New Zealand HRD practitioner competencies: application of the ASTD competency model

Abstract

In 1987 the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) commissioned a competency development study for human resource development (HRD) practitioners (McLagan and Suhadolnik, 1989). The result was a prescriptive model of how to develop HRD practitioners grouped under the four headings of technical, business, interpersonal and intellectual (McLagan, 1989a(McLagan, , 1989b(McLagan, , 1989c. In New Zealand the focus has been primarily on training activity with little attention directed at developing the competency of our practitioners (Gilbertson et al.1987 competency model (McLagan andSuhadolnik, 1989). Five hundred and eighty-seven HRM job advertisements from The New Zealand Herald, The Dominion, and The Press throughout 1996 were coded into a database using content analysis. Results show that HRD represents approximately one third of all HRM activity with 200 (34 per cent) of the 587 advertisements speci cally requesting HRD competencies. A total of 1,113 competencies or approximately six competencies per job advertisement were identi ed. The competencies most in demand were for technical HRD skills (402, or 36 per cent) followed by interpersonal skills (291, or 26 per cent). The principal weakness of the ASTD model was that it did not re ect HRD practice by excluding personal competencies. Signi cantly, personal competencies (at 201, or 18 per cent) made up a sizeable proportion of the total competencies gathered.

In search of competence: aligning strategy and competences in the telecommunications industry

“…The work of those two authors created the basis for the subsequent evolution of North American literature on the theme of competence (Gray, 1999;McLagan, 1996;Mirabile, 1997;Spencer and Spencer, 1993).…”

Competency‐based IT personnel selection using a hybrid SWARA and ARAS‐G methodology

“…Thus, selecting individuals with abilities of this type can be effective, especially with regards to entrepreneurship advantages, such as providing new communicative networks and subsequently achievement of critical resources (Baron & Markman, ). Personal competency: defined as the ability to develop and change emotions, motives, attitudes, and values of the self under critical conditions (zu Knyphausen‐Aufseß & Vormann, ). This is also described as the ability of expanding personal skills to moral actions, which creates a positive image of the self (Le Deist & Winterton, ). Subject competency: also called professional, technical, and operational competency in the literature (Gray, ; Le Deist & Winterton, ) can be achieved by professional training and experience. This refers to a combination of possessing technical knowledge and appropriate, timely using of this knowledge. Method competency: defined as the ability of thinking and acting through a problem‐solving method (Le Deist & Winterton, ).…”

“…Subject competency: also called professional, technical, and operational competency in the literature (Gray, ; Le Deist & Winterton, ) can be achieved by professional training and experience. This refers to a combination of possessing technical knowledge and appropriate, timely using of this knowledge.…”

Personnel selection criteria in IT ventures: A policy-capturing analysis

“…Subject competency, sometimes called professional, functional, or technical competency (Delamare Le Deist & Winterton, 2005;Gray, 1999;McLagan & Suhadolnik, 1989), can be obtained by education and professional experience. It is the ability to have technical knowledge and to use it appropriately.…”