The Competence
Problem
These notes look at various ways in which occupational competence
is addressed and debated. They may help us to understand matters relating to
- occupational learning and development
- matters relating
to job design and specification
- management and team development
- performance
management, appraisal and improvement.
- developing a critical understanding
of "managerialisms" and notions relating to "competent, virtuous
professionals"
On Managerial Competences
- Principles
and Functions of Management - Henri Fayol
- an early classification of
functions for those in a managerial role to perform - still worthy of discussion.
Simply ask the question, "In what way are these functions evident in my job
role?" and evaluate the specific job role. Explore the Fayol functions as
a universally applicable description. - Scientific
Management - F. W. Taylor
Taylor is often referred to as the so-called
founder of a rational, "lets work with data to design and control work performances,
study methods and systems of best work practice, measure work performance against
defined standards and the select and train workers to perform the best method".
Such ideas represent a systematic, "engineered" and practical/prgmatic
approach to organising work methods and the people doingthe work. We need to evaluate
what it takes for granted when it comes to the sensibilities and interests of
the people who sign up for the work. Taylor published his " Principles of
Scientific Management" in 1911 and in doing so brought together a managerial
recipe - collection of ideas that emphasised a particular line in management practices.
The ideas were not new but the ideas were further disseminated and taken up with
enthusiam in 20th century manufacturing. The ideas, values and commitments are
often disparaged but they are still pervasive today with our modern computer-controlled
systems of production and service delivery. - Exploring
Role!
-
Competent in Managerial Roles?
- Henry
Mintzberg
Mintzberg offers a more contemporary view of senior managerial
work/roles and co-ordination mechanisms which (he suggests) hold organisations
together enabling them to be controlled through structures of adjustment, supervision,
centralisation and decentralisation. These are useful in relation to understanding
organisational policies and procedures and in comprehending how managerial staff
- at various levels - organise and control. Mintzberg offers useful perspectives
also on the processes of strategy formation and management across different types
of organisation. - Qualities of a Successful
Manager: Pedler et al
- an excellent review of elements (ingredients)
of managerial competence - useful for the development of people new to the managerial
role. The selected qualities should be compared with - the competencies of Boyatsis
- the MCI NVQ standards for managers
- Management
Standards Level 5 (Operational Manager)
- Standards
at Level 4 Foundation Manager
- the first competence statements for managers
came out of the Management Charter Initiative group in the UK in the 1980's -
they have been updated since. These illustrate the difficulties of trying to define
every twist and turn of "variable managerial roles". Was this definitional
effort really worth it. Can such prescription and guidance at a national level
- ever see worthwhile results? What benefit has resulted? - the competences
essential for work in a bureaucracy
- Competent
in Delegation - the best way to get things done is do it yourself!
- Competent
in a Project-based Organisation
- Power and Authority
The position and processes
of management cannot be understood properly without examining managerial power
- managers as agents of those who own the business and the scope for exercising
power and authority in many organisational roles. - Action-centred Leadership: John Adair
- a simple account
of leadership functions - useful for junior management training to enable people
to examine the task initiation and structuring aspects of their job role and their
relationships with the individuals they supervise and the work group (team) as
a whole. - Bass:
Transformational Leadership
- Competent
and motivated
Much is written about motivation to work and motivating
people at work. We are encouraged (it is sensible) to create and maintain - certainly
not undermine - conditions that best enable others to be motivated - in employer-centred
and/or self-centred ways. Our own motivation is significant in the occupational
choices we make both in performing our jobs, learning and progressing our life-work
opportunities. This is wide field of interest considering the variability of individual
personalities and situations we occupy. Does the "manager" bear a responsibility:
to be aware of their own motivationed behaviour and be skilled in supporting the
motivational state and potential of others? - Competent
in Staff Performance Appraisal
The structuring and feedback relationship
between manager/supervisor and team member is complex and interesting. It is filled
with the problems of
- objectivity and measurement of performance
- me being pressured in my job (boss and supbordinate)
- you liking
me and/or my resentments of you (and vice versa)
- our problems of trusting
and communicating over job related matters that nonetheless are personal and for
which "criticism" is easy to give and difficult to receive.
The
situation, expectations and competences associated with the staff appraisal process
are worthy of study