Customer Reviews

Competency-Based Performance Improvement: A Strategy for Organizational Change

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"Several factors, some of which are not under the control of HRD managers and staff, influence the potential effectiveness and efficiency of organization-based HRD. However, if its managers care enough, the HRD function can gain and maintain firm control of its performance improvement curricula, of how those curricula are translated into instructional programs, and of how its clients perceive the contributions of HRD to organization effectiveness or profitability. This book help you learn how to design and deliver effective and efficient performance improvement programs that enhance employees' job competence in ways that contribute to the achievement of an organization's strategic goals or objectives (from the Introduction)."

In this context, Dubois invites you to :

* "think systems" by learning some basic principles of systems theory and observing how they are applied to organization training or education.

* learn how to apply a Strategic Systems Model to create, implement, and maintain effective and efficient competency-based training or education systems in organizations.

* learn how to gain broad-based support within an organization for the training and/or education function(s) by taking a competency-based, systems approach to performance improvement.

* learn how to construct custom competency or performance models or menus for employee job performance.

* learn how to create a competency-based training or education curriculum system.

* learn how to create and implement organization or work unit-based curriculum systems which support the provision and maintenance of continuous-progress, competency-based training or education opportunities for employees.

* learn how to create the raw materials needed for competency-based instruction.

* learn how to monitor, evaluate, and maintain the performance of competency-based training and education systems.

* learn about the experiences and the results achieved by three large organizations which have created and implemented exemplary competency-based performance improvement systems.

I highly recommend this pioneering study to all executives and HR professionals.

This book was a frustrating experience. Partly this was due to it being some seven years old. The concepts of organisational development have gone forward a great deal since 1993. In addition, a major part of the text and even issues consist of direct quotes of other writers, some of them outdated even by 1993 standards. There is a lot of redundancy, and not nearly all of it can be justified by pedagogical reasons. For example, there is practically only one image (that takes a whole page to present six text boxes) in the book but it is repeated several times with only minor revisions. There is much extraneous text and the whole layout is very loose. This is outlined by the fact that every other point presented is according to Dubois either extremely critical or vitally important.

The stated idea of the book is to apply systems theory to performance improvement, but in practice Dubois suggests that organisations should think, what kind of competency they actually want to train or educate their employees for ... and design their performance improvement interventions accordingly. While this is a worthy issue, Dubois would have been able to squeeze his points to some 150 pages had he really tried. A major part of the extra pages go to justifying a prospective new fad, Strategic Systems Model (SSM), a prime example of an artificial TLA (three letter acronym), if you ask me. The point of SSM is to understand that things influence each other. I admit that this simple truth has often been forgotten in many organisations.

The most important thing that makes this book feel somewhat outdated is the fact that on several occasions Dubois focuses on training of management instead of the whole work force of an organisation. In my opinion, such division of labour and related training and education, has become more and more artificial.

The most useful chapters of the book focus on analysis of competence and competency requirements of an organisation. And some of the rest might be applicable on a more traditional organisation, not touched by the 1990's.