# Management Competencies

**URL:** <http://discourse.iapct.org/t/management-competencies/6692>\
**Category:** CSG1998\
**Created:** [July 8, 1998, 10:19pm UTC](http://discourse.iapct.org/t/management-competencies/6692 "1998-07-08T22:19:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Fred\_Nickols3](http://discourse.iapct.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/9de053/32.png) [@Fred\_Nickols3](http://discourse.iapct.org/u/Fred_Nickols3)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 1998, 10:19pm UTC](http://discourse.iapct.org/t/management-competencies/6692/1 "1998-07-08T22:19:46Z")

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[From Fred Nickols (980708.1810 EDT)]

I posted the following to the Management Education and Development  
(MG-ED-DV) list operated by Charlie Wankel at St Johns University. I'd be  
interested in CSG list members' comments. (By the way, I sent the letter  
to the editor at HBR and I'll let you know what happens.)

> Regarding the management competencies thread...
> 
> I've taken some time to examine the matter and I'm not convinced that  
> there's anything substantial behind the "management competencies" facade.  
> First off, there's no widespread agreement as to what constitutes a  
> competency. Second, I find it hard to separate skill, attribute, quality,  
> characteristic, proficiency level, and competency. The classification  
> scheme is a little shaky. Third, it has all the earmarks of a would-be fad  
> (lots of people talking it up and making grandiose claims about its value).  
> So, I've adopted a wait-and-see attitude (i.e., if it turns out to be  
> solid, I'll buy in; if not, I'll stay out of it).
> 
> That said, I do have an idea or two about competent managers and what sets  
> them apart from their less capable colleagues.
> 
> Most people are capable of achieving the same or similar outcomes in  
> different settings and under different circumstances. I can successfully  
> drive to and arrive at work whether it's clear, cloudy, raining, or snowing  
> like the dickens, and whether it's in Suffield, Connecticut or Princeton,  
> New Jersey. I can get my message across with clerks on the processing  
> floor and executives in the boardroom. I can elicit interest in certain  
> possibilities from young computer "jocks" and seasoned systems analysts.
> 
> What makes this all possible is that people are what has been termed  
> "living control systems." As plainly as I can put it, people vary their  
> actions so as to keep their perceptions of what's going on around them more  
> or less aligned with a set of internally-held reference conditions. (For  
> those interested, this is all spelled out in William Powers' 1973 book,  
> Behavior: The Control of Perception.)
> 
> Those people we call managers are no different from the rest of us, that is,  
> they also act to control their perceptions and to keep those perceptions  
> aligned with their reference conditions.
> 
> Let's assume for the moment that we can somehow distinguish between  
> competent and not so competent managers. The next issue is to account for  
> the difference.
> 
> To my way of thinking, it isn't the actions of a manager that define him or  
> her as competent. Instead, it is the ability of a manager to engage in  
> those actions that are appropriate to the situation at hand. I am not  
> talking here about a broader or narrower repertoire of routines that are  
> invoked and executed in a command and control sense. I am suggesting that  
> a manager's actions are varied in a continuous, ongoing way, so as to keep  
> his or her perceptions of what's going on lined up with his or her  
> reference conditions. In a word, I am talking about configured actions,  
> not executable, preprogrammed routines.
> 
> If we assume that people and thus managers are indeed living control  
> systems, then the difference between a competent and a less competent  
> manager wouldn't be attributable to observed differences in their  
> observable behaviors but, rather, to the reference conditions against which  
> they are attempting to maintain control.
> 
> I'll close with a simple example. Manager A is controlling for a  
> perception of power and control over people. This person will act in ways  
> intended to attain and then maintain this reference condition. Observing  
> this person's behavior, we might label it at various times as "autocratic,"  
> "haughty," "lording it over others," "bossy" and so on. Manager B is  
> controlling for a perception of ensuring that people get credit for their  
> ideas. Observing this person's behavior might lead us to identify it at  
> times as "caring," "protective," "supportive" and other such labels.  
> Manager B, if he or she chose to, could probably behave similarly to  
> Manager A. The same is true of Manager A, that is,  
> he or she could behave similarly to Manager B. The difference between the  
> two isn't their behavioral repertoires, it's the reference conditions  
> against which they are controlling. The two managers have very different  
> reference conditions.
> 
> Tying back now to the purpose of the MG-ED-DV list, all this suggests to me  
> that management training, education, and development is more a matter of  
> focusing on identifying, communicating, and getting managers to adopt  
> appropriate reference conditions, than it is one of teaching them to behave  
> differently. In short, it's a matter of developing values, beliefs, and  
> standards as much or more than it is a matter of developing skills or  
> "competencies" (whatever they are).
> 
> Regards...
> 
> Fred Nickols, Executive Director  
> Strategic Planning & Management Services  
> Educational Testing Service [09-C]  
> Princeton, NJ 08541  
> Tel = 609.734.5077 Fax = 609.734.5590  
> e-mail = fnickols@ets.org
> 
> Views expressed are the author's, not ETS's.

Regards,

Fred Nickols  
The Distance Consulting Company  
nickols@worldnet.att.net  
[http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm](http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm)

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