A Hierarchy of Management Training Requirements: The Competency Domain Model

The triple threat to most organizations today, both public and private sector, are the simultaneous demands for improved quality, reduced costs, and constant innovation. For those in leadership roles - executives, managers, supervisors - this translates into a need to constantly upgrade knowledge and skills. And in turn, this means that training professionals must be able to respond to these skills and knowledge training needs accurately, quickly and cost effectively. Faced with this complex demand, the temptation for trainers is often to go with 'flavor of the month' training programs that are currently popular. Or they may rely on tried and true programs that seem to have worked for the last decade or two. While both approaches may provide some people with some needed training, neither is a sufficient approach to the challenges outlined above. Aside from a high quality crystal ball, what works? As one large organization discovered, the best solution seems to be a comprehensive framework that delineates a distinct hierarchy of skills and knowledge, or competencies, needed by managers in an organization. The Situation The organization found itself with a large number of middle managers and supervisors reaching retirement age, with no organized plan for replacing them. As there were a number of retirement options available to these individuals, it was difficult to predict when over an eight year period any or all of them might leave. Because of a policy of promotion from within and also because of the unique technical nature of the work, it was determined that internal development of existing staff was the best option. The mandate given to the training team charged with designing internal staff development programs included: 1. Development of multi-skilled supervisors and managers who could fit a variety of positions because the exact types of vacancies could not be identified ahead of time. 2. Identification of the knowledge and skills (competencies) required for each type of managerial job. Existing job descriptions addressed responsibilities and authorities, not competencies. 3. Delineation of the hierarchy of managerial competencies within each group of managerial jobs. 4. Identification of competencies common across job groups at different managerial levels. 5. Development of appropriate training responses for each job group, incorporating on-job competency development through coaching, job competency profiles, job learning assignments and workshop seminars. Cost effectiveness was also a critical requirement. Training and development provided to managers had to: * Provide relevant training to those who needed it, not to those who did not. Old 'broad brush' training efforts wasted a lot of time and money on irrelevant training. * Provide job useful learning, with an emphasis on practical strategies and skills, not on theory. * Be provided to managers prior to or early on in any career shifts, to avoid the cost of untrained managers making unfortunate mistakes. Fortunately, some research work had already been done in this organization on the development of job profiles for managerial positions. The job profile development process was initially guided by Robert Katz's concept of a hierarchy of managerial skills. From this initial field research on job profiles emerged an expanded version of Katz's original three level model, both of which are discussed below. The Competency Domain Model: Background The competency domain model described in this article follows a line of research and thought that goes back to Robert Katz's 1955 work Skills of an Effective Administrator.(1) Katz identified a hierarchy of skills needed by managers at different levels in organizations. Three fundamental skill areas - Technical, Human, Conceptual - were identified as having varying degrees of relevance for supervisors, managers and executives. …