a ey 3 S = > Ss 4 £ my -% E S co} a eg Pe SED ny Perey tnd Are Competency _ Models a Waste? By MAXINE DALTON Practitioners spend a lot of time and money creating custom competency models for their organizations. Are their efforts worth it? Keer ete ive development to HRD professionals, | typically ask partic pants how many are currently cre- ating or using a competency model for selecting, appraising, or devel- oping managers. Usually, about 80 percent raise their hands With great fervor and intensity training professionals spend count- less hours and dollars with senior management teams and consultants making lists of the desired behav- iors of managers and leaders in their organizations, Yet, are such models of management effective: | ness really competency model? A competency model is more than a wish list, It must involve a methodology that demonstra validity of the model's standards, The litmus test is whether the peo- ple who have the competencies are ss the AG Training & Development, October 1997 better managers than people who don't, A competency model must ilso identify and validate the be- haviors that imply the existence of underlying motives, traits, and ati tudes. But most of the current activ ity going on under the banner of ‘competency modeling is really only list making, Another problem is that man agers are often developed with re gard to competency models present, not the future. But beca nodels are expensive 10 crea nizations can become attached to them, even when conditions cha agem how people mig! petencies on the lis. Those issues raise the question: Are management and leadership models so different that they justify And many models of man- nt effectiveness don’t tell us \equire the com-the expense of in-house, tailor-made development? Especially considering that most of the time and money go to the front end, the list making, rather than the implementation, The competency craze ‘Competencies are behaviors that dis- tinguish effective performers from in- effective ones. Certain motives, traits, skills, and abilities are attributed to peopie who consistently behave in specific ways. A competency model depicts those motives, traits, and so forth as a set of desired behaviors for a particular job position or level. A com- petency model also implies that such behaviors are predictive of who is like- ly to be successful ina position ot role ‘The current competency “craze” is the most recent manifestation of long- time efforts by psychologists to re- duce a job to its essential elements 50 as to understand what is required to accomplish the job successfully. The pioneers in this area studied the work of people in technical activities. Later researchers focused on management jobs and their competencies, ‘At some point, the work overlapped with the demands of the civil rights ‘movement and laws that specified that selection criteria must be job related, ‘That led to the widespread use of job analysis and content validation regard- ing selection tools. You could not test candidates on something a job didn't require. Practitioners adopted the methodology of competencies to de- sign training programs for teaching technical skills that would ensure cer- tain behavioral outcomes. Consulting firms began using job analysis and crit- ical incident interviewing to help com- panies in selection and compensation, and as a rationale for the activities as- sociated with executive succession planning and development. ‘Competency modeling evolved par- allel with the use of assessment cen- ters and the term, dimension, to describe the behavioral characteristics of effective managers and leaders There is a precise and specific methodology to building competency models, associated with the work of David McClelland. Development involves these steps: » specifying the job or position be- ing analyzed = An unvalidated competency model won't describe the people who have the appropriate attributes or who will be effective in meeting business goalsm= + specifying expected business chal- lenges » conducting critical incident inter- views for anecdotal evidence on ef- fective and ineffective performers » conducting a content analysis of the critical incidents to identify the underlying competencies » validating the model to ensure that it captures the characteristics of effec- tive managers compared with ineffec- tive ones in a given situation, Unfortunately, in the current “I got- ta have one, 100" atmosphere of com petency modeling, the methodology is often unknown or ignored. Instead, people compile the attributes of job in- cumbents or senior managers’ beliefs Seventy percent of the competency models I see are just lists of positive attributes that may or may not have anything to do with management ef- fectiveness. They reflect a half-day, off-site meeting with senior managers in which a list is made with the under- lying implication, “If the CEO says i's a competency, ia competency.” Building a so-called competency mod ce! based solely on the beliefs and opin. ions of a group of people, albeit powerful people, makes it a useless ‘exercise. I's important for HRD people to discuss management attributes as well as business needs and objectives with senior managers. But an unvali dated competency model won't de- scribe the people who have the appropriate attributes or who will be effective in meeting business goals It just captures the status quo. A com- pany that creates a list by opinion fails to recognize that the list represents the ‘company’s implicit staffing strategy. A list made up of personality traits and deeply held values, for example, im- plies a selection strategy, not a training and development strategy. In addition, the modeling process may polarize senior managers into warring camps over the meaning and use of words, and create cartons of paper pushed under the desks of HRD professionals, Still, organizations have to be able to select, promote, reward, deploy, train, and develop people based on its current and anticipated work and on the tasks that need to be accomplished, Its the job of HRD professionals to an- ticipate the knowledge, skills, abilities, and attributes fora job position or level at a given point in time. But does that mean every organization has to create unique competency model? Reporting on a study at New Eng- land Telephone, Martin Smith suggests that all models of effective leadership can he factored into these major areas: » cognitive skills interpersonal skills, > personal skills » knowledge of the business. It’s fairly easy to describe the pro- fessional, technical, and functional skills required by a job task, position, level, or set of conditions. Its reason- able to assume that those “competen- cies" are unique to a specific position, level, or business condition. Its cer tainly well within the scope of HRD professionals to be able to identify and label the requisite professional, techni- cal, and functional skills for selection and training purposes. In fact, it would clear up some confusion if we re~ tumed to labeling those requisite char- acteristics as knowledge, skills, and abilities rather than competencies. It’s unlikely that the management and leadership skills of effective peo- ple—what Smith calls cognitive, per- sonal, and interpersonal skills—are unique or different across functions and organizations. Companies can save a lot of time and money by using an existing research-based manage- ment model and building HRD strate- gies around it. It might not be a competency model; that implies a par- ticular methodology. But the model can describe effective managers in terms of personality traits, values, roles, 1B Training & Development, October 1997skills, or perspectives learned from ex- perience. What's critical is that the ‘model will be based on which people are effective and how they got to be that way. It will point to how people can acquire the necessary traits, values, skills, or perspectives. The implicit de- velopment strategy will be apparent Before you choose a model, here are some important questions to ask in evaluating it. » What were the criteria used to vali- date the model? » Do the criteria make sense given your organization's intended use of the model? What p relate to? > Will it be used to improve current ‘management practices or as a target for developing future executives, a better model, or an organizational change model? » Is the model to be used for selec- tion, appraisal, or development? > What is the model's standard? » Does the model describe what's in time does the model Have You Had the DAVIS DIGITAL EXPERIENCE? expected or ideal? > Is it necessary to possess all of the characteristics to be effective? » How does someone acquire the desired traits, skills, values, behaviors, perspectives, or attitudes? Eventually, we may discover that all management or leadership eflec- tiveness models reflect the same three to five basic factors. In Competence at Work, Spencer says that such com- petency clusters as achievement ori- entation, influence, and personal effectiveness account for 80 t0 98 per- cent of competency models. In Skiliscope, Kaplan, building on Mintaberg, points to skills with such la- bels as informational, decisional, and interpersonal. In Managerial Lives in Transition, Howard and Bray describe two motivational factors: advancement motivation and work involvement ‘They also point to administrative, inter- personal, and intellectual skills as the most predictive of promotions over a 20-year period. So, what to do? It makes the most sense to adapt an off-the-shelf, research-based mode, € pecially for practitioners in organiza~ tions that lack the resources to create and validate their own competency models, Then, they can direct ergy and resources fo how they'll pro- vide the structures and systems that will help managers and leaders in their or- ‘ganizations acquire the necessary skills For training professionals, the real effort involves fostering work enviton- ‘ments in which people have opportu- nities to learn how to become more effective and in which we are willing to evaluate and modify our interven- tions. List making is a distraction. ‘Competency models should cease to be regarded as a silver bullet and re- join the vast armature of tools of knowledgeable HRD practitioners. Maxine Dalton is manayer of leader ship resources for the Center for Creative Leadership, Box 26300, Greensboro, NC 27438: 910.288.7210, Exactly what is the DAVIS DIGITAL TRRERIENCE and how do you know when you've had it? Well, eee SH, if you've finished a presentation an ‘great because it ns sD owen eee uf MS WS. Fa ata Te baa as Circle No. 121 on Reader Service Card Training & Development, October 1997 @®Copyright © 2002 EBSCO Publishing