To begin with, an English lesson. We need to distinguish between "competence" and "competency". Some dictionaries lump them together and present them as interchangeable, but I suggest it is useful to use "competence" to mean a skill and the standard of performance reached while "competency" refers to the behaviour by which it is achieved. In other words, one describes what people can do while the other focuses on how they do it. There is, therefore, an interface between the two, i.e. the competent application of a skill is likely to make one act in a competent manner, and vice versa (see Figure 1).The plural of each word, therefore, gives us two different meanings -for competences and competencies are not the same thing. Competences refers to the range of skills which are satisfactorily performed; while competencies refers to the behaviours adopted in competent performance. It is this distinction, in my view, that is vital to the whole debate and the failure of many to recognize it largely explains the problems that many organizations have experienced. My aim, hopefully, is to unravel some of this confusion and, present a more constructive way forward.
Stresses the need for evaluation of management training and development. Distinguishes between single-loop learning (monitoring) and double-loop learning (evaluation). Suggests that evaluation throws up certain "quandaries". Why do most management development programmes espouse a philosophy that is rarely practised in the workplace? Why is management development placed so far from the organizational power base? Why is so little thought given to who provides programmes? Why does top management rarely partake of training and development? Why do managers want to learn new things by talking about old things? Should training and development critically consider organizational strategy? Why are programmes rarely evaluated? Such questions take us back to basic objectives and the fundamental differences between training and development.
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