Understanding Competency Models & Developing Resources For The Same

"Never ascribe to malice that which
can adequately be explained as incompetence."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte

Understanding Basic Competency Modeling

Competencies are comprised of skills, abilities and knowledge on several levels of understanding and practice.

Describing the competency modeling approach on a simple level helps one to gain a basic understanding of how to utilize competencies and their development to the benefit of human resources, organizational, occupational and individual development.

Consider the learning process involved in competency development is based on four primary levels of understanding.

These would be described as:

Acquisition

Application

Personalization

Actualization

Within each level could be many sub-levels of understanding and ability.  More on this later.

At the Acquisition level you might say the individual acquires knowledge and understands how to interpret that knowledge.  This is a stage where the individual learns to store his/her knowledge for eventual use.  The learning demonstration of this stage is in the expression of this knowledge through the individual’s behavior.

In the second level, Application, the individual demonstrates this level of awareness through the actions he/she takes in utilizing that learned knowledge.  This level is characterized as the moving from the knowing stage to the know-how stage.  So, the first level could be characterized as the exploration stage and the next step is putting that exploration knowledge to work in some way.

The third level, Personalization, is the level whereby the individual develops the ability to integrate that learned from exploration or the acquiring phase, and then applying that knowledge.  This level is further advanced by also having the ability to review and evaluate the whole process involved up to this point.   This is where one has either claimed a skill and is able to express this through behavior or not.

On the Actualization level, the individual is in the process of reaching or attaining mastery of the knowledge.   This level is characterized by the ability to transform, invent, conceptualize and create, and reproduce the total learned by helping others become proficient in that same knowledge.

Of course, this whole notion of competency modeling can be as sophisticated or as simple and combined as desired.  Take the following competency model by the US Office of Personnel Management in developing Human Resource Professional competencies.  For the element of Personal Competence – the sub-element of Self-Awareness, the following categories are expected to be developed:

•Emotional awareness

•Accurate self-assessment

•Self-confidence

These various types of levels, categories, elements and sub-elements are yet more ways of taking competency development and integrating into an organization.  Learn more about competency development by checking out the following resources:

National Institute of Health (NIH) - HR Office - NIH Competencies 

Competency Models - E-books

California, State – Leadership Competency Model

US Fish & Wildlife Service Leadership Competency Model

Saskatchewan   Leadership and Management Competency Model

UN Core Competencies 

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, 

then you tend to view every problem as a nail." 

-- Abraham Maslow