A Practical Proposal for a “Competence Plan Fulfillment” Key Performance Indicator

• Author: Guendalina Capece,Paolo Bazzica
• Date: 01 January 2013
• Published date: 01 January 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.1403

■Research Article

A Practical Proposal for a “Competence

Plan Fulfillment”Key Performance

Indicator

Guendalina Capece

1

*and Paolo Bazzica

2

1

Department of Enterprise Engineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Roma, Italy

2

Ericsson Telecomunicazioni S.p.A, Rome, Italy

This paper deals with the creation of a framework for competence management research with specific emphasis on

firm context. We considerthat the traditional approaches to competence assignment planning lack in the development

of appropriate tools for the management of the competence. Nowadays there is, indeed, a need for research into

competence and the management of competence. In this paper, we develop a framework for competence

management. Because no universally accepted framework exists yet, the following article proposes various aspects

of competence management and illustrates a new approach to characterize and manage competency.

Building a tool oriented towards competency allocation allows the development of a dynamic competency data-

base and is a first step to improving the achievement of relevant goals such as competence allocation or project team

building (matching of tasks and competencies), and the development and transfer of competencies (e.g., by supporting

reflective practice). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

In the contemporary business environment, service

enterprises compete for the opportunity to improve

their performance with respect to existing markets

and/or capture new markets, and most of them

consider the development and evolution of staff

competence a crucial growth factor. Therefore,

monitoring the results of the competence planning

activities of a service organization plays an import-

ant role in building competitive advantage and can

contribute significantly to both a firm’s growth

and its profitability. Although the importance of

competence management activities is widely recog-

nized as a potentially vital source of competitive

advantage, firms still struggle to find efficient and

effective processes and management activities to

accomplish competence management (Campisi and

Costa, 2012). The development and implementation

of planning and monitoring activities appear to be

particularly difficult if firms have limited measures.

In particular, if measures do not provide quantitative,

longitudinal and comprehensive results relating to

competence management activities.

Whether enterprises consider that a firm’s compe-

tencies should be adjusted to follow its strategy or

that strategy and competencies should interact, it

has long been recognized that the link between

strategy and competencies is critical for many firms

(Walsh and Linton, 2011). According to Nyhan,

1998, competence development and, consequently,

its management is seen as one of the critical strategic

factors ensuring companies’competitiveness.

The term competence is also assuming an import-

ant position within the many differing s cientific

fields including but not restricted to pedagogy,

sociology and organization science. Nevertheless,

these disciplines define the term competence in

differing ways, thus also producing a variety of

field-related understandings of the term (Pawlowsky

et al., 2005). Looking at the term competence from an

etymological point of view, its root “competere”

relates to competition and competing. Further, an

enterprise task within the field of competence man-

agement can therefore be seen as using the abilities

of the people in such a way that synergiesare created

within and among the business activities created.

Competence management thus requires various

*Correspondence to: Guendalina Capece, Department of Enter-

prise Engineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via del

Politecnico, 1-00133 Roma.

E-mail: capece@dii.uniroma2.it

Knowledge and Process Management

Volume 20 Number 1 pp 40–49 (2013)

Published online in Wiley Online Library

(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/kpm.1403

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.