Competency Definitions, Development and Assessment: A Brief Review

Competencies have been used as valid predictors of superior on-the-job performance in business organizations over the last 40 years. An abundant of empirical evidence has suggested that competencies play important roles in human resource management (HRM) practices for different types of organizations. However, the important roles of competency have not been fully integrated into the business world, creating a gap between theory and practice. There seems to also appear a number of misperceptions with regards to the use of the term ‘competency’ in the literature. This paper intends to trace the origins of competency and document various definitions and concepts of competency proposed by different scholars. In addition, the paper also aims to shed light on the processes, guidelines, and techniques for developing competencies pragmatically for a particular job or profession as well as the importance of competency-based assessment in organizations for today’s HRM practices.