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| Issue |
Competence
building in organisations |
| Outline |
[MT:]
Competence building is a complex process in which competencies that are
traditionally assumed for their 'exchange value' should also be conceived
from their 'use value'. The 'exchange value' refers to individual competencies
which are officially recognised, produced through formal processes, and
specifically valued in the labour market. The 'use value' refers also to
trans-individual competencies which are of a context-specific nature and
generated within organisational processes of knowledge creation and use.
In
the 'globalising learning economy' approach some guidelines for a new integrated
competence building system are suggested as a result of at least three
policy levels:
-
at the
firm level every enterprise tends to increase its own knowledge assets,
largely based on tacit or context-specific knowledge;
-
the inter-firm
level is characterised by inter-firm mobility of employees and by diffused
forms of cooperation, alliance and networking among firms;
-
at an
overall level synergies have to be reached between social, educational
and industrial policies with regard to the social capital reproduction
(based
on: Tomassini 2001k, pp. 4, 5). |
| Debate |
[NB:]
Referring to the distinction between individual competence and collective
competence: Education and training seem to privilege individual competence;
the individual is certificated as an individual. In the UK, and probably
other countries, certificates of competence in work-related skills are
awarded to trainees, not work groups. But if we look at knowledge and skills
that are useful in a work situation, these have somehow become collective
competencies.
This
is especially the case in the so-called learning economy. As we rely more
and more on ICT and distributed network-type organisations, the emphasis
is more and more on collective competence. Researchers have looked at the
ways in which teams perform effectively or ineffectively, and the key capabilities
seem to be attributes of the team which cannot be decomposed into
individual competencies.
A
major issue we need to discuss in this cluster is how policies can be developed
to manage the transition from individual competence, which seems to dominate
the formal educational system, towards collective competence, which seems
to be what is required by many innovative approaches to the exploitation
of knowledge in companies. |
| Reference |
|
| Event |
E&T
Cluster: Fiesole Oct 01 |
|