Competency

This study examined the association between job competence, work environment, and job satisfaction toward job performance among SMEs workers in Denpasar. As an explanatory study, a survey technique used in this study with data collected by distributing questionnaires to the respondents. The sample included 62 of 163 SME workers in Denpasar Bali who are working for small medium enterprise among member of Spa Products Manufacturers Association (APPROSPA) Denpasar Bali.By using PLS (Partial Least Square) method with Smart PLS 2.0 software, data collected was analyzed to find out the relationship and path coefficients among the variables. Results and findings of the study are discussed, and it implies the need of SMEs in Denpasar to dealing with job competency and to mantain level of satisfaction among its workers, in order to increase their performance.

Recognition of the high prevalence nationwide of psychological trauma in children and adolescents, combined with increasing awareness of the far-reaching adverse consequences of childhood trauma, have led to calls to develop a trauma-informed mental health workforce. We describe the initial pilot test of the Core Concepts portion of the Core Curriculum on Childhood Trauma, as conducted in a large graduate school of social work. The Core Curriculum uses detailed case vignettes of trauma-exposed youth and families, combined with problem-based learning methods, to promote two primary learning aims: (1) to enhance the development of foundational trauma-related conceptual knowledge, and (2) to accelerate the acquisition of trauma-informed clinical reasoning and clinical judgment. Vignettes are presented in segments to simulate gathering, organizing, drawing meaning from, and making decisions based on information in professional practice. After each segment, the facilitator helps learners to summarize relevant facts, develop hunches and hypotheses, identify learning issues, and plan next steps. The Curriculum was very favorably received by students and was associated with marked increases in self-efficacy in applying the Core Concepts to work with trauma-exposed youth and families. We discuss ways in which the Curriculum can be used, especially as a foundation for training in specific evidence-based treatment protocols, to help prepare a national mental health workforce capable of implementing trauma-informed evidence-based practice.

Full citation: Layne, C.M., Ghosh Ippen, C., Strand, V., Stuber, M., Abramovitz, R., Reyes, G., Amaya-Jackson, L., Ross, L., Curtis, A., Lipscomb, A., & Pynoos, R.S. (2011). The Core Curriculum on Childhood Trauma: A tool for training a trauma-informed workforce. Psychological trauma: Theory, research, practice, and policy, 3, 243-252. Doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0025039

Que sont ces life skills apparues en 2000 dans le Cadre d’action de Dakar ? C’est pour tenter de répondre à cette question, laissée en suspend après quelques tentatives de conceptualisation, que cette étude passe en revue différents cadres théoriques tel celui du DeSeCo de l’OCDE puis revient à la définition même de la compétence. Elle arrive à la conclusion qu’il n’existe pas de compétences transversales, que la notion de compétence seule ne peut suffire à expliquer une action efficace et qu’il est par ailleurs difficile de définir des compétences vraiment universelles. Exemplifiés par la compétence « savoir se prémunir du VIH/SIDA », ces résultats expliquent pourquoi aucun travail conceptuel des « compétences de la vie » n’a été mené à bien, remettant au passage en question d’autres modèles de compétences plus élaborés. Quand bien même une telle modélisation serait possible, son utilité resterait à démontrer.

Mots-clés : life skills, compétences transversales/clés/génériques, VIH/SIDA.

The dominant view in managerial practice assumes that competencies are “universal” constructs whose meaning is independent from any specific context. The “universalist” approach ensures a high degree of efficiency through standardization of competency codebooks. However, the effectiveness of this approach has often been questioned. Overgeneralization makes the description of competencies ambiguous and does not provide HR managers with adequate practical information. An alternative, “situationalist” approach defines competencies as situated, idiosyncratic constructs whose meaning is deeply influenced by organizational culture and by the unique way people make sense of their jobs. We propose a methodological approach to competency management based on a situationalist perspective. Through a field study carried out in a large Italian organization, we discuss the issues relevant to consider when developing competency-management systems though a situationalist approach. In particular, we show that the situationalist approach, by ensuring higher attention to the meaning and to the situated nature of competencies, is more capable of dealing with some of the critical management challenges outlined in the recent literature, such as the demand for more participative approaches and the increasing emphasis on emerging competencies. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This article explores on the employability and skills of the MBA graduates based on reviewed studies and literature. It provides information on the challenges faced by most employers in the selection process of employees where they require MBA degree holders. They commonly need employees who demonstrate abilities related to quantitative, analytical and strategic thinking skills to handle higher responsibilities. Leadership and management skills are essential aspect of student outcomes should be enhanced by the higher educational institutions to their graduates in order to address the needs of the industries. Student development program may include activities and projects that would develop their skills on change management, risk management and human resource management.

In developing socioeconomic relations, labour market requirements imposed on specialists also undergo changes. Priority is given to such competencies as prompt analysis of professional information in foreign languages, first of all, in the English language, universally recognised as a global language. Teaching staff at higher education institutions are in a constant search for motivational factors to provide more productive acquisition of the English language. International pedagogical experience in developing motivation in non-language major students for foreign language learning is reviewed in the article. Students' self-assessment regarding their command of the English language, formedness of their interest for language learning, demand for such kind of education, prediction of their future professional status and career evolution with the development of this non-technical competency are analysed based on the example of an applied sociological survey among university students in Novosibirsk. Thanks to analysing the sociological survey results, the authors make a conclusion that the availability of foreign language learning resources, various interactive forms of teaching classes in a course of the English language, as well as teaching the way of working with literature in a foreign language in the professional sphere of activity are sufficient for motivating most of the students in foreign language acquisition across the curriculum. However, authors emphasise that competency development of prompt analysis of professional information in foreign languages should take place continuously during the whole period of study in a higher school, within other educational disciplines, primarily, those of the professional cycle, ensuring a sustainable formation of the competency under consideration.

This study aimed to determine the employability of Mechanical, Industrial and Electronics Engineering graduates of one private higher education institution in the Philippines which also explores the relevance of curriculum and work-related values to the job placement of the graduate-respondents. Descriptive type of research was utilized in the study. Findings showed that engineering graduates of the academic institution under study are highly employable and gainfully employed locally while enjoying the benefits of regular status and handling professional, technical or supervisory positions where they find their present jobs within 1 to 6 months. Relevance of the engineering program to graduates' present work assignment is one of the common reasons in accepting and staying on the job while communication skill is the most common useful ability of the engineering graduates in their job placement and leadership, hard work and professional integrity are the work – related values identified with very much contribution in meeting the demands of their present employment.

The concept of competence gives rise to a large number of contributions, focusing inter alia on the need to clearly define the concept, which is so commonly used that it would run the risk of be emptied of its substance. The term competence seems, indeed, employed in very diverse contexts and with different meanings. Since the beginning of the 1990s, several authors in the field of human resource management offer an effort of synthesis from several different definitions in order to propose a unified conceptual framework, rigorously defined. The approach taken here is to render the definitions and issues of competence after focusing instead on irreducible differences rather than on commonalities. The underlying assumption is that the "disorder" observed in the language and in companies does not necessarily means a conceptual vacuum, but also that, born and used in different contexts, the word 'competence' does refer to issues specific to these contexts. These scientific issues are often not apparent in contributions that attempt to put the different definitions in perspective. Without claiming to be exhaustive, we present a number of definitions and issues of the term of competence in several scientific disciplines-ergonomics, psychology, linguistics, management – in France and the USA, why these contexts appeared (to fill what scientific gap ?)-as well as their implications for companies.

Dans les perspectives du constructivisme et de l’action située, une compétence se définit comme un pouvoir adaptatif à une famille de situations. Ce pouvoir adaptatif correspond à la réflexion en cours d’action et à la réflexion sur l’action. La réflexion en cours d’action renvoie à une conscience agissante qui opère en situation. La réflexion sur l’action renvoie à une conscience réflexive qui met à distance la situation d’action : elle opère hors situation. Le pouvoir adaptatif de la compétence est différencié en quatre pouvoirs : construire la situation, se positionner en situation, transformer la situation et prendre un recul réflexif. Les trois premiers pouvoirs relèvent de la réflexion en cours d’action et le quatrième de la réflexion sur l’action.

The BIMe Competency Table is part of the not-for-profit BIMe Initiative. The document introduces the Initiative and then clarifies the Competency Hierarchy and the Competency Item. The Competency Table provides a structure for (a) developing assessment modules, (b) developing competency-based certification regimes; (c) developing competency-based educational programmes; and (d) identifying competency profiles of varied roles.

Editorial
In current technology-intensive and fast changing socioeconomic scenarios, organisations cannot foresee anything more. People who want to lead organisations in these dynamic realities can leverage only on knowledge to make more effective their decision making processes.

Professional and practice-based learning is a process which manifests itself in many different forms. It differs by personal characteristics of the learners, levels of their professions, fields of practice, intentionality of their learning, and formalisation of the learning activities. Notions of competence have entered this diverse practice in many ways. The question is whether conceptions of professional competence have helped the practice of professional and practice-based learning. In this chapter it is argued that this is indeed the case. Although various attempts to implement competence-based professional learning programmes were heavily criticized, later developments in competence theory and research gave new insights which emphasized the integrative meaning of competence within professional practice. It helped in mapping professional fields from a domain-specific as well as a generic behavioural perspective. This chapter goes into the roots of the competence movement, and evaluates the contributions of these to the field of professional and practice-based learning. This is further illustrated with examples of different professions in which competence models have been and still are an effective means to map requirements for professional practice and to guide the evaluation and development of professional and practice-based learning programmes. What worked and did not work is then explained by distinguishing three approaches of conceptualizing competence which have been used in different contexts, and which have wide implications for professional and practice-based learning. The chapter concludes with the claim that current competence conceptions help mapping, focusing and assessing professional and practice-based learning.

The dominant view in managerial practice assumes that competencies are “universal” constructs whose meaning is independent from any specific context. The “universalist” approach ensures a high degree of efficiency through standardization of competency codebooks. However, the effectiveness of this approach has often been questioned. Overgeneralization makes the description of competencies ambiguous and does not provide HR managers with adequate practical information. An alternative, “situationalist” approach defines competencies as situated, idiosyncratic constructs whose meaning is deeply influenced by organizational culture and by the unique way people make sense of their jobs. We propose a methodological approach to competency management based on a situationalist perspective. Through a field study carried out in a large Italian organization, we discuss the issues relevant to consider when developing competency-management systems though a situationalist approach. In particular, we show that the situationalist approach, by ensuring higher attention to the meaning and to the situated nature of competencies, is more capable of dealing with some of the critical management challenges outlined in the recent literature, such as the demand for more participative approaches and the increasing emphasis on emerging competencies. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Competencies have been used as valid predictors of superior on-the-job performance in business organizations over the last 40 years. An abundant of empirical evidence has suggested that competencies play important roles in human resource management (HRM) practices for different types of organizations. However, the important roles of competency have not been fully integrated into the business world, creating a gap between theory and practice. There seems to also appear a number of misperceptions with regards to the use of the term ‘competency’ in the literature. This paper intends to trace the origins of competency and document various definitions and concepts of competency proposed by different scholars. In addition, the paper also aims to shed light on the processes, guidelines, and techniques for developing competencies pragmatically for a particular job or profession as well as the importance of competency-based assessment in organizations for today’s HRM practices.

La compétence est définie comme un pouvoir adaptatif développé par la personne en situation durant toute son existence. Les liens entre compétence et situation ne sont pas suffisamment explicités dans la littérature. La notion de compétence est donc revisitée dans le cadre de diverses perspectives situées : action située, cognition située, cognition distribuée, intelligence distribuée, intelligence collective et énaction. Chacune de ces perspectives permet de reconnaître des caractéristiques de la compétence : elle peut être individuelle ou collective; elle est aussi distribuée, en ce sens qu’elle n’est pas exclusivement cognitive mais relève aussi des éléments de la situation; elle est enfin énactée.

Competence is a complex, multidimensional construct which must be decomposed to fully understand. We review the prevalent problems with the term competency, a term that is essential to clarify if we hope to accurately assess the efficacy of competency-based education. We develop a glossary of terms that eliminate recursive definitions to bring clarity to competency-based instructional design. The proposed taxonomies suggest a framework for evaluating and organizing submissions for the new Cybersecurity Skills Journal.

Dans cette contribution, nous commencerons par opposer deux grandes approches gestionnaires irrigant l’ensemble des champs du management stratégique et de la gestion des ressources humaines : l’approche volontariste, puis l’approche émergente. Nous présenterons, à la suite de ces deux idéaux-types, une approche intermédiaire, que nous nommerons « délibérément émergente ». Puis, nous appliquerons cette grille de lecture à la gestion des compétences. Nous montrerons que, trop souvent dans les pratiques d’entreprises, il y a une contradiction entre l’objectif recherché au travers de la gestion des compétences (plus d’innovation, laquelle repose sur des processus émergents) et, sur le terrain, les instrumentations visant cet objectif (qui pré-définissent des contenus de compétences à faire acquérir aux salariés dans une perspective volontariste). Prenant appui sur une littérature largement reconnue dans les champs du management stratégique et de la science des organisations, notre contribution met en avant la pertinence d’instrumentations souples de gestion des compétences, centrées sur la recherche certes délibérée de processus d’apprentissage émergents, plutôt que sur le développement d’outils centrés sur des contenus de compétences définis à l’avance.

Community health workers (CHWs) are well-established as change agents for promoting health behaviour change among community members. However, their knowledge and counselling skills play an important role in effective promotion of optimal infant and young child feeding practices (IYCF). The present review reports IYCF knowledge and counselling skills of CHWs and existing gaps in promotion of optimal IYCF practices by them. Knowledge of majority (≥80%) of CHWs was reported to be correct about timing for early initiation of breastfeeding, avoidance of pre-lacteal feeding, exclusive breastfeeding, continued breastfeeding during diarrhoea, fever and breast cancer, optimal duration of continued breastfeeding and age of initiation of complementary feeding. Fewer CHWs (≤50%) correctly knew about timing for early initiation of breastfeeding in case of caesarean section, interval/ frequency of breastfeeding, breastfeeding complications and consistency of complementary feeds. Gaps reported in CHWs" counselling skills were inability to translate knowledge into messages or observe and interpret existing IYCF practices, failure to provide need-based advice and giving inappropriate advice. Therefore, besides provision of routine refresher trainings and on-job capacity building to improve the knowledge of CHWs" about IYCF practices it is equally important to make communication and counselling skills central to training and strengthening knowledge-sharing effectiveness of CHWs with focus on bringing about behaviour change rather than simply conveying messages.

"In order to simplify the system for assessing competency or competency level, this paper is aimed to establish a mathematical relation of competency level with relevant knowledge, skill and attitude levels. The hypotheses stated for this purpose have been verified with Null Hypothesis Statistical Testing method for a model activity of solving the ordinary problems of the ‘Applications of Trigonometry in Real Problems’ exercise of trigonometry syllabus of class ten under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), West Bengal, India. Total 726 students of tenth standard from ten different secondary schools under the WBBSE had undergone the test. Competency level has been found as a product of relevant knowledge, skill and attitude levels. The relation would provide a uniform measure of competency level irrespective of scales where the components of competency are assessed. This paper is first in its category to develop a mathematical relation of competency level with relevant knowledge, skill and attitude levels which would help Human Resource professionals to design more effective training programmes and employers to make more effective recruitment processes, etc"