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Opinion-Volume 1, No. 1, December 2011

Competency has a Strategy to Improve Communication but it Relates more to Experience or Expertise in LMW Ltd
R. Naveen Kumar* Dr. G. Ravindran**

Abstract

Competence is shown in action in a situation and context that might be different the next time a person has to act. In emergency contexts, competent people will react to the situation following behaviors they have previously found to succeed, hopefully to good effect. To be competent a person needs to be able to interpret the situation in the context and to have a repertoire of possible actions to take and have trained in the possible actions in the repertoire, if this is relevant. Regardless of training, competence grows through experience and the extent of an individual to learn and adapt. However, there has been much discussion among academics about the issue of definitions. The concept of competence has different meanings, and continues to remain one of the most diffuse terms in the management development sector, and the organizational and occupational literature. Keywords: Competence, Experience, Behavioural skills

Introduction
Competency is the vital behavioral skills, knowledge and personal attributes that are translation of organizational capabilities and are deemed essential for success. They distinguish exemplary performers from adequate performers. In that regard, competencies offer a highly descriptive means of discussing job performance. They go beyond traditional job descriptions because they focus on how employees perform their jobs, not simply on what they do. While job descriptions detail specific tasks, competencies encompass the tangible and intangible abilities employees possess. For instance, a necessary competency for a marketing 2 professional might be

the ability to perform detailed market analysis while another competency might be leadership qualities, as evidenced through the ability to build consensus.

Components of Competency
There are four major components of competency: Skill: capabilities acquired through practice. It can be a financial skill such as budgeting, or a verbal skill such as making a presentation. Knowledge: Understanding acquired through learning. This refers to a body of information relevant to job performance. It is what people have to know to be able to perform a job, such as knowledge of policies and procedures for a recruitment process.

*Ph. D (P.T) Research Scholar in Management, Karpagam University, Coimbatore 641 021. **Associate Professor, School of Management, Karunya University,Coimbatore-641 114.

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Personal attributes: inherent characteristics which are brought to the job, representing the essential foundation upon which knowledge and skill can be developed. Behavior: The observable demonstration of some competency, skill, knowledge and personal attributes. It is an essentially definitive expression of a competency in that it is a set of action that, presumably, can be observed, taught, learned, and measured. Based on the above definition, it can be said competency only include behaviors that demonstrate excellent performance. Therefore, they do not include knowledge, but do include applied knowledge or the behavioral application of knowledge that produces success. In addition, competencies do include skills, but only the manifestation of skills that produce success. Finally, competencies are not personal work motives, but do include observable behaviors related to motives.

Intellectual competencies
Communication & creativity It must be a two-way process and it is essential for the smooth running of the people management system. Effective communication empowers people and proper communication provides a safe environment for the employees where they feel they are taken care of and understood.

Social competencies
Team work & inter-personal skills In an organization the individuals work together for the achievement of the organizational goals. Where people are from variety of functional areas and departments may come together to produce a particular product or service. The essential interpersonal competencies are self awareness, control, motivation, acknowledging the interests of subordinates and communication skills.

Competencies: Position a new product Introduction so that it is Clearly differentiated in The market

Competency: Uses an understanding of market pricing dynamics to develop pricing models Knowledge: Understand market pricing Dynamics

Skill: Set up new Product introduction Project

Personal Motives: Achievements wants to do an excellent job.

Competency: Meets all commitments In a timely manner

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Opinion-Volume 1, No. 1, December 2011

Types of Competency
There are four types of competency: Employee Core Competency Competency that relate to organizations values, mission and strategy; these are competencies that reflect organizational core capabilities and should be possessed by all employees regardless of their function. Example: Customer satisfaction; quality orientation

Personal Attribute
Competencies relate to inherent personal characteristics (e.g. motives, self image, self concept, etc.) and potentially affect work attitude and performance. Example: tolerance for stress; achievement motivation.

Competency Development

Managerial Competency
Competencies that relate to skills needed to perform managerial work and process; it deals with the interaction process either with individual or group of people. Typically generic in nature, these competencies are common skills sets required by most companies; are not necessarily industry specific, and are not confined to managerial positions. In typical organizations, managerial competencies will play greater emphasis as the position progresses within the organization. In general, managerial competency could be divided into two categories:

Literature review
Competencies are probably most closely related to abilities. However, in our craft, the term ability normally means either able to do or a special talent; while competencies relate more to expertise and experience. Competencies can be thought of as the state or quality of being well qualified to perform a task. A person gains competency through education, training, experience, or natural abilities.

Human Competency
An ability to work, understands, and motivates other people as an individual or in the group. It relates to the individuals expertise in interacting with others in a way that will enhance the successful completion of the task at hand. Examples: interpersonal skills; developing people.

Klemp view of competency

Klemp (1980, p21) defined competence as an underlying characteristic of a person which results in effective and/or superior performance on the job. While a more detailed definition is a cluster or related knowledge, skills, and attitudes that reflects a major portion of ones job (a role or responsibility), that correlates with performance on the job, that can be measured with well-accepted standards, and that can be improved with training and development (Parry, 1996, p50). While there are many definitions of competency, most of them have two common elements: The competency is an observable and measurable knowledge and skills.

Conceptual Competency
An ability to understand the degree of complexity in a given situation and to reduce the complexity to a level at which specific courses of action can be derived. Example: problem solving and decision making

Technical/Functional Competency
Competencies pertain to specific bodies of knowledge and skills required to perform the defined activities in an industry, function or job. It includes the abilities to use the procedures, techniques and knowledge of a specialized field. Example: sales ability, behavior interview technique.

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The knowledge and skills must distinguish between superior performers (or exemplary performance) and other performers. Since its initial conception, attitudes, traits, or personalities have also played a major role in competencies, even though they are not normally thought of as being observable and measurable. Some people group attitudes with competencies, such as McClelland, while others, such as the U.S. Army; separate them by listing attitudes under attributes to create a Capability Model
Attributes Competencies Performance Outcome

Dreyfus and Dreyfus view in competence development

Dreyfus and Dreyfus introduced nomenclature for the levels of competence in competence development. The causative reasoning of such a language of levels of competence may be seen in their paper on Calculative Rationality titled, From Socrates to Expert Systems: The Limits and Dangers of Calculative Rationality. The five levels proposed by Dreyfus and Dreyfus were: 1. Novice: Rule-based behavior, strongly limited and inflexible 2. Experienced Beginner: Incorporates aspects of the situation 3. Practitioner: Acting consciously from long-term goals and plans 4. Knowledgeable practitioner: Sees the situation as a whole and acts from personal conviction 5. Expert: Has an intuitive understanding of the situation and zooms in on the central aspects The process of competence development is a lifelong series of doing and reflecting. As competencies apply to careers as well as jobs, lifelong competency development is linked with personal development as a management concept. And it requires a special environment, where the rules are necessary in order to introduce novices, but people at a more advanced level of competence will systematically break the rules if the situations require it. This environment is synonymously described using terms such as learning organization, knowledge creation, self-organizing and empowerment.

David McClelland views of competency

The original use of competencies was conceived by David McClelland. He first used it as an alternative for the replacement of intelligence tests with criterion reference testing (McClelland, 1973). He argued that intelligence tests were not valid predictors of intelligence and irrelevant to the workforce. There used to be a joke among Psychologists that intelligence was what the intelligence test measured, but McClelland thought the joke was uncomfortably near the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Following his groundbreaking 1973 article, a number of large organizations called him. McClelland selected to work with the U.S. State Department to improve their failing selection process, which was based on selecting the best and brightest from elite universities. McClelland developed competencies for each position based on behavioral interviews with superior performing Foreign Service Officers and underpinned each competency with behavior indicators. However the State Department never really implemented his findings because it challenged their fundamental view they came from the top schools themselves and were personally committed to upholding the status quo, rather than improving their selection process (Berger & Berger, 2003). However, he was more successful in implementing similar programs for the U.S. Navy and other large organizations.

Statement of the problem

Many traditional approaches to performance management and annual appraisals are outdated and irrelevant in a contemporary setting. These processes were designed for an industrial age when change was slow, competition was negligible and the economic and operational context was largely domestic. Now, human resource practitioners are challenged to develop strategies and tactics that attract, retain and motivate employees in a world where change is constant, competition is global and highly educated and mobile employees make minute-by-minute decisions about how much discretionary effort they are prepared to give.

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Opinion-Volume 1, No. 1, December 2011

Objectives of the study

Primary objectives To know whether the competencies followed in LMW.Ltd is helping an employee to effectively perform the duties and responsibility assigned in an organization. Secondary objectives To know whether the employees are aware of competencies that is followed in LMW.Ltd. To analyze and suggesting measures to improve performance of employees in LMW.Ltd through performance appraisal process by introducing / reviewing competencies. To identify the competencies adopted by the organization with regard to the performance appraisal of their employees. To understand the awareness among the employees regarding the established competencies. To analyze whether the set competencies are effective enough to evaluate the employees by performance appraisal process.

Chi-square analysis
Parameter Performance appraisal Awareness Communication Co-operation Improvement in skills Planning Interpersonal relations Cost consciousness Innovativeness Achievement orientation SA 40 24 16 32 32 56 40 52 48 44 A 76 72 80 72 72 56 48 56 68 68 NN 4 20 12 12 12 8 32 12 4 4 DA 0 4 12 4 4 0 0 0 0 4

Chi-square Table value

0.0271(C.V) 9.488

Weighted average method

Parameter Performance appraisal Awareness Communication Co-operation Improvement in skills Knowledge People management Planning and organizing Team work Interpersonal skills Quality consciousness Problem solving Innovativeness/creativity Achievement orientation Thoroughness Leadership Risk taking Weighted avg value 39.6 35.6 34 37.2 37.2 42.8 36.8 40.8 36.8 37.6 38 33.2 40.4 39.2 38.4 38 34

Methodology of the Study

The datum was collected from the primary and secondary sources i.e. from Books, Magazines, and Journals and from Internet. For the purpose of the study a sample of 120 respondents had been selected to collect the data in LMW.Ltd Coimbatore with the help of questionnaire. The statistical tool used for the data analysis in the study is Simple Percentage, Chi-square Analysis, Weighted average method. The period of the study is August to November 2010.

Limitation of the study

Information was collected mostly from the technical staff and access to non-technical staff was meager. The study was conducted during the working hours of the respondent which proved as a limitation.

Findings
The respondents are agreeing that company made them aware of all competencies. The Respondents were agreed that company made them aware of all competencies.

Analysis and Interpretation of Data

The results of the analysis of the collected data are presented below. The composition of the sample is given

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The respondents agreeing that they having Ability to work with creative ideas and the employees get support from the boss, subordinate and peers. The respondents are having awareness regarding the goals fixed in the organization and working to achieve it even in critical times/situation. The respondents are communicating the department goals clearly to subordinates and help them achieve the same through proper planning, organizing, leading and controlling. The respondents are shown endurance to stand set back and assess risk even under the absence of complete data or information.

Management must give every employee an opportunity to use their creativity and innovation competency which will enhance their decision making in apt way.

Conclusion
Implementation of competency in LMW.Ltd. has a strong influence on the overall performance of the company. The corrective measures incorporated in the system to reduce the wastage and to improve the efficiency of each functional area. The competency system consists of defining the core competencies of the organizational steps to achieve the core competencies through continuous improvement and assessment of effectiveness of the competencies through efficiency measurement techniques and corrective measures. Competency forms a significant-determinant of the individual and behavioral skills in the organization. It connects the objectives aspect of the organization such as technical, leadership, planning and organizing and even risk taking etc., with the motivation to improve the individual skills. The study conducted at Lakshmi Machine Works gives more knowledge about the skills of the individual employee. In general most of the respondents are satisfied with the competencies.

Suggestions
The organization should make the employee to acquire knowledge about the competencies established in the company. The employee should be trained to participate in establishing the competencies to ensure greater involvement. Organization can drive the employees interest through competencies training sessions. Employees can work more on their core competencies and utilize the internal career opportunities.

References 1. Human resource management & human relations Dr. V.P. Michael, second revised edition: 1996 2. V.S.P. Rao, Human resource management, excel printers new delhi, 2nd edition 3. Principles & techniques of personnel management/ human resource management, 2nd revised edition S.K. Bhatia, Nirmal singh 4. Journal, management education foundation of palghat management association (AIMA) Vol. XXVI. No.1 April June 2010 Role of competencies in competency mapping 5. www.lmw.com 6. www.wikipedia.org 7. www.hrmanager.com 8. www.citehr.com