• Understand the concept of Competencies: reviewing variability through practice.
• Historical development of Competencies in the workplace: influences and approaches.
• What does it say in literature: exploring academic and research insights and evidence.
• Situating Competencies in organization design and its relationship with other features of job architecture.
• Evaluating Competency development for your organization: considerations and impacts.
• What are we looking for in Competencies? Key features of competency identification and value.
• Developing the business case for Competencies and organization capability development.
• Defining Competencies: developing a theoretical and practice-based definition.
• Creating a framework for Competency development and prioritization.
• Making Competencies: demonstrate, describe, document.
• Assessing Competencies: objectivity, individual and organization value, multi-methods.

Are you engaged with competencies as a feature within your organization’s human resources or organization development processes? Are you a student of organization psychology or human resources management? Are you an assessor for competencies? This course offers provides a rich source of theoretical and practical content to support your subject understanding and decision-making.

The course offers a strategic, conceptual, critical, and technical foundation to competency development. It explores the concept and history of competencies in organizations, the different approaches to how it is defined and practiced, and a supporting framework for decision-making. Competencies have been long practiced across most large organizations globally, but as yet, there is no universally accepted definition of what we mean by a ‘competency.’ Research data suggests it struggles with establishing demonstrable evidence of impacts in organization performance, and whether the resource and cost implications for practice through selection and assessment, performance management, succession, and talent management exhibit a clear benefit.

We know intuitively that competencies are welcomed and needed in all organizations. But what they are and how we can illustrate a formal value is challenging. Traditional methods of job analysis, work analysis, role design, and KSAOs (Knowledge, Skills, Attributes, Other) demonstrate an effective support for on-the-job-performance (OJP) because over time we develop confidence in the connections between employee characteristics and OJP. But it is competencies which really determine OJP and organization capability development (behavior, values, culture). In many cases, competencies are defined as KSAOs or results – in which case, a competency is unclear. The course provides a challenging insight into the concept of competencies and the variety of thinking and practical use.

For decision-makers, pursuing competency development is a strategic choice. It offers powerful opportunities for organization capability, but at the same time it may be worth focusing on other aspects of human resource strategies and organization development first. Competencies need a clear positioning within the design of capability processes, and a clear value from their practice.

Our approach consolidates theory and practice and offers a strategic and technically-robust direction for developing and using competencies formally. Over 32 lectures, we chart the theoretical and conceptual factors, practice-based issues and impacts, and development considerations. We present a unique and theoretically-founded methodology for developing competencies and frameworks, and leave you with a solid foundation for decision-making and your approach to development and implementation.

A comprehensive Resources & Information pack provides detailed study and supporting information for lectures. It includes research references, conceptual and practical illustrations, and a sequential development approach, from theory to practice.

Who this course is for:

• Human Resources professionals seeking a deeper understanding of competencies, conceptually and for development and practice.
• Organization Development professionals, reviewing competency development and practice across academic, practitioner, and analytical foundations.
• Talent Management professionals wishing to gain a strategic and technical insight into supporting talent development and culture through competencies.
• Competency Assessors – internal and external specialists will benefit from a solid technical approach to the assessment process and considerations for practice and analytics.
• Students of Organization Psychology, Human Resources, Personnel Management – source of academic, research, and practice literature and insights for Competency theory and practice.
• Organization Design professionals wishing to expand on organization behavior theory and practice.
• Educators in Organization Psychology, Human Resources Management – a complementary resource for graduate and post-graduate curricula.
• Business Managers – developing an appreciation of competency development and frameworks as a feature of enhancing individual and organizational performance and capability.
• Business Managers – opportunity for knowledge development to support critical decision-making for human resources management and evaluating competency approaches