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Horton Sylvia, Hondeghem Annie & Farnham D. (2002). Content This book explores the origins and practices of competency management,
which has arisen in the reactions of governments and managers to globalisation
and increased international competition in advanced industrial countries.
The United States of America (USA) and Britain have tended to lead the
way in responding to these environmental pressures by seeking to retain
or regain their competitive advantage. Each country has adopted different
approaches to these pressures, although each has influenced the other
and some convergence of strategies and responses has evolved. The common
theme has been the central importance of human resources in the success
of organisations and the need to identify and develop the skills and
competencies people require in order to achieve organisational success. This book is the outcome of research conducted by the Personnel Policy Study Group of the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA). It is the third in a series of publications by the study group. The first, New Public Managers in Europe (Farnham et al 1996), examined the emergence of a new type of public servant in countries introducing New Public Management. The second publication, Human Resources Flexibilities in the Public Services (Farnham and Horton 2000), explored the ways in which public organisations were adopting new personnel policies and practices to enable more flexibility in human resourcing. Ten country studies illustrated and discussed the wide diversity of responses and factors influencing flexible working patterns. In 1999 the Study Group embarked upon a new research project on competency management. Although a well established practice in many large private organisations, it was relatively new to the public sector. In fact the concept itself was not easily translatable into some European languages. The Group first focused on exploring the emergence of the competency movement and examining the concept and its application to public administration and public management. Some early papers were published in a special edition of The International Journal of Public Sector Management in 2000 (vol. 13, no.4) and the Vlaams Tijdschrift voor Overheidsmanagement (Flemish Journal of Public Management) in 2001 (vol. 6, no.3). This was followed by an invitation, from the Study Group convenors, to academics and practitioners to submit case studies illustrating the use and application of competency management in their own countries. Contributors were given a broad brief, as it was evident that the practice of competency management varied greatly across the nine countries represented in the study. Most of the cases in the book are based on empirical research but some are scholarly reviews of secondary sources and reflective analysis. They illustrate the absence of a universal model of competency management, the pragmatic and ad hoc application of competency approaches, the variety of ways in which competency frameworks are being developed and the problems experienced in implementing and applying them. The studies are located in the broader context of the general competency movement and developments in human resources management (HRM) and the impact that these are having on the management of people in the public services throughout Europe. There is some evidence to support the widely claimed benefits of HRM competency approaches over more traditional personnel management approaches, although there are still some vociferous critics who question whether there are substantive differences between them. There are significant differences, however, in the extent to which the ideas and practices of Competency Management have become accepted but in every country there is evidence that it is an idea in good currency in both the private and public sectors. Part I of the book is context setting. Horton's introductory chapter seeks to provide a contextual framework within which to trace the development of the competency movement and to tackle some of the problems of definitions and concepts. She describes the similarities and differences between the American and British contributions to the movement and how the Anglo-American influence has spread internationally through the activities of OECD, educational and training institutions and consultancy firms. The chapter by Emery locates the ideas more firmly within the framework of HRM and seeks to demonstrate the positive benefits and value added of a competency approach in any organisation. These two conceptual and contextual chapters are followed in Part 2 by the country studies. The first three chapters demonstrate widespread use of competency management and examples of good practice. The chapter by Farnham and Horton provides both an overview of the development of competency management in the British civil service and evidence of its use. It traces the incremental introduction of competency-based management practices since the 1980s and describes and analyses the extent and diversity of its current use, based upon an empirical survey of central government departments and agencies. There is also a case study of the development of a new competency framework for the Senior Civil Service in 2000. The research found that the introduction of competency management has been fragmented, ad hoc and pragmatic but there is some evidence that the Modernisation Programme of the Labour government is resulting in a more holistic approach. The claims made for competency-based management over traditional systems of personnel management were generally endorsed throughout the service. Although departments and agencies initially drew heavily upon private sector consultants and private sector practice, they are now drawing increasingly upon good practice within the civil service itself. Hondeghem and Parys trace the introduction of competency management
in Belgium to the 1990s in Flanders. Since 1999, it has been adopted
at
both the regional Flemish and federal levels and now most public organisations
in both units of government are at the first stage of introducing competency-based
approaches to managing people, although they cannot claim at this time
that it is a holistic approach. The authors draw attention to some of
the contingent variables that are influencing the application of the
competency approach and the cultural context which limits the transfer
of people management systems from one country to another. Competency management has been adopted, along with other public management practices, in all the Scandinavian countries but the contributions by Virtanen and Moquist are micro studies that contribute a rich analysis, complementing the earlier macro studies. Virtanen provides an interesting case study of a competency approach in a Finnish university. He links the development of competency-based management to new public management and, in particular, to the growing importance of performance management throughout the public sector. A very detailed analysis of the skills and competencies, including ethical and professional behaviours required of university teachers, is followed by a description of the use of a competency framework in the University of Helsinki. He demonstrates that a competency-based approach has many advantages for both academics and managers and validates the claims made for competency management within the literature. Moquist provides an interesting study of the competencies required of top managers in Swedish public administration. In particular it focuses on leadership, which appears prominently in all competency frameworks designed for top executives in both the private and public sectors. This is because it is assumed that leadership is a key factor in the success of organisations. A study of 31 top managers, across eight Swedish public authorities, enabled her to investigate their perception of leadership and to identify whether they were practising it in their everyday work. Her conclusions throw some light on prescriptive versus realistic models of leadership and the problems of using critical incident analysis and skills questionnaires as the basis for constructing competency frameworks. Löffler and her colleagues indicate that in Germany, unlike in the
public sector in the rest of northern Europe, there has been very little
take-up of the practice of competency management at federal, state or
local levels. They offer an analysis of why it has such a low status
and link their arguments to the German rejection of the Anglo-American
Public Management Movement in favour of the German New Steering Model.
More significant, perhaps, is the strong administrative law base of the
German public service and the entrenched position of the administrative
elites in the political system. Finally, there is the extremely diverse
and complex nature of the German administrative system. Although Germany
has been slow to adopt competency management, there are some examples
of where it has been applied. Their case study of Schleswig-Holstein
demonstrates a pioneering state that represents a model of good practice.
The chapter also provides an interesting argument why a competency approach
is required and identifies many of the new competencies needed in local
government, where more participative and community approaches to governance
are being developed. Cerase's chapter on Italy discusses the connections between New Public Management, HRM and competency management. He identifies three major trends which are impacting on public organisations in Italy namely Europeanisation, New Public Management and Governance. These require new competencies among public officials, including new attitudes and values. Focusing on the competencies associated with new public management, he proceeds to illustrate how difficult it is to bring about this change with evidence based upon empirical research in the Italian Ministry of Finance. His research highlights both the different perceptions of managers and operational staff of the knowledge and skills elements of their jobs and demonstrates that there is lack of congruence between the prescription and the reality. He concludes that perhaps there is a need to construct competency frameworks from the bottom up that will ensure they are accurate reflections of what jobs require and carry the support of officials for the change. Mikulowski's study of Poland is interesting because it links competencies to the whole system process of transition. It identifies what types of competencies are required in public officials responsible for bringing about the political, economic and social changes to which transformation governments are committed. He illustrates how the legacy of traditional educational and training institutions, with their emphasis on administrative law, is impeding cultural change. New institutions and the influence of western advisers, however, are slowly bringing about change and he predicts that competency management will become a priority as developments in HRM proceed. In Part 3 Hondeghem concludes the book with an appraisal of the contribution competency-based management makes to our knowledge and understanding of the practices in the public services of Europe. She admits that our initial hypothesis was that it would be found in all the countries in our study and be a major strategy in their people management systems. The evidence, however, is that although competency management is known, it is not universally practised and has made very little impact, to date, in countries based on administrative law systems and with powerful administrative elites. The claims made for competency management, by its advocates, do appear to be supported where it is practised but we need to be aware of its critics and learn from the lessons to be drawn from this study PART I THE CONTEXT OF COMPETENCY MANAGEMENT
PART II COUNTRY STUDIES
PART III CONCLUSIONS
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With support of the Flemish Government | Copyright © KU Leuven | Realisation: Anita Van Gils | Last change: December 19, 2006 | http://www.steunpuntbov.be |
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