What is the main difference between traditional job analysis and competency modeling?

Login

Job Analysis and Competency ModelingMichael BrannickLAST REVIEWED: 09 November 2020LAST MODIFIED: 28 September 2016DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846740-0110

Introduction

Job analysis is a systematic process of discovery aimed at understanding what people do at work. It may be directed primarily at the work itself (What does the worker do? What gets done?) or the worker attributes (You should be good at this; or, Do we need people who are persuasive or fluent in Russian?), or it may be directed at both. Job analysis for a bus driver might focus on the work of operating the vehicle (such as the tasks of steering and of navigating), the attributes that a driver needs (knowledge of traffic laws and visual acuity), or both. Job analysis provides the foundation for many human resources applications, including personnel recruiting and selection, training, compensation, performance management, and many others. Competency modeling has two distinct meanings. One such meaning concerns broad personal attributes (e.g., results orientation, product knowledge) that apply across many jobs within an organization. Organizational-competency models tend to be more focused on organizational goals and attributes that distinguish superior from average workers, and thus provide value or competitive advantage to the organization. Job analysis tends to be more focused on the individual job and the behaviors it requires for successful performance. Both job analysis and competency modeling relate to individual differences (skills or proficiencies) valued by the individual and by the organization. In the business world, people may mean several different things when they say “competency,” so it is important to discover the process by which the characteristic was determined and the use for which it is intended. The other meaning of competency is the capacity to apply skill and knowledge in a real-life situation; for example, the competence to drive a bus safely. In educational and job-training contexts, job analysis and competency modeling may be very similar. They begin with breaking down a task into a series of steps and analyzing what the trainee must know and do in order to complete each step successfully. They end with a determination of whether the trainee can complete the series of steps independently well enough to be labeled competent or successful. For the example of the bus driver, imagine the conclusion of training followed by a written test of rules of the road and a driving test. The successful trainee could be awarded a license that indicates he or she is judged competent to drive a bus. This article contains general sources of information, a section comparing job analysis and competency modeling, sections on the methodology of job analysis and competency modeling, and a section on common applications of job analysis. Many applications are not covered in detail here (e.g., performance appraisal, compensation) because there is little in the way of current research in the area. However, such topics are covered in many of the overviews that are cited in the article.

Reference Works

The edited reference works tend to be encyclopedic and are consulted on particular topics as the need arises. They contain chapters on many specific topics (e.g., a specific approach to rating human attribute requirements). The authors of each chapter are typically recognized by the field as experts in the domain described in the assigned chapter. Gael 1988a and Gael 1988b are attempts to be very comprehensive in scope. A more recent but slightly less exhaustive volume is Wilson, et al. 2012. Each provides a description of many topics within job analysis in detail.

  • Gael, Sidney, ed. The Job Analysis Handbook for Business, Industry, and Government. Vol. 1. New York: Wiley, 1988a.

    Covers the history of job analysis, major uses in organizational administration, and human resources management, with many chapters on work-oriented methods, including industrial engineering and ergonomic methods.

  • Gael, Sidney, ed. The Job Analysis Handbook for Business, Industry, and Government. Vol. 2. New York: Wiley, 1988b.

    Covers worker-based and task-based methods. It also contains many chapters on specific jobs, such as firefighter and life insurance agent.

  • Wilson, Mark A., Winston Bennett Jr., Shanan G. Gibson, and George M. Alliger, eds. The Handbook of Work Analysis: Methods, Systems, Applications and Science of Work Measurement in Organizations. Series in Applied Psychology. New York: Routledge, 2012.

    Covers the traditional topics in detail. Contains newer approaches such as web-based job analysis, and special topics such as selling job analysis to management and a summary of sources of inaccuracy in job analysis.

back to top

Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.

How to Subscribe

Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.

Article

Up

  • Abusive Supervision
  • Adverse Impact and Equal Employment Opportunity Analytics
  • Alliance Portfolios
  • Alternative Work Arrangements
  • Applied Political Risk Analysis
  • Approaches to Social Responsibility
  • Assessment Centers: Theory, Practice and Research
  • Attitudes
  • Attributions
  • Authentic Leadership
  • Automation
  • Bayesian Statistics
  • Behavior, Organizational
  • Behavioral Approach to Leadership
  • Behavioral Theory of the Firm
  • Benefits
  • Between Organizations, Social Networks in and
  • Brokerage in Networks
  • Business and Human Rights
  • Career Studies
  • Career Transitions and Job Mobility
  • Certified B Corporations and Benefit Corporations
  • Charismatic and Innovative Team Leadership By and For Mill...
  • Charismatic and Transformational Leadership
  • Compensation, Rewards, Remuneration
  • Competitive Dynamics
  • Competitive Heterogeneity
  • Computational Modeling
  • Conditional Reasoning
  • Conflict Management
  • Considerate Leadership
  • Corporate Philanthropy
  • Corporate Social Performance
  • Corporate Venture Capital
  • Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB)
  • Creativity
  • Cross-Cultural Communication
  • Cross-Cultural Management
  • Cultural Intelligence
  • Culture, Organization
  • Data Analytic Methods
  • Decision Making
  • Diversity
  • Dynamic Capabilities
  • Emotional Labor
  • Employee Aging
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Ownership
  • Employee Voice
  • Empowerment, Psychological
  • Entrepreneurial Firms
  • Entrepreneurial Orientation
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Entrepreneurship, Corporate
  • Entrepreneurship, Women’s
  • Equal Employment Opportunity
  • Ethics
  • Faking in Personnel Selection
  • Family Business, Managing
  • Feedback
  • Financial Markets in Organization Theory and Economic Soci...
  • Findings, Reporting Research
  • Firm Bribery
  • Fit, Person-Environment
  • Forecasting
  • Global Leadership
  • Global Talent Management
  • Goal Setting
  • Grounded Theory
  • Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions
  • Human Capital Resource Pipelines
  • Human Resource Management
  • Human Resource Management, Strategic
  • Human Resources, Global
  • Human Rights
  • Humanitarian Work Psychology
  • Humility in Management
  • Impression Management at Work
  • Imprinting
  • Influence Strategies/Tactics in the Workplace
  • Information Economics
  • Innovative Behavior
  • Intelligence, Emotional
  • International Economic Development and SMEs
  • International Economic Systems
  • International Strategic Alliances
  • Job Analysis and Competency Modeling
  • Job Crafting
  • Job Design
  • Job Satisfaction
  • Judgment and Decision Making in Teams
  • Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration within and across Firm...
  • Leader-Member Exchange
  • Leadership Development
  • Leadership Development and Organizational Change, Coaching...
  • Leadership, Ethical
  • Leadership, Global and Comparative
  • Leadership, Strategic
  • Learning by Doing in Organizational Activities
  • Licensing
  • Management History
  • Management In Antiquity
  • Managerial Discretion
  • Meaningful Work
  • Mentoring
  • Multinational Corporations and Emerging Markets
  • Neo-institutional Theory
  • Neuroscience, Organizational
  • New Ventures
  • Organization Design, Global
  • Organization Development and Change
  • Organization Research, Ethnography in
  • Organization Theory
  • Organizational Adaptation
  • Organizational Behavior, Emotions in
  • Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs)
  • Organizational Climate
  • Organizational Control
  • Organizational Corruption
  • Organizational Hybridity
  • Organizational Identity
  • Organizational Justice
  • Organizational Legitimacy
  • Organizational Networks
  • Organizational Paradox
  • Organizational Performance, Personality Theory and
  • Organizational Responsibility
  • Organizational Surveys, Driving Change Through
  • Organizations, Big Data in
  • Organizations, Gender in
  • Organizations, Identity Work in
  • Organizations, Political Ideology in
  • Organizations, Social Identity Processes in
  • Overqualification
  • Passion
  • Paternalistic Leadership
  • Pay for Skills, Knowledge, and Competencies
  • People Analytics
  • Performance Appraisal
  • Performance Feedback Theory
  • Planning And Goal Setting
  • Proactive Work Behavior
  • Psychological Contracts
  • Psychological Safety
  • Real Options Theory
  • Recruitment
  • Regional Entrepreneurship
  • Reputation, Organizational Image and
  • Research, Ethics in
  • Research, Longitudinal
  • Research Methods
  • Research Methods, Qualitative
  • Resource Redeployment
  • Resource-Dependence Theory
  • Resources
  • Response Surface Analysis, Polynomial Regression and
  • Role of Time in Organizational Studies
  • Safety, Work Place
  • Selection
  • Selection, Applicant Reactions to
  • Self-Determination Theory for Work Motivation
  • Self-Efficacy
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy In Management
  • Self-Management and Personal Agency
  • Sensemaking in and around Organizations
  • Service Management
  • Shared Team Leadership
  • Social Cognitive Theory
  • Social Evaluation: Status and Reputation
  • Social Movement Theory
  • Social Ties and Network Structure
  • Socialization
  • Sports Settings in Management Research
  • Stakeholders
  • Status in Organizations
  • Strategic Alliances
  • Strategic Human Capital
  • Strategy
  • Strategy and Cognition
  • Strategy Implementation
  • Stress
  • Structural Contingency Theory/Information Processing Theor...
  • Team Composition
  • Team Conflict
  • Team Design Characteristics
  • Team Learning
  • Team Mental Models
  • Team Newcomers
  • Team Processes
  • Teams, Global
  • Technology and Innovation Management
  • Technology, Organizational Assessment and
  • the Workplace, Millennials in
  • Theory X and Theory Y
  • Time and Motion Studies
  • Training and Development
  • Training Evaluation
  • Trust in Organizational Contexts
  • Turnover
  • Unobtrusive Measures
  • Validity
  • Virtual Teams
  • Whistle-Blowing
  • Work and Family: An Organizational Science Overview
  • Work Contexts, Nonverbal Communication in
  • Work, Mindfulness at
  • Workplace Aggression and Violence
  • Workplace Coaching
  • Workplace Commitment
  • Workplace Gossip
  • Workplace Meetings
  • Workplace, Spiritual Leadership in the
  • World War II, Management Research during

Down

What is competency

The Competency Approach It emphasizes what employees must be capable of doing, rather than a list of duties they must perform. The basic format for a competency-based job description might include all the information that's usually contained in a traditional job description.

What is the biggest difference between competency modeling and job analysis quizlet?

competency models describe employees' skills, knowledge, abilities and personal characteristics that are common across jobs, whereas job analysis describes what is different across jobs.

What is the difference between traditional recruitment and competency

Although traditional hiring has focused primarily on evaluating a candidate's skills and technical qualifications, a competency-based approach includes an analysis of a candidate's behavioral characteristics as well.

How is competency

Traditional HRM uses the job as the focal point in all decisions where as competency-based HRMfocuses on the observable and verifiable behaviour of successful employees for making decisions. Also, the JD and the JS used in traditional approach becomes obsolete in lesser time.