Article Critiques
The following article will analyze Jorgen Sandberg's journal article on human competence published by the Academy of Management Journal in 2001 with specific emphasis on the study and research design and objectives, theoretical framework, literature review, research approach, clarity of methodology and the presentation of the results. The goal of this critique is to offer an opinion on the structure, approach and content of the article.
Sandberg sets out to study on competence using an interpretive approach, as opposed to the conventional rationalistic approaches that have been used to study competence in a work situation. Normally, in studying the elements of competence at work, researchers have focused on skill sets and attributes, like academic qualifications and experience. In the interpretive approach, a ‘phenomenography' approach is used, an approach that does not only look at the knowledge and skills of the employees but also the specific knowledge required in carrying out specific tasks. Sandberg explains the need for the study, citing previous research's failure to address competence as an aspect of management. Concepts of competence go back to the turn of the century, when a guy called Taylor, an engineer, noticed that least skilled people performed tasks at the same level with some perfectly skilled workers.
The objectives of the study come out very clearly. The fact that Sandberg went back to explain his departure from conventional approaches to the study of competence to the new interpretive approach makes the article very candid, and fresh. He succeeds in building the case study, and his decision to study the competence of engine optimizers at Volvo Car Corporation in Sweden gives the study a unique direction.
Theoretical Framework
Sandberg examines three theories that have been used in the study of competence; work-oriented approaches, worker-oriented approaches and multimethod-oriented approaches. In an overview, he offers the differences between the approaches, saying that the work oriented approaches concentrate on the nature of the tasks, and specific attributes required for someone to perform the duties competently. The work-oriented approach comes with specifications and required competencies. On the other hand, worker-oriented approaches center their arguments on the specific abilities and skills of the worker. The last approach, the multimethod-oriented approach, draws a connection between the work and worker-oriented approaches, by leveraging on the criticisms of each approach to come up with a comprehensive understanding of competence.
Sandberg raises critical issues about the rationalistic approaches discussed above, noting that, all of them view aptitude as an attribute-founded occurrence. He also notes that the rationalistic approaches list attributes as prerequisites for job performance, without offering a quantitative measure on the application of the prerequisites on the real job. By doing that, Sandberg establishes a clear course of his study that raises relevant issues and concerns. By offering a fresh phenomenal approach to competence, Sandberg infuses the human element to work, by diffusing the differences between work and worker, and introducing the concept of the meaning of work to the worker and its effect on competence.
Research Approach
Sandberg pins his study on the interpretive approaches that will lead to interpretations about competence. He backs his decision to use this approach by mentioning some of the success stories of this approach in the past. He narrows down on interpretive approaches to phenomenography, an interpretive research approach that came to prominence in the 1970s. Phenomenography uses conceptions as benchmarking aspects of human beings, then moves towards what people do, and how they value competence (Finlay, 2009, p. 09). In essence, Sandberg is trying to construct a study from the end to the start, win aim of understanding how people perceptions and ideas about their job affect their competence. As noted earlier, the approach brings in a human element, and contextual study.
While the approach is different from the past studies, it still raises questions about the reliability of the findings, and the potential differences between the findings from the rationalistic findings. For instance, it may end up being that discipline is an integral feature in attaining competence. The question is, does this finding become different just because the approach was different? Nevertheless, Sandberg makes a very bold move to indulge the Volvo engineers from their off-work lives to on-the-job experience (National Foundation for Educational Research, 2013).
Methodology
Sandberg based his research at the Volvo engine optimization department, which employs 50 engineers. He selected 20 of the engineers for the study, noting previous studies that postulated that variation of phenomenon becomes saturated when one reaches the 20th participant. Ideally, he began noticing the repetition of variations on the 15th engineer, beyond which no new concepts emerged. Sandberg used interviews and observations in conducting the study, with an insistence that his aim was to understand the employee's work experiences in engine optimization. The interviews would last for three hours, carried in the optimizing department. As to the observations, he spent his time hanging around the engineers at their workstations, asking questions and joining them in the seminars.
Presentation of results
Sandberg starts the results presentation by explaining the attributes of the work done by the engineers; adjusting parameters such that Volvo cars can be driven by anybody, anywhere under different conditions. That means that, in achieving the objectives of their tasks, the engineers have to do multi-layered controls. That included creating optimizations for differing qualities, intersecting ones and using customer perspective. In this particular explanation, he notes that, if he had assumed the job requirements, he would have missed fundamental ideologies of the engineers, like their problems set, that pushed their conceptions about their work.
For a similar job in the same department of one company, Sandberg creates three distinctive structures of competence. For instance, the ‘ability to self-teach' is a fundamental attribute of ‘optimizing from the customer perspective'. However, it does not feature as necessary for ‘optimizing different qualities'. From the observations and results, it can be argued that a competent engineer at Volvo might be able to optimize engines that customers would find perfect, but he would not be able to sort optimizations for intersecting qualities.
Sandberg explained the relevance of the results and the usefulness of the new insight in the study of competence. Shifting the thinking on human competence from a set of attributes to workers' conceptions of their work is disruptive, and it presents a starting point on a journey that looks into understanding competence. For instance, if an employee is exposed to a certain area of engine optimization, and he has conceptions that he can perfectly predict customer perspectives to a very high degree of significance, then he will be better at that particular optimization that someone else with better academic credentials but lacking in similar work convictions. Another important finding of the report is its impact on attributes, by changing the perspective of attributes as a set of meanings to the word, to attributes as works that are looking for meanings.
The research succeeds in debunking the novice to expert theory; where employees are expected to gain skills with experience. Sandberg discovers that conceptions are more important than experience because even a beginner can reach expert levels very fast if s/he sets on a specific optimization area. In establishing the differences in the levels of competence, Sandberg evaluated the different optimizations and discovered that optimizing customer perspective required one to have the first and second set of optimization competencies. That meant that the final stage had the most competent engineers because they had broadened conceptions of their work, and dedicated pursuit of all round competence. The findings in the study pose a paradigm shift kind of thinking that demands fresh training of employees on work perceptions and ways to improve these conceptions with a view to imparting competence
Sandberg presents the results perfectly, drawing tables and offering explanations that help the reader understand the concept of the research. His research comes out with the freshness it promised at the beginning, and it is not a wonder that it has been cited so many times (Statistics Canada, 2010). Clarity of purpose and the perfect matching of objectives with results make the article excellent.
References
Finlay, L. (2009). Debating Phenomenological Research Methods. Phenomenology & Practice, 3(1), 08-10.
National Foundation for Educational Research. (2013, October 1). How to Choose your research methods. Retrieved from http://www.nfer.ac.uk/schools/developing-young-researchers/how-to-choose-your-research-methods.cfm
Sandberg, J. (2000). UNDERSTANDING HUMAN COMPETENCE AT WORK: AN INTERPRETATIVE APPROACH. Academy of Management Journal, 43(1), 9-25. doi:10.2307/1556383
Statistics Canada. (2010, January 1). Data analysis and presentation. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/12-539-x/2009001/analysis-analyse-eng.htm
