Competence (human resources)

About: Competence (human resources) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 53557 publications have been published within this topic receiving 988884 citations. The topic is also known as: competence (human resources) & Competency.

Are skilled birth attendants really skilled? A measurement method, some disturbing results and a potential way forward

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Delivery by a skilled birth attendant (SBA) serves as an indicator of progress towards reducing maternal mortality worldwide - the fifth Millennium Development Goal. Though WHO tracks the proportion of women delivered by SBAs, we know little about their competence to manage common life-threatening obstetric complications. We assessed SBA competence in five high maternal mortality settings as a basis for initiating quality improvement. METHODS: The WHO Integrated Management of Pregnancy and Childbirth (IMPAC) guidelines served as our competency standard. Evaluation included a written knowledge test, partograph (used to record all observations of a woman in labour) case studies and assessment of procedures demonstrated on anatomical models at five skills stations. We tested a purposive sample of 166 SBAs in Benin, Ecuador, Jamaica and Rwanda (Phase I). These initial results were used to refine the instruments, which were then used to evaluate 1358 SBAs throughout Nicaragua (Phase II). FINDINGS: On average, Phase I participants were correct for 56% of the knowledge questions and 48% of the skills steps. Phase II participants were correct for 62% of the knowledge questions. Their average skills scores by area were: active management of the third stage of labour - 46%; manual removal of placenta - 52%; bimanual uterine compression - 46%; immediate newborn care - 71%; and neonatal resuscitation - 55%. CONCLUSION: There is a wide gap between current evidence-based standards and provider competence to manage selected obstetric and neonatal complications. We discuss the significance of that gap, suggest approaches to close it and describe briefly current efforts to do so in Ecuador, Nicaragua and Niger.

Commitment in a changing world of work.

Abstract: The Canadian workplace is undergoing extensive changes that have the potential to alter dramatically the psychological commitments that employees experience with regard to their work. The purpose of this article is to examine the interplay between these changes and employee commitment. We begin by outlining a well-established three-component model of commitment and identifying some of the changes taking place in the world of work. The potential impact of these changes on employee commitment is then discussed with respect to three selected themes: changes in the nature of employees' commitment to the organization, changes in the focus of employees' commitment, and the multiplicity of employer-employee relationships within organizations. Finally, we discuss the implications of the changes in commitment for both practitioners and researchers within the field of I-O psychology.There are major changes taking place in the political, economic, and societal climate in Canada and throughout the developed world. These changes are having a tremendous impact on the world of work and how organizations do business. Among the things affected by organizational attempts to adapt to these changes is their relationship with employees. In this article, we discuss the changing nature of this relationship with specific focus on the impact on employee commitment. In light of this discussion, we offer suggestions as to how organizations might better manage their relationships with employees, and provide an agenda for future research by I-O psychologists. To begin, however, we provide a brief overview of what we currently know about the nature, development, and consequences of employee commitment.Commitment in the WorkplaceTheory and research on workplace commitment is most developed in the area of employee commitment to organizations (Morrow & McElroy, 1993). Until relatively recently, organizational commitment was viewed as a unidimensional construct, but there was little consensus on the nature of the construct (Meyer & Allen, 1991). Today, it is well recognized that employees' commitment to the organization can take different forms (e.g., Allen & Meyer, 1990; O'Reilly & Chatman, 1986). Allen and Meyer (1990), for example, identified three common themes among the uni-dimensional conceptualizations of commitment. The first, which they labelled affective commitment, is characterized by an emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization. The second, continuance commitment, reflects a perceived cost associated with discontinuing employment. Finally, normative commitment consists of a belief that it is one's moral obligation to remain with the organization. Allen and Meyer argued that a more complete understanding of an employee's relationship with an organization is achieved by recognizing that he or she might experience all three of these forms of commitment to varying degrees.Although there are a variety of factors that have the potential to contribute to the development of affective, continuance, and normative commitment, including individual differences, the strongest influences tend to be situational (Meyer & Allen, 1997). Affective commitment appears to be strengthened by work experiences that contribute to employees' "comfort" in the organization (e.g., good interpersonal relations; role clarity) as well as their sense of "competence" and self-worth (e.g., participation; feedback; challenge). Continuance commitment increases as a function of actions or decisions, in or outside the workplace, that make the retention of valued assets (e.g., company benefits; status in the community) contingent on their continued employment in the organization. Normative commitment is influenced by familial/cultural or organizational socialization experiences that emphasize the appropriateness of continued service, or by the receipt of benefits from the organization (e. …

Appropriateness and Effectiveness Perceptions of Conflict Strategies

Abstract: This study investigates how conflict strategies and communicator gender affect two properties of communicative competence, appropriateness and effectiveness, and how these properties are associated with interpersonal attraction. In total, 361 participants read one of 12 randomly distributed conflict scripts that operationalized one of three conflict strategies (i.e., integrative, distributive, or avoidance), communicator gender, and episode type (i.e., same- versus opposite-sex situation). The impact of strategy type, gender, and episode on measures of general appropriateness, specific appropriateness, and effectiveness is reported. While all of the competence properties varied due to strategy inductions, specific appropriateness was the most sensitive to strategy differences. In addition, both appropriateness variables correlated strongly, and effectiveness correlated moderately with social and task attraction. Discussion focuses on the implications of the results for communication competence research.

Formación basada en competencias

Abstract: The starting point for this research is an overview of 21st century society. Mobility has imposed itself as a culture in its own right, and the teacher is now expected to “know”, “to know how to”, “to know how to be” and “to know how to be there”. As has been repeatedly shown by a long and extensive body of research which has its inspiration in the Delors report (1996), this new vision of education obliges us to overcome the purely instrumental view, where education is seen as the necessary route for obtaining given results (practical experience, skill acquisition, economic objectives, etc), and move on to consider the role of education in the fullest sense; the realisation of the person, enabling the individual to become everything he or she wants to be. Competence development based on training programmes requires changes in teaching strategies, in curricular approaches and in the traditional roles assigned to teachers and pupils. In this article the basic components of competence based training will be described and analysed. In the first place we examine the establishment of competence norms, and then coninue by looking at the diagnosis of training needs. Following this we outline a teaching methodology –based on a learning process which is structured in training modules. Finally an evaluation, recognition and accreditation process – which may or may not lead to some form of certification –is described.