Research on Competency Model:A Literature Review andEmpirical StudiesAbstractWestern countries have applied competency models to addressing problems existed in their administrative and managerial systems since 1970s，and the findings is positine and promising. However, competency model hasn’t been introduced to China until 1990s and it is still unknown and mysterious to many Chinese managers. This paper aims to uncover the mysterious veil of competency model in order to broaden the horizon of Chinese managers and boost China's human resource development as well as management.Keywords:Competency，Competency Models，Empirical Studies of Competency ModelsIt has been more than 30 years since competency model was utilized to human resource management.In western countries，competency model first displayed its effectiveness in government administration, meanwhile many multinationals and their branch companies applied the competency model to their daily business management and their business was a great success. As the notion of competency is gradually come to light and accepted by people all around the world，more and more enterprises have been trying to build their own competency model under the help of professional consultant firms. As a result，competency model has gradually been a very fashionable phrase in the field of management and quite a few enterprises are thus benefited from it. In recent years, competency model has become a hot spot in the Chinese academia as well as big-，middle- and small-sized enterprises alike，many relevant writings and books have also been translated and published. However, competency and competency model are still mysterious to many Chinese scholars, business managers as well as government administrators.Purpose and Significance of the StudyThe purpose of the study aims to make a critical literature review of the competency model，clarify some confusion related to it and explore its application. The following questions are employed to guide this study:What is competency? What is competency model? What are the theoretical and empirical findings related to competency model?The study illustrates how we could take advantage of competency model in our harmonious society building. On one hand，the study will delineate competency and competency model in order to clarify confusions related to it since it is still strange and mysterious to many Chinese managers and administrators;on the other hand，the study would enrich Chinese HRD&HRM in the field of government administration and business management both theoretically and empirically.Research MethodThe present study has utilized qualitative analysis, induction and deduction. Since this research is a literature review in some sense, qualitative analysis will be an indispensable research method; Induction and deduction are applied to both theoretical and empirical studies.In order to enhance the credibility of present research，only the authoritative publications on competency model are reviewed，including books and papers written by foreign and Chinese scholars and HRDHRM practitioners. By searching for the keywords "competency" "competency model" and "competency model building" as well as "empirical studies on competency models"，books and papers written by well-known foreign scholars such as McClelland D. C.，Lyle M. Spencer, Anntoinette D. Lucia, Richard Lepsinger etc.，are available; by the same token，books and papers written by Chinese scholars such as Zhi-gong He，Jianfeng Peng, Shaohua Fang, Nengquan Wu，etc.，could be consulted. All the books and papers are published between 1950s and 2007. In addition, many data cited in this paper comes from empirical studies at home and abroad.FindingsIn this part，a literature review of competency is firstly carried out;then competency model as well as its evolution，development and innovation is delineated;finally empirical studies are reviewed. Empirical studies mainly focus on competency model building and its application to human resource development and management.Understanding CompetencyIn 1973，American scholar David C. McClelland published his paper Testing for Competency Rather Than Intelligence which cited a large amount of research findings to illustratethe inappropriateness of assessing personnel qualities by abusing intelligence tests. Dr. McClelland further explained that some factors (personality, intelligence, value，etc.)which people had always taken for granted in determining work performance hadn't displayed their desired result. As a result，he emphasized that people should ignore those theoretical by pothese and subjective judgements which had been proved groundless in reality. He declared that people should tap directly those factors andbehaviors which could really impact their performance (McClelland, 1973). These factors and behaviors were named "competency" by McClelland. The publishing of this paper symbolized the debut of competency research. From then on，many scholars started getting involved into the research on competency and they conceptualized competency from different perspectives as shown in the following table: The above ten concepts of competency have a lot in common:①Competency is motive, trait，value，skill，self-image, social role，knowledge;②Competency is a combination;③Competency should be measurable, observable, instructional，phasic and hierarchical;④Competency is a determinant to outstanding performance.Thus competency is an underlying combination of individual characteristics such as motive, inner drive force, quality, attitude，sole role，self-image, knowledge and skill，it is causally related to criterion-referenced effective and/or superior performance in a job or situation and it is measurable，observable and instructional.Besides，many scholars and consultancy firms believe that competency could be explained under the help of three different models:Iceberg Model. This model treats competency as an iceberg, the part above the water represents behavior, knowledge and skills which are easy to measure and observe，while the part under the water symbolizes underlying qualities such as value，attitude，social role, self-image，traits which are hard to assess，and the deepest part under the water represents the most latent qualities such as inner drive force，social motive, etc. which are most difficult to observe and measure.Onion Model. This model treats competency as an onion, the outer layer represents skills and knowledge which are liable to acquire，the inner layer refers to qualities such as self-image，social role，attitude and value which are relatively difficult to appraise, while the core of the onion symbolizes traits and motives which are most difficult to cultivate and develop.Brain Model. This model stems from the brain mechanism. It presupposes that the brain could be divided into four parts. Each part functions differently. The upper-left part is in charge of competency such as analysing capacity, calculation, strong logic ability; the upper-right part is in charge of competency such as innovation and intuition;the bottom left part is in charge of competency such as organizing ability, planning ability; and the bottom-right part is in charge of competency such as communication ability，perception, etc. Different parts will exert corresponding influence on competency development.Conceptualizations of Competency ModelFew foreign scholars have directly put forward conceptualizations of competency model. By contrast，many Chinese scholars have expressed their opinions on it. The present paper only cites those concepts that have been published byauthoritative publishing houses.Jianfeng Peng, a professor in Ch;na Renmin University，together with his students, has studied how to build competency models for effective HR management since 2003. He thought competency model was the combination of different qualities which were necessary for people to successfully finish a job or achieve superior performance，these qualities included different motives，traits, self-images and social roles as well as knowledge and skill (Jianfeng Peng, 2003). Prof. Peng believed that a competency model was composed of 4-6 competencies that were closely related to performance. Competency models could help managers judge and distinguish key factors that led to superior performance or underperformance. As a result，competency model could be treated as a foundation to improve performance.Professor Nengquan Wu from Sun Yat-sen University published his book Competency Model:Design and Application in 2005，according to his understanding, competency model refers to "proficiencies that people define core competencies of different levels, delineate corresponding behaviors，determine key competencies as well as f inish certain work.‖(Nengquan Wu，2005). Prof. Wu conceptualized competency model from the perspective of methodology. He believed that competency model was a unique HRM thinking mode, method and operation flow. On the basis of organizational strategy, competency model could be utilized to enhance organizational competitiveness and improve performance.Shaohua Fang, a senior HRM consultant and expert，provided us with the following definition:"Competency model is to conceptualize and describe the necessary knowledge,skills，qualities and abilities which an employee should have in order to finish work (Shaohua Fang, 2007)‖.By taking advantage of definitions of different levels and related behavioral descriptions, people could determine the combination of core competencies and required proficiency to finish work. Hc} pointed out these behaviors and skills must be able to measure，observe and instruct and they should exert a great influence upon personal performance and business success.International Human Resource Institute(IHRI) has also defined competency model:"The so-called competency model is the standardized description and explanation of competencies that could actualize superior performance.‖(·IHRI, 2005)IHRI declared that a competency model should include 6^-1 2 competencies.In summary, the first concept mentioned above attaches an importance to the composition of competency model and its function, while all of the rest three concepts emphasize cognitive abilities as well as criterion-referred performance. Thus competency, model is a combination of different competencies which could beobserved，delineated，explained and calculated on one hand，and could facilitate superior performance on the other hand.Development and Evolution of Competency ModelIn early 1970, top officials in U. S. Department of State believed that their diplomats' se- lection based on intelligence test was ineffective. It was an upset situation for them to find that many seemly excellent people fail to live up to their expectations regarding their work performance. Under such circumstances, Dr. McClelland was invited to help Department of State design an effective personnel selection system which could appraise the actual performance of employees. In that program，McClelland and his colleague Charles Dailey adopted the method of Behavioral Event Interview (BEI) to collect information in older to study factors that influenced the diplomats' performance. Through a series of summaries and analyses, McClelland and Dailey found out the differences between an excellent diplomat and a mediocre diplomat as far as their behaviors and modes of thinking were concerned. In this way, competencies that a diplomat should possess were found out. This program is the earliest empirical application of competency model. And the research findings were two papers: Improving Officer Selection for the Foreign Service (McClelland&Dailey，1972) as well as Evaluating New Methods of Measuring the Qualities Needed in Superior Foreign Service Information Officers(McClelland& Dailey，1973).Mcber and American Management Association (A'MA) also started their research on competency model in the same year. They focused on providing the answer to the question:what kind of competencies should be displayed by successful managers rather than unsuccessful ones? AMA spent 5 years observing 1 800 managers. By comparing the performance of excellent managers and mediocre ones, AMA defined their competencies based on their traits. The research results showed that all the successful managers shared the following 5 competencies:professional knowledge，maturity of mentality, maturity of .entrepreneurship，people relations and maturity of the profession. Of which，only professional knowledge were shared by excellent and mediocre managers (Mcber&.AMA, 1970).Then Prof. Bray carried out 8 years research at AT&T based on technique of assessment center. From the aspectives of abilities, attitudes and traits, etc.，he built a competency model composed of 25 competencies such as interpersonal relations, expression ability, social sensitivity, creativity，flexibility，organizational ability，planning ability, decision-making ability, etc(Bray and Grant，1978).In China，however, researches on competency model are relatively much late.Chinese scholars Chongming Wang and Minke Chen published their paper about competency model in Psychological Science in 1992. They studied 220 senior andmiddle-level managers of 51 enterprises in 5 cities. After examining and testing the competency model for senior managers on the basis of factor analysis and structural equation modelling, they compiled "Key Managerial Behavior Assessment Scale" (Chongming Wang&Minke Chen，2002).Scholars such as Kan Shi, Jicheng Wang and Chaoping Li took advantage of Behaviocal Event Interview to assess the competency model for senior managers in the industry of telecommunication (Kan Shi，Jicheng Wang&Chaoping Li，2002). Jicheng Wang designed 5 universal competency models for technical personnel，sales people, community service personnel，managers as well as entrepreneurs respectively.Jianfeng Peng and his postgraduate student Xiaojuan Xing built 4 universal competency models for business managers，business technical personnel，marketing personnel as well as HR managers (Jianfeng Peng，2003 ).The above domestic studies illustrate that competency models for middle-level and senior managers have been built based on in-depth interview and questionnairing. Most publications only focus on conceptualizing competency model，its development，behavioral event interview as well as competency model building，most of the findings are theoretical rather than empirical. By contrast，foreign studies are much maturer both theoretically and empirically.Empirical StudiesEmpirical studies highlight the application of competency model to enterprises, governments and other institutions.Nowadays，empirical studies on competency models mainly focus on the following 4 aspects:Staffing and Selection. Besides job standards and skills prescription, more and more businesses have carried out their personnel staffing and selection in light of the candidates' competencies which are crucial to their future performance. This competency-based personnel staffing and selection has connected business strategies and targets to business employees themselves. As a result，the quality of staffing and selection is greatly improved.Performance Management. Businesses which have built their competency models are more interested in the competency rather than the result itself in their performance management. As a result, their performance management style has been competency-driven rather than result-driven. Managers haven’t attached an importance to short-term performance, but current and long-term performances. In such a managerial system，outstanding performance has been easily actualized. Each employee has made most of their core competencies and expertise to make a contribution to their business.Compensation Management.After the competency-based compensationmanagement system is set up, businesses have concentrated on their employees’future development and potential value, which has stimulated employees and managers of all ranks to improve themselves both menetuacy and teconologcal. Competency oases compense lion management system has helped enterprises attract and retain more talents. In a word，competency model has endowed employees with a sense of respect and creativity.Training and Development. Enterprises which have built their competency models tend to determine core competencies in light of business strategies，environments, employee development planning and performance appraisal. Enterprises decide their training and development priorities on the basis of competency model.Future TrendsDespite that there is a growing body of literature on competency model，research on competency model is still in a premature stage and many questions still remain unanswered. Therefore, further research is required to address several important issues.First of all，although there are growing studies on the impacts of the competency model on organizational outcomes，antecedents of competency model need to be identified and academically explored. Future studies are needed to examine the relationships between the features of competency model and its key antecedent variables such as organizational sttracture.leadership and external environment. For example，it can be reasoned that the features of competency model are likely to be positively correlated with the structures of enterprises, governments as well as other institutions. Secondly，the impact of competency model on performance needs to be thoroughly explored. More studies are needed to examine whether the features of competency model or organizational culture，has direct or indirect impacts on organizational performance. While quite a few HRD and HRM researchers and practitioners have demonstrated that the concept of competency model has a positive impact on organizational performance, however，such impact may be mediated by other important organizational variables. Finally, it is also important to consider the relationships of competency model and other important HR variables such as career development, managerial coaching as well as employee training.Conclusions and DiscussionsIn conclusion，competency model has increasingly exerted profound influence on human resource development and management. While this concept has received an increase in both academic and management fields，there are increasing empirical studies designed to examine the nature of the construct and its relationships with other important organizational variables. More studies are needed to enhance the theoreticaland empirical foundations of competency model.胜任力模型研究：文献综述和实证研究摘要20世纪70年代以来，西方国家已经利用胜任力模型来解决存在于行政和管理系统中的问题，其结果是积极且有前途的。