Human resource management practice I also available by michael armstrong

Competency defined

The term ‘competency’ refers to an underlying char-

acteristic  of  a  person  that  results  in  effective  or 

superior performance. The leading figure in defin-

ing  and  popularizing  the  concept  of  competency 

was  Boyatzis  (1982).  He  conducted  research  that 

established  that  there  was  no  single  factor  but  a 

range of factors that differentiated successful from 

less successful performance. These factors included 

personal qualities, motives, experience and behav-

ioural characteristics. Since his contribution, three 

types of competencies have been identified: behav-

ioural  competencies,  technical  competencies  and 

NVQs/SNVQs.