Basic competencies at work

Competency pyramid

Individuals can be viewed with three competence elements arranged in a pyramid-like form. At the peak are JOB SPECIFIC competencies developing from work experience. They are built on EDUCATIONAL and OCCUPATIONAL competencies which derive from formal education. At the base are BASIC COMPETENCIES, individuals' characteristic ways of working, handling information and viewing the world. They develop earlier, are more stable in time but what is most important, they guide and give direction to all educational, occupational and job specific competencies. They may be expressed as personified "Experts in work".

Seen from the bottom up, "life begins" with the development of BASIC COMPETENCIES which guide toward EDUCATIONAL competencies which guide toward OCCUPATIONAL competencies which in turn form the basis for JOB SPECIFIC competencies. The guiding effect of Basic competencies can be seen in each of the competence elements. See the pyramid figure below.



The platform feature of basic competencies becomes more important as the disruption of competency requirements at work gains in speed. Occupations and jobs change and the pyramid's upper parts have to be renovated or rebuilt from time to time. However, basic competencies change more slowly. They provide direction both to occupational and job specific competencies throughout one's work career. Their greater stability and transferability makes them a platform for lifelong learning. Deriving from personal motivations, ways of thinking and attitudes, basic competencies generate a sense of ownership necessary for initiating self-directed planning of career and competence.

Basic competencies - Experts in work

Basic competencies are fourteen competent ways of performing independent action, leadership, collaboration, information processing and viewing the world and oneself, see the figure below. With individuals, they may be expressed as 20 easily relatable "Experts in work", see the PDF. Basic work competencies are driven, ie., fueled and given direction by the individual's motivations, ways of thinking and attitudes.

Basic competencies serve at the same time also as descriptors of jobs. All jobs can be profiled according to the same basic competencies. Jobs may be appraised for their emphasis on high quality vs. sizeable results. People are in turn matched to the job by determining whether he/she tends to seek high quality vs. "big" results.

Teams and occupational groups

In addition to individuals and jobs, basic competencies are also be used in describing teams and occupational groups. Teams can be examined as collective competence units by calculating the average of the team members' competencies. Teams can be described by broad competencies such as quality vs. results seeking units or, as units with emphasis on existing processes vs. creation of new processes. Teams can also be described with more detailed, narrower competencies such as units with poor-strong communication or service provision potentialities. In our studies, we have collected driver averages of different occupations and jobs, "prototypes" from used car salesmen to classical ballet dancers.

Psychological drivers

What then is the ultimate powerhouse and direction giver for the basic competencies? Basic competencies are guided by very slowly changing psychological structures and processes. Extensive longitudinal research has indicated remarkable stability for personality factors from early childhood to old age (Roberts & DelVecchio, 2000). A recently published meta-analysis on close to quarter of a million subjects confirmed results from the preceding longitudinal studies (Bleidorn et. al, 2022). The psychological drivers are age-old processes slow to change along evolution. Human motivations, ways of thinking and attitudes have remained unchanged throughout all societal and technological changes. The exact same drivers have steered competence subscribed by societies in different times.

David McClelland has explained the economic performance of whole societies from their levels of achievement motivation (McClelland, 1961/2010). The undeniably bold and controversial studies were not limited to modern industrial societies but extend to Pre-Incan civilizations, even to the Minoan culture dating back to the Bronze age (Davies, 1969). Therefore, one might argue that the competency drivers of hunters, gatherers and shamans of Stone age are the same motivations, ways of thinking and attitudes that drive competence of people today. Amongst the multifarious disruption of work life and artificial intelligence it is important to realize that human motivations, ways of thinking and attitudes don't change. The real challenge is tackling the changes in educational, occupational and job specific competencies.

Motivations - drivers of action

Achievement, leadership and interaction motivations are the drivers of independent action, leadership and collaboration at work. The picture of the individual becomes more focused with attention to the underlying single motives. Single motives indicate for example whether the person wants to excel in independent activities (achievement motivation) primarily by seeking high quality vs. sizeable results. Whether the person wants to lead (leadership motivation) others' behavior vs. thoughts and whether the individual wants to collaborate with others (interaction motivation) by communicating, advising or listening to others.

Ways of thinking - drivers of handling information

Ways of thinking in turn function as drivers of handling information ie., planning and problem solving. The process makes use of either existing, proven processes or creates new processes. Both represent competence, depending on the targeted job. Planning and problem solving is carried out along four consecutive steps from approaching the plan or problem and ending to implementation of solutions. Each step marks a single competency.

Attitudes - drivers of viewing

Attitudes serve as drivers of viewing things. Most important is the person's attitude toward the environmental ambiguity and change. This indicates whether the person feels more at home in orderly, stable and consistency providing work environments or in variety and novelty providing, mobile work environments. Other important viewings include expectancies of being successful driven by optimism and reflection upon one's own ethical and moral conduct.

Ownership of competence

The most important value of basic competencies is in the self direction that they create in people. They are not fashionable, externally offered superqualities but are based on people's personal motivations, ways of thinking and attitudes. Therefore, they create a sense of ownership, necessary for kicking off self-performed competence development. Instead of emphasizing technological disruption in work life the new era is more about self-directed development of one's competence. More on the theoretical context of Basic competencies in the document WOPI Technical Manual (WOPI, 2010).