develop the term of “competency”.
In mid fifties BENJAMIN laid the foundation for identifying educational objectives by defining
KSA, s needed to be developed in education. The educational objectives developed by them were
grouped under the cognitive domain.
He pioneered the Competency Movement across the world and made it a global concept. His
classic books on Talent and Society, Achievement motive, The Achieving Society, Motivating
economic achievement and power the inner experience brought out several new dimensions of
the competency. These competencies exposed by Mc .Cleland dealt with effective domain in
Bloom’s terminology.
Richard Boyatzis.
Richard Boyatzis wrote the first empirically-based and fully-researched book on competency
model developments. It was with Boyatzis that job competency came to widely understood to
mean an underlying characteristic of a person that leads or causes superior or effective
performance. Boyatzis was explicit in describing the importance of clearly-defined competency
as reflected in specific behavior and clearly defined performance outcomes when he wrote that
“the important points is that specific actions cause, or lead to, the specified results. Certain
characteristics or abilities of the person enable him or her to demonstrate the appropriate specific
actions”.
As founding developer of competency modeling in the United States, Boyatzis grounded
competency interventions on documented behavioral indicators that caused or influenced
effective job performance. Boyatzis, like Flanagan, stressed the importance of systematic
analysis in collecting and analyzing examples of the actual performance of individuals doing the
work. The method for documenting the actual performance was collected through the behavioral
event interview (BEI), an intensive face-to-face interview that involves soliciting critical
incidents from performers and documenting what the performers thinking and doing during the
incidents.
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Chapter 3
Competency Mapping
3.1 Meaning and Concept of Competency Mapping
The broad processes that are followed in an organization while undertaking the process of
competency mapping are detailed below:
First stage of mapping requires understanding the vision and mission of the organization.
Second stage requires understanding from the superior performers the behavioral as well as the
functional aspects required to perform job effectively.
• Tool for the first and second stage: BEI/ Structured Interview
Third stage involves thorough study of the BEI Reports/ Structured Interview Reports
a) Identification of the competency based on competency frame work
b) Measurement of competency
c) Required levels of competency for each job family
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Fifth Stage involves conducting assessment centre. Usually it is a two day program which
would involve giving a brief feedback to the participant about the competencies that has been
assessed and where they stand to.
Sixth stage involves detailed report of the competencies assessed and also the development plan
for the developmental areas.
The Steps involved in competency mapping with an end result of job evaluation include the
following:
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The roots of competency modeling date as far back as the early 1900’s but these models have
become widely popular these days. A competency model is an organizing framework that lists
the competencies required for effective performance in a specific job, job family (e.g., group of
related jobs), organization, function, or process. Individual competencies are organized into
competency models to enable people in an organization or profession to understand, discuss, and
apply the competencies to workforce performance.
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• Long lists of tasks and the skills / knowledge required to perform each of those tasks.
• Data generation from subject matter experts; job incumbents
• Effective Performance
The approach allows executives and managers to make a distinction between a person's ability to
do specific tasks at the minimum acceptable level and the ability to do the whole job in an
outstanding fashion
Competency mapping serves a number of purposes. It is done for the following functions:
• Gap Analysis
• Role Clarity
• Selection, Potential Identification, Growth Plans.
• Succession Planning.
• Restructuring
• Inventory of competencies for future planning
Competency based interviews reduce the risk of making a costly hiring mistake and
increase the likelihood of identifying and selecting the right person for the right job
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The different areas of Human resource management in an organization where the competency
model can be implemented are detailed below:
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TRAINING &
DEVELOPMENT
RECRUITMENT &
SELECTIONS
SUCCESSION
PLANNING
COMPETENCY
MODEL CAREER
PLANNING
RECOGNITION
REPLACEMENT
PLANNING PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT
The major Areas of research in an organization where competency mapping is widely used are
• Training & Development
• Recruitment & Selections
• Succession Planning
• Career Planning
• Recognition
• Replacement Planning
• Performance Management
Some of the implementations of competency mapping are discussed in the later chapters.
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Competency based approaches to organizational planning has many advantages. Some of them
from the employee perspective, managerial perspective and the company perspective are detailed
below.
• 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
Organizations as well as employees face many problems while transitioning from traditional
approaches to competency based approach. Some of them are detailed below:
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Chapter 4
Competency Models
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There exist multiple models for mapping of competencies in an organization. The Roman
pavilion competency Model framework is being used for the definition of competencies in many
companies. This model is detailed below:
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The above framework is used in a leading automotive original equipment manufacturer to map
various competencies to the respective positions. The name of the company has been withheld
due to request from the source of information regarding the non disclosure policies.
The general competency model followed by organizations in order to develop their competency
models are given in Figure 4.2. In order to map and generate the correct competency model first
a clear understanding of the various organizational goals is developed. This then translates into
actual roles and responsibilities of the individuals in the organizations through organization
structure, roles positions and jobs, which form the core competency of the organization. This
process is summarized in Figure 4.2 below
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Chapter 5
Competency Mapping in an Automotive
Manufacturing Organization
Competency mapping is a process an individual uses to identify and describe competencies that
are the most critical to success in a work situation or work role.
A competency map is a list of an individual’s competencies that represent the factors most
critical to success in given jobs, departments, organizations, or industries that are part of the
individual’s current career plan. A sample competency map used to map the Research and
development division in a leading automotive manufacturing organization is given below:
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The process of competency mapping in the organization involved the following steps:
Competency mapping was also done for individuals using the six steps of competency mapping
as detailed below:
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The first action here must be to identify what types of competencies the individual most needs to
focus on. The individual may be employed by or seeking employment with an organization that
uses any one of the four ways of categorizing competencies that were identified earlier in the
article: Organization-Wide Core Competencies, Job Family or Business Unit, Position-Specific,
or by Levels of Contribution (i.e. Individual Contributor, Manager, or Organizational Leader).
Then, the next action is to find a resource that covers the types of competencies the individual is
focusing on.
Competencies can also be identified with the assistance of an experienced coach, either
organically through sample interview questions, standardized assessments, answer and writing
exercises, or through the use of a 360-degree feedback process (i.e., a full-circle multi-rater
evaluation) where one is assessed by one’s supervisor, subordinates, peers, customers, clients, or
others.
The individual should identify the four to seven Top Competencies that they believe are the most
important to success at this point in their career. It is an intuitive decision based on a
combination of three factors: (1) past demonstrated excellence in using the competency; (2)
internal passion for using the competency; and, (3) the current or likely future demand for the
competency in the individual’s current position or targeted career field.
Three primary ways of validating one’s competencies, and then determining the top
competencies, were recommended:
• A review of the list by an experienced coach who knows the client well, in comparison to an
established list of competencies.
• The inclusion of the individual’s competencies in a 360-feedback or multi-rater evaluation
process, if feedback is sought from others as part of the coaching process.
• Feedback from one or more trusted experienced mentors.
Step 3: Define the top competencies using behaviors the individual has demonstrated
through past performance.
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Individuals should compose a list of their prior work experiences, projects, and volunteer roles.
Then, under each entry, they should spend “quiet time” thinking of one or two concrete
behavioral examples - times when they had positive results from their effort. More recent
examples are most advantageous.
Step 5: Prepare verbal explanations of the examples, using the CAR Model
Step 6: Use the top competencies and key behavioral examples to write or revise resumes
The above steps were recommended by the organization for the individual employees to identify
their core competencies and work towards career development while pursuing the path of
excellence.
The above chapter details how the various competencies of individuals are mapped at an
organizational level and at the individual level.
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Chapter 7
Competency Mapping at other
Organizations
7.1 Competency Mapping at Zensar Technologies
Zensar has a behavioral competency model which is based on various job roles in the
organization. The process of implementation is detailed below:
• Having defined the various job roles, a focused study was initiated where job role holders
were interviewed on the critical incident method and the data of success-critical factors
was collated.
• The job roles and deliverables were finalized on the basis of the competencies derived
from the data. This data was further analyzed, and on the basis of this competencies that
had an impact on the job roles and deliverables were finalized.
• After identifying the competencies, a job analysis exercise was carried out where the
importance level of every competency was ascertained before freezing the competency
model.
For team leaders and project managers, the company also runs development centers in-house;
here, individuals are profiled on behavioral competencies required for their position. This
process creates awareness in the individual about his behavioral traits in detail, and helps him
chalk out an individual development plan. Development centers help map an individual's
potential, which is useful to both the individual and the organization. All management
development programs are also fine-tuned to address the specific competency needs at different
levels; the 360-degree feedback has also been designed on the competency model, enabling
managers to get feedback from their teams. This feedback is based on the rating of the
competencies which are an integral part of their managerial skill-set.
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All people who have gone through job rotation undergo a transformation and get a broader
perspective of the company. For instance, a person lacking in negotiation skills might be put in
the sales or purchase department for a year to hone his skills in the area.
The competency mapping process in the company took eight months for development of six
roles and two variations. Eventually, 16-18 profiles were worked out. The company uses
PeopleSoft for competency mapping. Behavioral competencies do not change every month. Two
appraisals are done subsequently every project-end for skills, and annual for behavioral
competencies. Every quarter, an SBU-based skills portfolio is published. As far as training and
development is concerned, instead of asking people to attend classes, they themselves get pulled
to the classes. Introduction of competency mapping has also involved introducing skill appraisals
in performance appraisals. This has also led to training people on how to assess subordinates on
competencies.
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Chapter 8
Conclusion
Competency is a set of knowledge, skills and attitudes required to perform a job effectively and
efficiently. A Competency is something that describes how a job might be done, excellently; a
Competence only describes what has to be done, not how. So the Competences might describe
the duties of a Sales Manager for example, such as manage the sales office and its staff, prepare
quotations and sales order processing, manage Key Accounts and supervise and motivate the
field sales force. The Competencies which might determine excellence in this role could include
Problem Solving and Judgment; Drive and Determination; Commercial Awareness; Inter-
personal skills etc, all of which might be described further by Behavioral Indicators relating
specifically to that post in that organization.
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Chapter 9
References
• “Human Resources Champion”- by David Ulrich
• “The Art and Science of Competency Models: Pinpointing Critical Success Factors in
Organizations”-by Richard Lepsinger, Anntoinette D. Lucia- ebook
• “Building Robust Competencies: Linking Human Resource Systems to Organizational
Strategies”- by Paul C. Green
• “The Handbook of Competency Mapping: Understanding, Designing and Implementing
Competency Models in Organizations- by Seema Sanghi by Sage Publications Pvt.
Ltd; Second Edition edition (November 5, 2007)
• Competency Mapping Education Kit module 3 and 4-T V Rao
• http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/media/documents/pdf/Employment/U
NIDO-CompetencyModel-Part1.pdf
• http://bg.astd.org/Users/Company/Forms/frmViewProduct.asp?Produc
t=762&compID=894
• http://www.microsoft.com/education/competencies/comp_planning.ms
px
• www.healthcareworkforce.nhs.uk/option,com_docman/task,doc_download/gid,961.html
• http://pillars.gmu.edu/managergrid.html
• www.citehr.com
• www.explorehr.org
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