Untitled - Saigontre

Competency Identification and Values Clarification
87
on the topic will do. Any training program on budgeting will do. No effort is
made to tie the development strategy to the unique conditions prevailing in
the corporate culture.
A corporate culture-specific development strategy, on the other hand, is
specific to the organization. To build budgeting skill, an individual might do
the following:
▲ Watch (shadow) someone in the organization who is especially good at
budgeting.
▲ Perform budgeting with someone in the company.
▲ Interview someone experienced in the company about what is necessary
for an acceptable or even exemplary budget.
Many resources exist to identify generic development strategies. 12 Those
can be purchased from outside vendors, found in books, or uncovered on the
Web. All that is needed is to identify appropriate but general material linked
to every competency in a competency model. Corporate culture-specific development
strategies require investigation. One way to identify them is to identify
exemplary performers—individuals who are particularly good at demonstrating
a competency. Then interview them. For example, ask them:
▲ Who in this organization would you advise people to talk to if they want
to build this competency?
▲ What kind of work activities or assignments should individuals be given
if they are to build this competency in this organization?
▲ Where should people go to find centers of excellence for this competency
in this organization?
▲ How would you advise someone in this company who wants to build
this competency to go about learning how it is done here?
Use the interview guide provided in Exhibit 4-1 for this purpose. Then feed
back the interview results to exemplary performers, verify that the assignments
would actually build the targeted competencies in the company, and put them
online so that individuals may access them as they prepare their individual
development plans.
What Are Values, and What Is Values Clarification?
Simply stated, values are beliefs about what is good or bad. Values clarification
is the process of making clear what values take priority over others, what
is more important than other things. While competencies clarify differences
between individual performers, values add an ethical dimension. They de-