WHAT IS A Job COMPETENCY? What is a competence?

Spencer and Spencer (Spencer, Lyle M. and Spencer, Signe M., Competence at work, models for superior performance, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., USA, 1993.), defines the competence as a subjacent characteristic of an individual that is casually related with a standard level of effectiveness and/or with a superior development in a work or situation.

It means that the competence is a deep part of the personality; knowing it can help you predict behaviors in a huge variety of situations and work challenges.

“Casually related” means that the competence origins or anticipates the behavior and performance.

Standard criteria, means that the competence really predicts who is going to do something right or poorly in relation with a specific or standard criterion previously defined. Examples of standard criteria for the sales force: the expected volume of sales in units and/or dollars for a determined period; the number of clients that buy a service, etc. The standard criteria for the commercial areas are –in general- easier to quantify, but it is equally possible to determine in other functions.

The same authors introduce the iceberg model where they divide the competencies into two big groups: the easiest to determine and develop, as the skills and the knowledge and the less easy to determine and develop as the concept of oneself, the attitudes and the values and nucleus of the personality. Meaning that they can be classified in deep and tangible.

THE ICEBERG MODEL

The French author Claude Levy-Leboyer (Levy-Levoyer, Calude, La gestion des competernces, Les editions d’organisation, Paris, 1992), work psychology teacher, summarizes the topic in the following way:

The competencies are a list of behaviors that certain people have in a bigger amount that others and that make them efficient for a certain situation.

• These behaviors can be observed in the work quotidian reality as well as in evaluation situations. They are integral signs of attitudes, personality traits and acquired knowledge.
• Competencies represent a union trait among the individual characteristics and the required qualities to conduct the pre-stated professional missions.

The same author presents has a list of the universal competencies for superior frames

• Oral presentation
• Oral communication
• Written communication
• Analysis of the organization problems
• Comprehension of the organization problems
• Analysis of the problems outside the organization
• Comprehension of the problems outside the organization
• Planning and organization
• Delegation
• Control
• Subordinates development
• Sensitivity
• Authority over individuals
• Authority over the groups
• Tenacity
• Negotiation
• Analysis vocation
• Common sense
• Creativity
• Risk facing
• Decision
• Technical and professional knowledge
• Energy
• Openness to other interests
• Initiative
• Tolerance to stress
• Adaptability
• Independence
• Motivation

Levy-Leboyer also mentions what she calls the supra-competencies:

Intellectual

• Strategic perspective
• Analysis and common sense
• Planning and organization

Interpersonal

• Collaborators direction
• Persuasion
• Decision
• Interpersonal sensitivity
• Oral communication

Adaptability

• To the environment

Orientation to the results

• Energy and initiative
• Success desire
• Good sense for business

(We refer to the supra-competencies later)

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