1、Research on Competency Model:A Literature Review and Empirical Studies Abstract Western countries have applied competency models to addressing problems existed in their administrative and managerial systems since 1970s，and the findings is positine and promising. However, competency model hasnt been
2、introduced to China until 1990s and it is still unknown and mysterious to many Chinese managers. This paper aims to uncover the mysterious veil of competency model in order to broaden the horizon of Chinese managers and boost Chinas human resource development as well as management. Keywords:Competen
3、cy，Competency Models，Empirical Studies of Competency Models It has been more than 30 years since competency model was utilized to human resource management.In western countries，competency model first displayed its effectiveness in government administration, meanwhile many multinationals and their br
4、anch companies applied the competency model to their daily business management and their business was a great success. As the notion of competency is gradually come to light and accepted by people all around the world，more and more enterprises have been trying to build their own competency model und
5、er the help of professional consultant firms. As a result，competency model has gradually been a very fashionable phrase in the field of management and quite a few enterprises are thus benefited from it. In recent years, competency model has become a hot spot in the Chinese academia as well as big-，m
6、iddle- and small-sized enterprises alike，many relevant writings and books have also been translated and published. However, competency and competency model are still mysterious to many Chinese scholars, business managers as well as government administrators. Purpose and Significance of the Study The
7、 purpose of the study aims to make a critical literature review of the competency model，clarify some confusion related to it and explore its application. The following questions are employed to guide this study:What is competency? What is competency model? What are the theoretical and empirical find
8、ings related to competency model? The study illustrates how we could take advantage of competency model in our harmonious society building. On one hand，the study will delineate competency and competency model in order to clarify confusions related to it since it is still strange and mysterious to ma
9、ny Chinese managers and administrators;on the other hand，the study would enrich Chinese HRD&HRM in the field of government administration and business management both theoretically and empirically. Research Method The present study has utilized qualitative analysis, induction and deduction. Since th
10、is research is a literature review in some sense, qualitative analysis will be an indispensable research method; Induction and deduction are applied to both theoretical and empirical studies. In order to enhance the credibility of present research，only the authoritative publications on competency mo
11、del are reviewed，including books and papers written by foreign and Chinese scholars and HRDHRM practitioners. By searching for the keywords competency competency model and competency model building as well as empirical studies on competency models，books and papers written by well-known foreign schol
12、ars such as McClelland D. C.，Lyle M. Spencer, Anntoinette D. Lucia, Richard Lepsinger etc.，are available; by the same token，books and papers written by Chinese scholars such as Zhi-gong He，Jianfeng Peng, Shaohua Fang, Nengquan Wu，etc.，could be consulted. All the books and papers are published betwee
13、n 1950s and 2007. In addition, many data cited in this paper comes from empirical studies at home and abroad. Findings In this part，a literature review of competency is firstly carried out;then competency model as well as its evolution，development and innovation is delineated;finally empirical studi
14、es are reviewed. Empirical studies mainly focus on competency model building and its application to human resource development and management. Understanding Competency In 1973，American scholar David C. McClelland published his paper Testing for Competency Rather Than Intelligence which cited a large
15、 amount of research findings to illustratethe inappropriateness of assessing personnel qualities by abusing intelligence tests. Dr. McClelland further explained that some factors (personality, intelligence, value，etc.)which people had always taken for granted in determining work performance hadnt di
16、splayed their desired result. As a result，he emphasized that people should ignore those theoretical by pothese and subjective judgements which had been proved groundless in reality. He declared that people should tap directly those factors and behaviors which could really impact their performance (M
17、cClelland, 1973). These factors and behaviors were named competency by McClelland. The publishing of this paper symbolized the debut of competency research. From then on，many scholars started getting involved into the research on competency and they conceptualized competency from different perspecti
18、ves as shown in the following table: The above ten concepts of competency have a lot in common:Competency is motive, trait，value，skill，self-image, social role，knowledge;Competency is a combination;Competency should be measurable, observable, instructional， phasic and hierarchical;Competency is a det
19、erminant to outstanding performance. Thus competency is an underlying combination of individual characteristics such as motive, inner drive force, quality, attitude，sole role，self-image, knowledge and skill，it is causally related to criterion-referenced effective and/or superior performance in a job
20、 or situation and it is measurable，observable and instructional. Besides，many scholars and consultancy firms believe that competency could be explained under the help of three different models: Iceberg Model. This model treats competency as an iceberg, the part above the water represents behavior, k
21、nowledge and skills which are easy to measure and observe，while the part under the water symbolizes underlying qualities such as value，attitude，social role, self-image，traits which are hard to assess，and the deepest part under the water represents the most latent qualities such as inner drive force，
22、social motive, etc. which are most difficult to observe and measure. Onion Model. This model treats competency as an onion, the outer layer represents skills and knowledge which are liable to acquire，the inner layer refers to qualities such as self-image，social role，attitude and value which are rela
23、tively difficult to appraise, while the core of the onion symbolizes traits and motives which are most difficult to cultivate and develop. Brain Model. This model stems from the brain mechanism. It presupposes that the brain could be divided into four parts. Each part functions differently. The uppe
24、r-left part is in charge of competency such as analysing capacity, calculation, strong logic ability; the upper-right part is in charge of competency such as innovation and intuition;the bottom left part is in charge of competency such as organizing ability, planning ability; and the bottom-right pa
25、rt is in charge of competency such as communication ability，perception, etc. Different parts will exert corresponding influence on competency development. Conceptualizations of Competency Model Few foreign scholars have directly put forward conceptualizations of competency model. By contrast，many Ch
26、inese scholars have expressed their opinions on it. The present paper only cites those concepts that have been published by authoritative publishing houses. Jianfeng Peng, a professor in Ch;na Renmin University，together with his students, has studied how to build competency models for effective HR m
27、anagement since 2003. He thought competency model was the combination of different qualities which were necessary for people to successfully finish a job or achieve superior performance，these qualities included different motives，traits, self-images and social roles as well as knowledge and skill (Ji
28、anfeng Peng, 2003). Prof. Peng believed that a competency model was composed of 4-6 competencies that were closely related to performance. Competency models could help managers judge and distinguish key factors that led to superior performance or underperformance. As a result，competency model could
29、be treated as a foundation to improve performance. Professor Nengquan Wu from Sun Yat-sen University published his book Competency Model:Design and Application in 2005，according to his understanding, competency model refers to proficiencies that people define core competencies of different levels, d
30、elineate corresponding behaviors，determine key competencies as well as finish certain work.”(Nengquan Wu，2005). Prof. Wu conceptualized competency model from the perspective of methodology. He believed that competency model was a unique HRM thinking mode, method and operation flow. On the basis of o
31、rganizational strategy, competency model could be utilized to enhance organizational competitiveness and improve performance. Shaohua Fang, a senior HRM consultant and expert，provided us with the following definition:Competency model is to conceptualize and describe the necessary knowledge,skills，qu
32、alities and abilities which an employee should have in order to finish work (Shaohua Fang, 2007)”.By taking advantage of definitions of different levels and related behavioral descriptions, people could determine the combination of core competencies and required proficiency to finish work. Hc pointe
33、d out these behaviors and skills must be able to measure，observe and instruct and they should exert a great influence upon personal performance and business success. International Human Resource Institute(IHRI) has also defined competency model:The so-called competency model is the standardized desc
34、ription and explanation of competencies that could actualize superior performance.”(IHRI, 2005)IHRI declared that a competency model should include 6-1 2 competencies. In summary, the first concept mentioned above attaches an importance to the composition of competency model and its function, while
35、all of the rest three concepts emphasize cognitive abilities as well as criterion-referred performance. Thus competency, model is a combination of different competencies which could be observed，delineated，explained and calculated on one hand，and could facilitate superior performance on the other han
36、d. Development and Evolution of Competency Model In early 1970, top officials in U. S. Department of State believed that their diplomats se- lection based on intelligence test was ineffective. It was an upset situation for them to find that many seemly excellent people fail to live up to their expec
37、tations regarding their work performance. Under such circumstances, Dr. McClelland was invited to help Department of State design an effective personnel selection system which could appraise the actual performance of employees. In that program，McClelland and his colleague Charles Dailey adopted the
38、method of Behavioral Event Interview (BEI) to collect information in older to study factors that influenced the diplomats performance. Through a series of summaries and analyses, McClelland and Dailey found out the differences between an excellent diplomat and a mediocre diplomat as far as their beh
39、aviors and modes of thinking were concerned. In this way, competencies that a diplomat should possess were found out. This program is the earliest empirical application of competency model. And the research findings were two papers: Improving Officer Selection for the Foreign Service (McClelland&Dai
40、ley，1972) as well as Evaluating New Methods of Measuring the Qualities Needed in Superior Foreign Service Information Officers(McClelland& Dailey，1973). Mcber and American Management Association (AMA) also started their research on competency model in the same year. They focused on providing the ans
41、wer to the question:what kind of competencies should be displayed by successful managers rather than unsuccessful ones? AMA spent 5 years observing 1 800 managers. By comparing the performance of excellent managers and mediocre ones, AMA defined their competencies based on their traits. The research
42、 results showed that all the successful managers shared the following 5 competencies:professional knowledge，maturity of mentality, maturity of .entrepreneurship，people relations and maturity of the profession. Of which，only professional knowledge were shared by excellent and mediocre managers (Mcber
43、&.AMA, 1970). Then Prof. Bray carried out 8 years research at AT&T based on technique of assessment center. From the aspectives of abilities, attitudes and traits, etc.，he built a competency model composed of 25 competencies such as interpersonal relations, expression ability, social sensitivity, cr
44、eativity，flexibility，organizational ability，planning ability, decision-making ability, etc(Bray and Grant，1978). In China，however, researches on competency model are relatively much late. Chinese scholars Chongming Wang and Minke Chen published their paper about competency model in Psychological Sci
45、ence in 1992. They studied 220 senior and middle-level managers of 51 enterprises in 5 cities. After examining and testing the competency model for senior managers on the basis of factor analysis and structural equation modelling, they compiled Key Managerial Behavior Assessment Scale (Chongming Wan
46、g&Minke Chen，2002). Scholars such as Kan Shi, Jicheng Wang and Chaoping Li took advantage of Behaviocal Event Interview to assess the competency model for senior managers in the industry of telecommunication (Kan Shi，Jicheng Wang&Chaoping Li，2002). Jicheng Wang designed 5 universal competency models
47、 for technical personnel，sales people, community service personnel，managers as well as entrepreneurs respectively. Jianfeng Peng and his postgraduate student Xiaojuan Xing built 4 universal competency models for business managers，business technical personnel，marketing personnel as well as HR manager
48、s (Jianfeng Peng，2003 ).The above domestic studies illustrate that competency models for middle-level and senior managers have been built based on in-depth interview and questionnairing. Most publications only focus on conceptualizing competency model，its development，behavioral event interview as well as competency model building，most of the findings are theoretical rather than empirical. By contrast，foreign studies are much maturer both theoretically and empirically. Empirical Studies Empirical studies highlight the application of competency model to enterprises
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