Synopsis
Managing Personal Competencies
1. Introduction to Personal Competencies
Learning Objectives
After completing this module you should be able to:







understand what is meant by management competencies;
describe how the concept of competency developed in management thought;
recognise the differences between work-based and person-based competency statements;
understand the concept of a hierarchy of managerial competencies;
appreciate the idea of meta-competency;
understand the EBS definition of personal managerial competency;
understand the learning process model for competencies development that is employed
in the course.
Sections
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
Introduction: Aim of the Course
The Need for Competencies: A Case Study. Acme Electronics
Definitions of Skills and Competencies
A Hierarchy of Management Competencies
Reflection and Competencies
Organising the Learning Process for Competency Development
The Relationship between the Meta-Competencies and the HR Competencies
Covered in this Course
The Acme Case Study Revisited: Developing Engineers into General Managers
Learning Summary
1. The main objective of the course Managing Personal Competencies is to ensure that the
student acquires both a range of underlying generic competencies relating to personal
effectiveness and managing people (‘meta-competencies’) and a set of specific competencies relating to the key HR functions of acquiring, maintaining and developing staff.
2. The generic (meta-) competencies comprise: self-awareness and reflection; selfmanagement; communication; leadership and influencing; and managing the performance of others.
The specific competencies regarding HR functions are:
(i) Competencies for people management: change management competencies; and
teamworking competencies
(ii) Competencies relating to acquiring staff: employee resourcing competencies (comprising human resource planning, recruitment and selection, and induction)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
(iii) Competencies relating to maintaining and developing staff: learning and development competencies; employee relations competencies (comprising competencies
for negotiation, bargaining, discipline, grievance and dispute resolution).
There are two separate models of managerial competence. The ‘input model’ follows
Boyatzis’ definition of competence, and defines and describes what a competent person
brings to the task or job, e.g. knowledge or skill, or some attribute such as a personality
or character trait. This model is also referred to as ‘person related’. The ‘output model’ or
‘work related’ model is concerned with specifying actual performance in the job. In practice the distinction is not always clear-cut.
For the purposes of the present course we define ‘personal competencies’ as: ‘The
competencies that must be mastered by the individual manager rather than being shared within a group or
team’.
A ‘competency framework’ is a structured collection of competencies used by an
organisation to frame and underpin managerial activities, or, in the case of a professional
body, to show the requirements for its qualified practitioners. A comprehensive framework of managerial competencies allows an organisation to identify gaps in managers’
portfolios of skills and experience, and provides a ‘road map’ for future management
development.
There is a logical hierarchy of competencies, in that complex management tasks require
the application of a combination of less complex competencies. However, metacompetencies are not necessarily simpler in terms of content or ease of application than
‘complex’ or ‘intermediate’ ones. For example, leadership is one of the most difficult and
important of all management activities.
Both ‘reflection in action’ and ‘reflection on action’ are vital to the effective development
of professional managers.
The learning process for the Managing Personal Competencies course is a five-stage model
comprising : (i) assessment of existing competency level; (ii) understanding the competency; (iii) applying the competency; (iv) feedback on performance; and (v) reflection and
further development.
2. Self-Awareness, Emotional Intelligence and Learning Styles
Learning Objectives
After completing this module you should be able to:
 understand the concept of self-awareness and its importance in personal change and selfdevelopment;
 understand the idea of emotional intelligence and its main dimensions and components;
 be familiar with the Kolb learning cycle;
 be able to keep a learning journal;
 be able to maintain a personal development record and a personal development plan.
Sections
2.1
2.2
2.3
Introduction
Assessment of Existing Competency Level (Emotional Intelligence)
Understanding the Competency
2.4
2.5
Applying the Competencies
Reflection and Further Development
Learning Summary
1. Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to manage your own emotions and manage your
relationships with others. It might more accurately be described as ‘non-cognitive aspects
of intelligence’. It is one of the most important factors in explaining success in leaders
and managers. In particular, self-awareness has been identified as a critical aspect of EI,
which has been found to be a better predictor of career success than IQ.
2. EI comprises two main dimensions, personal competence and social competence. Both
have further components and subcomponents. Personal competence includes selfawareness, self-regulation and self-motivation. Social competence consists of social
awareness and social skills such as leadership and influence, communication, change
management and teambuilding.
3. Self-awareness is necessary to achieve personal change.
4. Kolb and his colleagues identified a four-stage learning cycle comprising: (i) concrete
experience; (ii) observation and reflection; (iii) forming abstract concepts and generalisation; and (iv) testing (iii) in new situations. This has been hugely influential in
management education.
5. A learning journal, comprising notes, observations thoughts and reflections, helps one to
record and reflect upon one’s own learning, and to structure and plan further professional development.
3. Competencies for Self-Management
Learning Objectives
After completing this module you will be able to:
 understand the importance of setting your personal goals;
 understand the SMART model for goal-setting (Specific; Measurable; Assignable;
Realistic; Time-bound);
 understand the need to prioritise your own work;
 understand the importance of time management;
 understand the role of assertiveness in self-management.
Sections
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
Introduction
Assessment of Existing Competency Level
Understanding the Competencies
Applying the Competencies
Review of Performance
Reflection and Further Development
Learning Summary
1. Effective and efficient self-management relies on being competent in setting one’s own
goals; on prioritising these goals; on managing one’s time well; and on being assertive.
2. Personal goals should be SMART: Specific; Measurable; Assignable; Realistic; and Timebound.
3. Once set, goals need to be prioritised. One useful way to do this is to rank the goals
against two dimensions: importance and urgency.
4. Good time management needs preparation and organisation.
5. Assertion is not aggression, but is rather making your views, rights, needs and feelings
known.
4. Communication Competencies
Learning Objectives
On completing the module you will be able to understand:
 the main interpersonal competencies: communication, interviewing, discussion-leading,
and coaching and counselling;
 the capabilities required for these: building mutual understanding (rapport); active
listening; empathising with others; encouraging communication from others; and giving
feedback to others;
 the importance of face-to-face communication for managers;
 the nature and importance of non-verbal communication.
Sections
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
Introduction
Assessment of Existing Competency Level
Understanding the Competencies
Formal Communication Competencies: Speaking and Writing
Applying the Competencies (Formal Communication)
Review of Performance (Formal Communication)
Reflection and Further Development
Learning Summary
1. Interpersonal competencies are essential for managerial activities that require personal,
face-to-face contact with other people. Examples are competencies for communication,
interviewing, discussion-leading, and coaching and counselling, although this is not an
exhaustive list of interpersonal competencies They all require capability in: building
mutual understanding (rapport); active listening; empathising with others; encouraging
communication from others; and giving feedback to others.
2. The ability to communicate interpersonally involves a range of activities, from writing to
speech-making to body language. It is important for managers to be competent in all of
these activities, but for most managers it is face-to-face communication that dominates
all other types in predicting managers’ organisational success, or ‘promotability’.
3. It has been estimated that at least 80% of a manager’s waking hours are spent in some
form of verbal communication.
4. Most managers don’t feel a need to improve their own skill level, but actually the quality
of communication between managers and their employees is typically low. The process of
communication involves the exchange of information and the transmission of meaning. It
is a process in which there has to be some predictable relation between the message that
is transmitted and the one that is received.
5. There is a standard model of the communication process. A message must be ‘coded’
and then transmitted to the recipient, who ‘decodes’ it, that is, derives or interprets the
meaning from the words or symbols used. Communication also requires feedback from
the receiver to the sender. At a minimum this will be an acknowledgment of successful
receipt and decoding of the message.
6. Non-verbal communication is the process of coding, transmitting and decoding meaning
through behaviours that do not involve the use of words. As a general rule we code and
transmit factual information primarily through verbal communication, and our feelings
and emotions through non-verbal communication.
5. Leadership and Influencing Competency
Learning Objectives
On completing the module you will be able to understand:
 the leadership and influencing competency and its five sub-competencies or skills: (1)
actioning; (2) managing work; (3) motivating: (4) managing: and (5) supporting; ensuring
people have the resources needed to carry out their assignments; and in the longer term
helping to develop people and teams;
 outline theories of leadership and influencing;
 Goleman’s (2000) six leadership styles: coercive; authoritative; affiliative; democratic;
pacesetting; and coaching;
 The five ‘bases of power’ a manager has in exerting influence on others: (a) reward
power; (b) coercive power; (c) legitimate power; (d) referent power; and (e) expert power.
Sections
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
Introduction
Assessing Existing Competency Level in Leadership and Influencing Skills
Understanding the Competency
Applying the Leadership and Influencing Competency
Review of Performance
Reflection and Further Development
Learning Summary
1. The concept of leadership includes both (i) the idea of taking direct action, implying
face-to-face instructions, and personal example, and (ii) the more intangible ideas of
indirect power, persuasion and moral authority.
2. Effective managers have to possess a range of management styles from highly directive
to a supportive, coaching approach. Generally, the more skilled and knowledgeable
workers are, the less directive will be the more effective style.
3. In this module we break down the leadership and influencing competency into five subcompetencies or skills: (1) actioning, i.e. initiating actions that will be taken by others; (2)
managing work: planning, assigning and delegating specific activities and responsibilities to
people to enable the agreed actions to be followed, and directing and coordinating these
activities where required; (3) motivating the people who are to carry out these actions; (4)
managing performance: monitoring performance against targets and objectives and ensuring
accountability; (5) supporting: ensuring people have the resources needed to carry out their
assignments, and in the longer term helping to develop people and teams.
4. Goleman (2000) has argued for six leadership styles – coercive, authoritative, affiliative,
democratic, pacesetting, and coaching – which can be thought of as occupying positions
on a continuum of leadership and influencing styles from drective through to coaching.
5. A manager has five principal ‘bases of power’ in exerting influence on others: (a) reward
power, which rests on the others’ perception that the manager has the ability to apply or
intercede in rewards for them; (b) coercive power, from the perception that the manager has
the ability to apply or intercede in punishments for them; (c) legitimate power, based on the
perception by the others that the manager has a legitimate right to authority over them;
(d) referent power, founded on the others’ admiration for, and wish to identify with, the
manager as a person; and (e) expert power, based on the perception that the manager has
some special knowledge that the others need or can benefit from.
6. Managing the Performance of Others
Learning Objectives
On completing the module you will be able to understand:
 planning for performance;
 supporting performance;
 assessing performance.
Sections
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
Introduction
Assessment of Existing Competency Level
Understanding the Competency
Applying the Competency
Review of Performance
Reflection and Further Development
Learning Summary
1. Managing the performance of others is a continuous process. At the level of the
individual manager (as opposed to the organisation), it comprises three closely related
components or subcompetencies: (a) planning for performance; (b) supporting performance; (c) assessing performance.
2. Job descriptions provide vital information needed to manage performance, particularly
the criteria for job success and failure, whether these are measured in terms of behaviour
or results.
3. Each of the three subcompetencies plays an important role. If any one of these is
implemented poorly, then the entire process of managing performance suffers.
7. Change Management Competencies
Learning Objectives
On completing the module you will be able to understand:
 the three types of organisation change: incremental change, transitional change, and
transformational change;
 the two main approaches taken to change management, i.e. planned and emergent;
 models of change strategies.
Sections
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5
7.6
Introduction
Assessment of Existing Competency Level
Understanding the Competency
Applying the Competencies
Review of Performance
Reflection and Further Development
Learning Summary
1. Understanding the ability to understand and manage change is a key requirement for
managers today.
2. We can categorise types of change in the following way:
 Incremental change: an improvement on the old way of doing things (e.g. a new appraisal system)
 Transitional change: the implementation of new strategies for existing operations (e.g.
technological change; the introduction of lean production)
 Transformational change: the most profound and traumatic change, which implies comprehensive change at several levels (e.g. new values/mission/ leadership, etc.)
3. Two models of change have been proposed: planned and emergent approaches. One of
the best-known examples of the planned model of change is that of Lewin (1952), who
suggests that change is a systematic process of moving from one stage to another, comprising:
 Stage One: Unfreezing (creating awareness of the need for change)
 Stage Two: Changing (movement from an old state to a new one)
 Stage Three: Refreezing (assurance of permanent change)
The emergent approach starts from the assumption that change is a continuous, openended and unpredictable process of aligning and realigning an organisation to its changing environment. The emergent approach tends to see change as driven from the bottom
up rather than the top down.
4. The text covers a number of models of change strategies.
8. Teamworking Competencies
Learning Objectives
On completing the module you will be able to understand:




the nature of teams at work;
the formation of teams;
Belbin’s roles for effective teamworking;
HRM implications arising from teamworking.
Sections
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
8.5
8.6
Introduction
Assessment
Understanding the Competency
Applying the Competencies
Review of Performance
Reflection and Further Development
Learning Summary
1. Formal and informal teams and groups are an inevitable feature of many aspects of our
working and social lives, and exist to achieve all kinds of formal and informal objectives.
2. Considering those teams that are, or could be, effective requires us to analyse the factors
that impact upon teamworking: ‘givens’, ‘intervening factors’ and ‘outcomes’.
3. When forming a team it is useful to consider the requirements of teams in terms of their
‘maintenance’ and ‘task’ functions, and noting the types of ‘role’ required of team members. Team profiling systems such as Belbin’s help us to construct effective teams that
comprise the ‘right’ balance of team types.
4. Remember that teams take time to ‘come together’ and to be effective. Here it is useful
to consider the various stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjournment.
5. Team effectiveness and outcomes can be interpreted in terms both of member satisfaction and accomplishment of tasks.
9. People-Resourcing Competencies
Learning Objectives
On completing the module you will be able to understand the People–Resourcing competencies of:
 Human resource planning;
 recruitment and selection;
 induction.
Sections
9.1
Introduction
9.2
9.3
9.4
9.5
9.6
Assessment
Understanding the Competencies
Applying the Competencies
Review of Performance
Reflection and Further Development
Learning Summary
1. Employee resourcing is concerned with the ways in which the organisation secures the
staff it needs to carry out its activities and principally requires actions in the areas of
human resource planning, recruitment, selection and induction of staff.
2. Human resource planning is a key activity that in many ways ‘sets the agenda’ for a range
of human resource functions in the organisation (principally recruitment, selection and
induction, but also extending to functions such as training and development, reward
strategies, communication approaches, organisational change and employee relations
activities).
3. The type of external and internal labour market faced by the organisation will vitally
affect its approach to recruitment and selection decisions. Here, labour supply requirements may not always equate with people requirements.
4. Job analysis, job descriptions and person specifications are the essential building blocks
of the recruitment and selection process.
5. Recruitment methods need to be evaluated in terms of their ability to attract a pool of
potential qualified candidates for posts.
6. The ‘classic trio’ of application form, interview and references still form the basis of the
approach of many organisations to selection decisions. Attention needs to be paid to the
conditions and requirements under which they can be made to be more effective as
selection devices. At the same time many organisations are adopting other more rigorous
and valid selection methods to support or substitute the use of the classic trio, such as
work sampling, assessment centres and psychometric testing.
7. Selection panels need to be clear on their approach to, and understanding of, their
selection duties, the appropriate evaluation criteria to be used, and the valid/objective
assessment of candidates.
8. Effective induction programmes are an essential complement to the selection process,
and must be planned and implemented with due care and concern for new starters.
10. Learning and Development Competencies
Learning Objectives
On completing the module you will be able to understand:
 the importance of identifying the knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) required of
employees in order that they can do their jobs properly;
 the definitions of learning, training and development;
 the undertaking of a learning needs analysis (LNA);
 the basic principles of learning;
 the common methods used in learning interventions;
 Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluation of learning interventions;
 the learning intervention process (LIP).
Sections
10.1
10.2
10.3
10.4
10.5
10.6
Introduction
Assessment of Existing Level of Competency
Understanding the Competencies
Applying the Competency
Review of Performance
Reflection and Further Development
Learning Summary
1. In any organisation the people working in it must be properly equipped in terms of the
knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) that they require in order to undertake their particular roles.
2. An important part of the HRM agenda is that to employ someone to work is, in effect,
to employ them to learn. Facilitating learning, whether this is to take place by way of
formal training interventions or by informal means, is now a key competency that is
required for all managers, not just HR specialists.
3. Definitions
(i) Learning is defined as: a relatively permanent change in knowledge, skills, or attitudes that comes through experience.
(ii) Training is defined as: a set of planned activities on the part of an organisation to
increase the job knowledge and skills or to modify the attitudes and social behaviour of its members in ways consistent with the goals of the organisation and the
requirements of the job.
(iii) Development can be defined as: the growth and realisation of a person’s potential
through learning and experience
(iv) A learning intervention is defined as: any conscious or planned activity by an organisation to promote learning on the part of organisational members.
4. From the organisation’s point of view, the most important issue in any learning intervention is that of transfer of learning, that is, whether the knowledge, skills, or attitudes
learnt as a result of the intervention will be used ‘back on the job’.
5. The most widely used framework for evaluating training and learning is that first
proposed by Kirkpatrick’s model (1967) which stated four criteria for evaluation: trainee
reactions, learning, behaviour and results. We can think of these as forming four levels of
evaluation with each one being more useful, but more complex and difficult to achieve,
than the previous one.
11. Employee Relations Competencies
Learning Objectives
On completing the module you will be able to:
 understand Walton and McKersie’s model of bargaining, and know the difference
between integrative and distributive bargaining;
 know the conditions necessary for collective bargaining to operate;
 understand the skills needed for effective negotiation;
 understand how to resolve conflicts and disputes;
 know the set of five approaches that might be used in resolving conflict.
Sections
11.1
11.2
11.3
11.4
11.5
11.6
Introduction
Assessment
Understanding the Competency
Applying the Competencies
Review of Performance
Reflection and Further Development
Learning Summary
1. Successful negotiation often involves the application of a number of the elements of
Walton and McKersie’s model of bargaining, but also a knowledge of when to apply
them.
2. Integrative bargaining relates to situations where ‘win–win’ characterises the encounter,
distributive bargaining to where a ‘win–lose’ encounter is anticipated, attitudinal bargaining to where you are trying to get the other side to see things from your point of view,
and intra-organisational bargaining to where you are trying to convince members of your
own side in a bargaining encounter to follow what you believe to be the best approach.
3. Preparation for any bargaining encounter is crucial, and this requires consideration of the
bargaining context, your side’s bargaining power and bargaining strategy, the nature of
your bargaining case/content, and the particular bargaining skills that you believe will be
required.
4. Conflict resolution mechanisms are necessary in organisations, and may take the form of
formal grievance procedures. In addition, day-to-day conflict resolution outside formal
procedures may involve aspects of avoidance, accommodation, compromise, competition or collaboration, with each representing a particular combination of willingness to
be cooperative and to be assertive. In general, collaborative approaches represent mutual
gains for both parties to the conflict and would normally be the most positive to attempt
to secure. However, there will also be occasions when the other approaches will also be
appropriate, and managers will be more effective if they are able to use a variety of approaches as the situation demands.