Paper: KM Competence1
Introduction
1.1
Background
Knowledge economy, relevance of KM,
knowledge work
Dillema: KM is KM or knowledge work?
Emergence or the concept of competence
Applying the concept of competence to the
field of KM: KM competence.
1.2
Significance
Brouwers et al. (2002, p. 75-76): [
]
Competences are a key notion in the link between education and the labor
market. [
] provides a stimulus in two ways. Firstly, it gives direction to a
solution of the transfer problem which education has to contend with: applying
theoretical knowledge in practical situations. Secondly, talking in terms of
"competences" provides a sharper definition of the capabilities
needed by present-day employees to continue working effectively, efficiently
and collaboratively.
2
Existing approaches to
competence
2.1
Individual vs. collective
Brache (2002, p. 63): [
] in an
increasing number of processes [
] work is carried out by teams. In those
settings, no individual is expected to have the complete repertoire of
capabilities. As long as the requisite skills and knowledge are resident in the
team and deployed when and where they are needed, the process can meet its
goals.
2.2
Perspectives on competence
2.2.1
Psychological approaches
2.2.2
Competency models (McClelland,
Spencer and Spencer, Boyatzis)
Eraut (1994, p. 173): [
] The main thrust
of research into generic competences has been to distinguish between average
and excellent workers, primarily for selection and appraisal purposes. [
] The
pioneering research [
] was undertaken by [
] David McClelland, and his
associated company, McBer. They developed lists of [
] competences, which were
claimed to differentiate average and superior managers [
].
Eraut (1994, p. 173): [
] it is important
to emphasize how the lists of management competences were constructed. [
] 1)
identifying two criterion samples whose performance is agreed to be (a)
superior or (b) average. 2) [
] brainstorm a list of characteristics which they
think might distinguish superior performers, then refine [
] by rating each
item for criticality and for discriminating power. 3) a behavioral approach to
characterizing good performers [
] 4) [
] 5) [
]. The methodology is designed
to produce a set of generic competences valid across different kinds of
management job, so competences specific to a particular product or service are
eliminated.
2.2.3
NVQ, VET
Leney (2004, p. 8): The Lisbon strategy
aims to create a drive towards a more dynamic and competitive knowledge-based
economy in Europe that will deliver sustainable growth, generate more and
better jobs and create greater social cohesion. [
] The development of
knowledge economies follows from the rapid advance of ICT and other new
technologies and from the intensification of global economic competition. The
term knowledge economy reflects the shift in the advanced economies from low
and medium skills areas of cost-competitive manufacturing towards high-value
added production and services sectors.
Leney (2004, p. 8): The agreement reached
at the Lisbon Conference gives lifelong learning an important role in achieving
the economic, employment and social goals for Europe. The subsequent
development of the Lisbon strategy both confirms the importance of
well-developed lifelong learning strategies [
] and places a clear emphasis on
the role of vocational education and training (VET), alongside general and
higher education in this strategy. [
] the connections between education and
training, between formal and informal learning and between higher education and
VET are emphasized [
].
Leney (2004, p. 8): [
] broad definition
of VET [
]: Education and training that aims to equip people with skills and
competences that can be used in the labour market.
Leney (2004, p. 20): The most important
concept in education and training policy in Europe
is lifelong (and life-wide) learning. The idea that learning should be
undertaken throughout life to improve knowledge, skills and competencies for
personal, civic, social and employment-related purposes is fundamental. Lifelong
learning includes formal, non-formal and informal learning as well as active
citizenship, personal fulfillment, social inclusion and professional,
vocational and employment related aspects. [
] The contribution of education
and training [
] is conceived as a unified endeavour. Education, training,
higher education, formal and informal learning are defined as a single,
lifelong and life-wide process.
Leney (2004, p. 21): The Copenhagen
Declaration defines the contribution of VET to achieving the Lisbon goal. The Declaration identifies
several concrete actions associated with four priorities for enhanced
cooperation in VET across Europe. [
]
Recognition of competences and qualifications: The associated action are to
develop common principles for validation of non-formal and informal learning, a
European system of credit transfer for VET and the development of
qualifications and competences at a sectoral level.
Leney (2004, p. 89): The concept of
learning workplace skills has developed from an almost exclusive emphasis on
the formal teaching/learning of technical skills, to include the acquisition of
competences and developing key or transferable skills that people need if they
are to meet the needs of a changing labor market.
Leney (2004, p. 89): [
] It is helpful to
draw a distinction between 'traditional' and 'new' models of VET learning and
assessment. [
] Two ways of looking at competences can be distinguished [
].
One focuses mainly on promoting the acquisition of generic skills [
]
irrespective of the learning context; the other emphasizes the importance of
specific context or work processes in which the learning takes place. [
] one
favours a universal model in which the role of the schools is to equip learners
with a set of generic basic competences. The second model sees real-work
experience as a vital component of vocational education, leading to
occupational competences stemming from learners engagement with occupational
'core problems'.
Leney (2004, p. 90): [
] increasing
emphasis is now placed on learning a range of general skills that are
transferable from one working situation or wider life context to another. [
]
What exactly the key competences are, and how they are best learned and
assessed are more difficult questions.
Leney (2004, p. 91): Another way of
conceptualizing competences locates their acquisition and content firmly within
work processes, and understands competences as the outcome of contextualized
learning. Some competences, for example, cannot be learnt in school-based
settings, since they are bound to the specific environment and constraints of
work in a specific field (see for example Fischer and Rauner, 2002). [
]
Cognitive research suggests that the development of competences for a specific
profession or occupation is a process that can take many years of practice
before the individual becomes a proficient member of an occupational community
of practice.
Leney (2004, p. 92): [
] The companies'
main task is to offer training opportunities to raise the level of employees'
competences [
]. These competence-building processes are often highly
contextualized and vary with sectors, business processes and use of
technologies. [
] the contribution of VET to development of the profiles of
competences in the workplace is highly context dependent [
].
2.2.4
Key competencies
2.2.4.1
Lisbon Goal
European Commission (2004, p. 1): In
March 2000, the Lisbon European Council set a new strategic goal for the
European Union: to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based
economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and
better jobs and greater social cohesion. To achieve this, Europe's
education and training systems need to adapt to the demands of the knowledge
society and to the need for an improved level and quality of employment. One of
the main components of this approach is the promotion of new basic skills [
]
to be provided through
lifelong learning.
European Commission (2004, p. 1): A year
later, the Stockholm European Council [identified] [
] three strategic objectives
(quality, access and openness of the education and training systems), broken
down into 13 associated objectives. Following [that] [
], the Commission has
established expert groups to work on one or more of the thirteen objective
areas. [
] The working group on key
competences started its work in 2001. The main objectives of the
working group are to identify and define what the new skills are and how these
skills could be better integrated into curricula, maintained and learned
through life.
European Commission (2004, p. 1): [
] substantial
work on competences was underway in other international fora. [
] In the
context of these developments, it became necessary to address the question of
not only what the necessary
competences for all in the knowledge society would be but also what they would consist of. Moreover,
the framework for competences [
] should be seen from the perspective of lifelong learning [
].
Considering these challenges and taking into account the international
developments in the field, the working group has defined [in 2004] a framework comprising eight domains of key
competences that are considered necessary for all in the knowledge
society.
2.2.4.2
OECD DeSeCo
OECD (2005, p. 3): In 1997, OECD member
countries launched the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA),
with the aim of monitoring the extent to which students near the end of compulsory
schooling have acquired the knowledge and skills essential for full
participation in society. [
] The assessment of student performance in selected
school subjects took place with the understanding, though, that students
success in life depends on a much wider range of competencies. The OECDs
Definition and Selection of Competencies (DeSeCo) Project [launched in December
1997] [
] provides a framework that can guide the longer-term extension of
assessments into new competency domains.
OECD (2005, p. 5): In late 1997, the OECD
initiated the DeSeCo Project with the aim of providing a sound conceptual framework
to inform the identification of key competencies and strengthen international
surveys measuring the competence level of young people and adults.
OECD (2005, p. 4): A competency is more
than just knowledge and skills. It involves the ability to meet complex demands,
by drawing on and mobilising psychosocial resources (including skills and
attitudes) in a particular context. [
] the DeSeCo Project [sought] [
] to identify
a small set of key competencies [
]. Each key competency must: contribute to
valued outcomes for societies and individuals; help individuals meet important
demands in a wide variety of contexts; and be important not just for
specialists but for all individuals.
OECD (2005, p. 5): The DeSeCo Projects
conceptual framework for key competencies classifies such competencies in three
broad categories.
Category 1: Using Tools Interactively
- A. Use language, symbols and texts
interactively
- B. Use knowledge and information
interactively
- C. Use technology interactively
Category 2: Interacting in Heterogeneous
Groups
- A. Relate well to others
- B. Co-operate, work in teams
- C. Manage and resolve conflicts
Category 3: Acting Autonomously
- A. Act within the big picture
- B. Form and conduct life plans and personal
projects
- C. Defend and assert rights, interests,
limits and needs
OECD (2005, p. 5): Key competencies are
not determined by arbitrary decisions about what personal qualities and cognitive
skills are desirable, but by careful consideration of the psychosocial
prerequisites for a successful life and a well-functioning society.
3
A conceptual framework of
competence
Brouwers et al. (2002, p. 75-76): [
] Bos
(1998) concludes there are six components which together cover the concept of
competence sufficiently:
- A content classification of
competences or competence areas
- The context in which competences
have to be mastered
- Skills as a part of competences
- Knowledge elements as a part of
competences
- Personal characteristics as a
part of competences
- The criteria that indicate the
level of mastery of competences
Saito: competence is fractal, or holographic:
- Cognitive
- Functional
- Social
- Personal
3.1
Conceptualizing competence: capability
vs. performance
Eraut (1994, p. 178): Competence refers
to what a person knows and can do under ideal circumstances, whereas
performance refers to what is actually done under existing circumstances.
Competence embraces the structure of knowledge and abilities, whereas
performance subsumes as well the processes of accessing and utilising those
structures and a host of affective, motivational, attentional and stylistic
factors that influence the ultimate responses (Messick, 1984).
3.1.1
Capability (structure of
competence)
3.1.1.1
Competencies (combinations of
K/A/PC)
Knowledge/ Abilities/ Personal
characteristics (traits, attitudes, values, beliefs)
Eraut (1994, p. 208): [
] 'capability'
carries two meanings. First, it is [
] 'the quality of being capable' [
]. [
]
second [
it] is [
] 'a condition capable of being turned to use'. [
]
capability is both necessary for current performance and enables that
performance.
3.1.1.2
Types of competencies (task vs.
person) (probably
discard)
Cognitive
Functional
Social competence
Self
3.1.2
Performance: Scope, quality
(dynamics of competence)
Eraut (1994, p. 167): [
] a professional
person's competence has at least two dimension, scope and quality. The scope
dimension concerns what a person is competent in, the range of roles, tasks and
situations for which their competence is established or may be reliably
inferred. The quality dimension concerns judgments about the quality of that
work on a continuum from being a novice, who is not yet competent in that
particular task, to being an expert acknowledged by colleagues as having
progressed well beyond the level of competence.
Eraut (1994, p. 123-5): The Dreyfus
brothers' model of skill acquisition has attracted considerable interest in
professional education. [
] they see their model as defending the comptemporary
experiential approach to philosophy against the rationalist tradition of
analytic reasoning and the formulation of rules [
]. Although the Dreyfus
describe their model as depicting five stages of skill acquisition, the
emphasis is on perception and decision-making rather than reoutinized action.
Thus they define skill as an integrative overaching approach to professional
action, which incorporates both routines and the decisions to use them, while
still maintaining that the term 'skilled behavior' connotes semi-automatic
rather than deliberative processes.
Eraut (1994, p. 125): [
] the emphasis is
almost entirely on learning from experience with only occasional references to
theoretical learning or the development of fluency on standard tasks. The
pathway to competence is characterized mainly by the ability to recognize
features of practical situations and to discriminate between them, to carry out
routine procedures under pressure and to plan ahead. Competence is the climax
of rule-guided learning and discovering how to cope in crowded, pressurized
contexts. Whereas proficiency marks the onset of quite a different approach to
the job: normal behavior is not just routinized but semi-automatic; situations
are apprehended more deeply and the abnormal is quickly spotted and given
attention. Thus progress beyond competence depends on a more holistic approach
to situational understanding.
Eraut (1994, p. 149-50): The central
importance of time and speed [
]. Giving more attention to the time dimension
suggests that we need to reexamine our earlier classification of planning,
problem-solving and decision-making as deliberative processes. Daily talk among
many professionals suggests that deliberation may be more the exception than
the rule.
Eraut (1994, p. 1950): [
] The analysis
of a performance is concerned with everything done by the performer during a
specified period of time, particularly with such aspects as reading the
situation, deciding what to do, changing one's plan, responding to unforeseen
events, allocating time and managing the transition to other periods. [
] What
is important [
] is that all the tasks or transactions performed dufing the
period are included [
]. Without this requirement, a major feature of some
occupations would be excluded, namely the handling of competing demands.
Eraut (1994, p. 1950): [
] One advantage
of focusing on a performance period is that this is an ongoing process. Instead
of a static model in which all decisions and plans are made at the beginning,
it suggests a dynamic model in which a constantly changing environment provides
a changing input which leads to the constant modification of plans. [
] This
analysis suggests that deliberation is unlikely to occur in the workplace [
].
Deliberation time outside the workplace may be equally difficult to find [
].
Hence, the deliberative use of expertise will depend on both the skillful
management of working time and the disposition to make time for deliberation.
3.1.2.1
Activities (level, criteria,
range)
3.2
Competence in action: theory
vs. practice
3.2.1
Education vs. Practice
(professional knowledge)
Eraut (1994, p. 19-20): [
] professional
knowledge cannot be characterized in a manner that is independent of how it is
learned and how it is used. It is through looking at the contexts of its
acquisition and its use that its essential nature is revealed. [
] the nature
of the context affects what knowledge gets used and how. Three types of context
are distinguished: the academic context; the organizational context of policy
discussion and talk about practice; and the context of practice itself. [
]
theory and practice are shown to have a symbiotic relationship which varies
with both the mode and the context of knowledge use.
Eraut (1994, p. 20): [
] learning to use
an idea in one context does not guarantee being able to use the same idea in
another context: transferring from one context to another requires further
learning and the idea itself will be further transformed in the process. [
]
modes of knowledge use [
] typology of replication, application, interpretation
and association [
] to illustrate the varying degree to which theory gets modified
in practice.
Eraut (1994, p. 22): [
] Five types of
professional processes [
]: acquiring and interpreting information, skilled
behaviour, deliberative processes, giving information and metaprocesses. The
first [
] covers intuitive pattern recognition [
] and recognized inquiry
methods of academic disciplines [
]. Skilled behaviour [
] is rarely automatic
because routines are punctuated by myriads of rapid decisions [
].
3.2.2
Expertise (expert action)
Eraut (1994, p. 167): [
] For many tasks,
neither broad scope nor special expertise is expected; and if such tasks are in
frequent demand or particularly important, they will form part of the agreed
core of the appropriate professional qualification. For some tasks and roles,
however, quality is of considerable significance, and there will be limited
interest in a professional profile which gives no indication of quality in
these areas. Progression in quality then becomes a major issue in defining
qualifications [
].
Eraut (1994, p. 167): [...] professionals
will be changing the scope of their competence, through becoming more
specialist, through moving into newly developing areas of professional work
[...]; and they will also be continuously developing the quality of their work
in a number of areas, beyond the level of competence to one of proficiency or
expertise. [...] learning professionals who are continually expanding the scope
of their competence and developing the quality of their work.
3.3
Summary: structure + dynamics
3.4
Additional concepts (probably
discard)
3.4.1
Granularity: generic vs.
specific (hierarchy, meta)
Eraut (1994, p.
179): ... distinction between 'competence', which is given a generic or
holistic meaning and refers to a person's overall capacity, and 'competency',
which refers to specific capabilities. However, 'competency' can be used either
in a direct performance-related sense or simply to describe any piece of
knowledge or skill that might be construed as relevant.
3.4.2
Context: generic vs. specific (particularity)
(occupations,
sectors, organizations, functions, positions)
4
A provisional model of KM
competence
4.1
The scope of KM practice
4.1.1
Four streams of KM research
4.1.1.1
Knowledge as unstructured
information
4.1.1.2
Knowledge as human and social
processes
4.1.1.3
Knowledge as economic resource
4.1.1.4
Knowledge as machine
intelligence
4.1.2
Perspectives on KM practice
4.1.2.1
Corporate KM
KM initiatives, Types of initiatives,
Domain of activities
KM roles
4.1.2.2
KM as everyone's job
4.1.2.3
KM as part of management
4.2
KM competence: structure
4.2.1
Scope (from previous section)
4.2.2
Content
4.2.2.1
Previous work on KM competence
4.2.2.2
KM initiatives
4.3
KM competence: dynamics
4.3.1
Formal knowledge vs. experience
4.3.2
Expertise
5
Conclusion
6
References
6.1
Journal articles
Hoffmann T (1999) The meanings of
competency. Journal
of European Industrial Training 23(6), 275-285.
6.2
Book chapters
Weinert FE (2001) Concept of Competence: A Conceptual
Clarification. Defining
and Selecting Key Competencies (Rychen DS and Salganik LH, Eds), pp
45-66, Hogrefe & Huber, Gφttingen.
Brouwers R, de Wit G and MacDonald R (2002)
Competences: Key to Success. Educating Knowledge Workers for Corporate Leadership:
Learning into the Future (Bentzen-Bilkvist A, Gijselaers WH and
Milter RG, Eds), pp 75-92, Educational Innovation in Economics and Business
Series, Vol. 7, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht.
6.3
Books
Boyatzis RE (1982) The Competent
Manager: A Model for Effective Performance. Wiley, New York.
Eraut M (1994) Developing Professional Knowledge
and Competence. RoutledgeFalmer, London.
Dreyfus HL and Dreyfus SE (1986) Mind over
Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer.
Free Press, New York.
Rychen DS and Salganik LH, Eds (2003) Key
Competencies for a Successful Life and a Well-Functioning Society.
Hogrefe & Huber, Gφttingen.
6.4
Reports
Winterton J, Delamare-Le Deist F and
Stringfellow E (2005) Typology of Knowledge, Skills and Competences: Clarification
of the Concept and Prototype. Report on behalf of Cedefop (CEDEFOP
Project, No RP/B/BS/Credit Transfer/005/04).
Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (2002) Definition and Selection of Competences (DESECO):
Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations. Strategy paper JT00132752,
Directorate for Education, Employment, Labour and Social Affairs.
Leney T (2004) Achieving the Lisbon goal: The Contribution of VET.
Final report of the Lisbon-to-Copenhagen-to-Maastricht Consortium Partners to
the European Commission 1-11-04.
Tapio S (2004) Key Competences for Lifelong
Learning: A European Reference Framework. Report of Working Group B
"Key Competences" on the implementation of "Education and
Training 2010" work programme, European Commission, Directorate-General
for Education and Culture.
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