1. Formalizing Employee Competencies through Document Analysis (part 2) Tobias Ley 02 December 2002 Planning of Study 1 and 2

2. 2 Overview Introduction: Competency Management in dynamic settings Theoretical Basis Method for Study 1 –Data Collection –Data Analysis Preview on Study 2 Intro Theory Method Preview

3. 3 Aim of the research Supporting Competency Mangagement within dynamic settings Intro

4. 4 What is "Competency Management"? Assessing, Visualizing, Using and Developing Human Competencies at work –Knowledge, Skills, Abilities For support in organisational processes –Human Resource (e.g. Selection, Development) –Knowledge Management (e.g. Expert Search) –Strategic Management (e.g. Core Competency Management) Intro

5. 5 What are "dynamic settings"? Stable Settings Tasks can be planned long time in advance Job roles stay fairly stable over time Competency requirements remain stable and can be planned for each job role Organisation is based on hierarchy of job roles Formal training can accommodate competency needs Intro Dynamic Settings Tasks change fast, employees define their own tasks Job roles are only defined in general terms Only very general competency requirements can be defined for a job role Organization is often project- based Training on the job and Coaching become more important

6. 6 Application in a stable setting Ley & Albert (to appear) Intro

7. 7 Application in a dynamic setting Challenges –Reflect dynamic task assignments –Provide means for continuous updating of the structures Answers –Involve employees in the assessment process –Use Documents and work results created by employees as “Performance” –Use “competencies needed for creating documents” as “Competence” –Provide algorithms for updating structures connected with document management Intro

8. 8 The Pros and Cons of using documents Pros –Documents are easily available – no extra effort to define performance –Documents reflect dynamic tasks better than formal job analysis –Documents are main work results in dynamic knowledge-based firm –Employees‘ competencies can be analysed „on the job“ Cons –Documents are focused on the past –There are potentially too many documents –Do documents really reflect most critical employee competencies? –Employees have a "personal" view on the competencies they used Intro

9. 9 Aims of Study 1 Assess competencies in a dynamic setting Visualize available competencies for management purposes Visualize available competencies and documents for employees Show learning paths Compare individual views of competency definitions and structures Intro

10. 10 Theoretical Basis Competency-based Human Resource Management Competence-Performance Theory Personal Construct Psychology Green (1999) Korossy (1997) Kelly (1955) Theory

11. 11 "The Psychology of Personal Constructs" (1) Fundamental Postulate –A person's processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates events Construction –A person anticipates events by construing their replications Individuality –Persons differ from each other in theior construction of events Organization –Each person characteristically evolves, for his convenience of anticipating events, a construction system embracing ordinal relationships between constructs Dichotomy –A person's construction system is composed of a finite number of dichotomous constructs Kelly (1955) Theory

12. 12 "The Psychology of Personal Constructs" (2) "Man as scientist" Idiographic approach „Alternative Constructivism“ Constructs: Bipolar dimensions that construct the world as similarities and differences Repertory Grid: A method to elicit a person's construct system Theory

13. 13 The Repertory Grid Technique Elements: Objects which are construed –Within „range of convenience“ –Representative of the domain –E.g. Persons, Situations, Products,... Constructs: Dimensions which are used for construction of the elements Elicitation Technique –Triadic construct elicitation The Grid –Rating of elements on constructs Bannister & Fransella (1977) Theory

14. 14 Business Applications of Repertory Grid Market Research Quality Control Job Analysis and Design Decision Making Knowledge Elicitation for Expert Systems Preiss (2000) Stewart & Stewart (1982) Jankowicz (2001) Theory

15. 15 Study 1: Creation of the structures Data Collection –Selection of employees –Selection of documents –Repertory Grid type interviews Data Analysis –Idiographic Analysis –Nomothetic Analysis Method

16. 16 Data Collection 10 employees with similar job profiles Selection of 7-9 characteristic documents created as work results Structured Interviews: Repertory Grid Technique –"In terms of the competencies you used in creating these three documents, what does differentiate two of them from the third one?" Consolidation of Competencies Rating of documents on the competency dimensions

17. 17 A Grid Documents Software Evaluation Study Case Study Documentation Scientific Publication Competencies Structuring Processes and describing them XXX Analysing the demands of a customer XX Knowledge about Human Resource Processes in Companies X Knowledge about Intellectual Capital Models X Method

18. 18 A Competence-Performance (C-P-)Structure A C D FA B C D E A B C D E F G A B E G A B EA C D ABC Method

19. 19 Data Analysis Idiographic Analysis –One Grid per person –One C-P-Structure per person –Comparing individual Grids Content Analysis Indices: Frame differentiation, frame complexity, construct centrality,... –Comparing individual C-P-Structures? Nomothetic Analysis –Combining grids and structures Methods for combining grids: Factor Analysis and orthogonal target rotation (Bell, 1985) Methods for combining C-P-Structures? Method

20. 20 Study 2: Updating the structures Follow-up interviews with same and new employees in 6 months Introduce new documents into the structure Introduce new competencies into the structure Aim: Find and test adaptive algorithms Preview