The Quest for Competence

The concept of “competence” and how it is used in management education and development is now at the forefront of debate in the UK. A review of the current literature in the field is given and the issue of whether you can usefully identify and use “generic competencies” is raised. The author argues for a more pragmatic and context‐specific approach to competence based on current good practice. In doing so he also raises questions about the assumptions underlying any management development strategy and makes linkages with other well established learning methods used within the UK.