Competence
Competence is a term that is widely used but which has come to mean
different things to different people. However, it is generally accepted to
encompass knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that are causally
related to superior job performance (e.g. Boyatzis, 1982; Hamel and
Prahalad, 1994; Boisot et al., 1996). By the definition of Spencer and
Spencer (1993: 9) competence is ‘an underlying characteristic of an individual
that is causally related to criterion-referenced effective and/or
superior performance in a job or situation’. Hofer and Schendell (1978:
25) describe competence under the heading of resource deployment.
Specifically, they define competence as ‘patterns of . . . resource and skill
deployments that will help the firm achieve its goals and objectives’.
Strictly speaking, an individual’s competence is simply the particular
knowledge and skills that the individual possesses, and the superior way
they are used. As Figure 4.3 suggests, an individual’s personal competence
can be divided into knowledge-based and social-based competencies.
Knowledge-based competencies consist of an individual’s tacit and
explicit knowledge (e.g. Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). As described
above, tacit knowledge is knowledge that an individual has collected
and stored in her worldview while she has performed different tasks and