Burt Krain, Ph D

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Total Force Competency Development

• Burt Krain, Ph D Lisa Gabel, MS
• MPTE ORLANDO
• May 5, 2005

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Framework
OCCUPATIONAL
INDUSTRY (Military)
FOUNDATIONAL
Krain and Gabel (2008)
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What is a Competency?

• An observable, measurable pattern of knowledge,
  skills, abilities, and other characteristics that
  an individual/team/unit needs to perform work
  roles or occupational functions successfully
• Adapted from OPM
• Knowledge, Skills, Abilities

Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Why a Competency-based Approach?

• Rapidly changing, team-oriented, and virtual
  organizations mean that the traditional
  definition of a job is increasingly rare
• War with an adaptive enemy VADM J. Harvey
• People might be in a job only a few months or on
  several teams at once, playing a different role
  in each. In these circumstances an appropriate
  approach is to define work through a set of
  competencies that underpin all the required roles

Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Approach

• Competencies Lead To
• Performance-Based Organization
• Alignment with Manning Concepts (e.g., LCS)
• Supports Agility Requirements of QDR
• Linked to Mission Goals (NMETs)/Organizational
  Strategy

Utilizes a library of Knowledge, Skills,
Abilities statements that can be generalized to
all of DoD
Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Organizational vs. Individual
Organizational Competencies Capabilities

• Unique factors that make an organization
  competitive
• Provide potential access to a wide variety of
  markets
• Make a significant contribution to the perceived
  customer benefit of the end product
• Are difficult for competitors to imitate
• For the Navy, examples include
• SEALs
• Undersea Warfare
• Carrier Based Aviation

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Technical Competencies

• Technical Competencies describe the what
  needs to be performed or accomplished, the major
  work requirements
• Related to being part of a profession
• Jobs or positions have technical competencies,
  war fighting competencies, behavioral
  competencies
• Related to the specialized aspects of work
  performed

Consider Technical Competencies Areas of
Expertise Relevant to the Job Domain
Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Behavioral Competencies

• Competencies that are described in observable and
  measurable terms that make employees
  particularly effective in their work, they
  describe the how needs to be performed or
  accomplished
• - Qualities
• - Attributes

Consider Behavioral Competencies Soft Skills
Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Reliability Validity
Reliability 1. Are the results repeatable
when performed by a different person (s) or the
same person (s) at a different time? 2. Is there
internal consistency in each competency unit?
Validity Do the results measure or are they
representative of what they intend or purport
to measure? Is the competency job related?

• Qualified Experts
• Recent Fleet Experience (3-6 months)
• Knowledge of work requirements (not only what is
  done but what is supposed to be done)

Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Goodness of Competencies
Amount/Type of Review Indicates the Quality of
the Competencies
Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Process Methodology

• Requires multiple reviews of data to ensure
  reliability and validity of the work and worker
  elements
• Examination of legacy/extant previously validated
  data and doctrine
• Workforce planner initial review
• Occupational experts initial review
• Initial validation by expert panel via focus
  group (cluster sample to capture population
  variance)
• Validation through increase in sample size
• Industrial Psychologists with experience in job
  analysis competency modeling assemble/generate
  data for expert review
• Data collection/sampling strategy is created for
  each profession/role

Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Process Methodology cont.

• Technical
• Experts are asked to accept, reject, or modify
  the technical work requirements
• Experts are asked to load the task, knowledge,
  skill, and ability statements to the technical
  work requirement
• The content of the work requirement is validated
  using a content validity ratio
• Experts provide ratings of
• Importance, Frequency, Difficulty
• Core vs. Specialty Skill
• Where the requirement is learned
• Percentage of time actually performing the work
  element
• Current tends and future work requirements are
  analyzed

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Process Methodology cont.

• Behavioral
• Experts review behavioral competencies
• Via a card sort method and the utilization of 3
  filter questions determine the relevance of the
  competency to successful performance of technical
  work requirements
• Behavioral Competencies have a definition
  behavioral anchors
• Critical Incident (Flanagan) technique is
  utilized to define effective vs. ineffective
  instances of performance for BARS development

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Structure

• New concept for some who have performed job
  analysis in the past
• Represents units or chunks the information

Competency Title

• KSAs are attached for the entire unit

Description
Knowledge Skills Abilities
Tasks
Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Competency Development Process
Quality Control
Assemble Data
Occupational Analysts
Legacy Data
10 days
Draft Competencies
Authoritative Competencies
Verified Competencies
Workforce Planners
Validated Competencies
Validate
SMEs
2.5 days
Data Warehouse
End Users
Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Position Individual
Proficiency
Proficiency
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Impact/Benefits

• Standardized
• Process
• Taxonomy
• Data Hierarchy
• Provides Personnel Interoperability
• Scientifically Validated
• Aligned with NSPS
• Data Warehouse
• SME/Community Involvement Key
• Time Commitment
• 3- 6 months originally, renew once a year

Krain and Gabel (2008)
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Questions?
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Prioritization Process/ Communities of Interest
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Prioritization Review
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Prioritization Process Category Scoring

• Criticality Composite
• Risk
• Skill/Complexity
• Demand Signal/High turnover
• Cost
• Scope and Effect
• Population Size

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Prioritization Process Other Selective Factors
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Example
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Crosswalk Results
Mapped to
1442
545
Used as a means to reduce redundancies