Competence: Bases for employee effectiveness

The 2009 World Investment Report issued by the United Nations estimates there are 82,000 transnational corporations with over 810,000 foreign affiliates who employ 77 million workers worldwide – more than double the labor force of Germany. This one metric alone demonstrates the extent of the globalization of business. Managing a culturally diverse workforce across geographic, social and political boundaries is a strategic issue for organizations. Our understanding of the requisite competencies of a global workforce is a key factor in successful management. Today’s employee has need for a more complex set of competencies, and the balance of dominant competencies shift as they progress through their career. The base competencies of self-management and communication provide groundwork for managing others and complex tasks in increasing uncertainty. The ability to work effectively across cultural boundaries and take a leadership role in global settings proves to be the determining factor between success and failure in a global context. Understanding the implications for selection, assessment, development and evaluation of a globally dispersed workforce is critical to aligning human capital with strategic goals of the company. Creating programs that are equally capable of meeting the organization’s strategic needs while also supporting individual level self-reflection and development is challenging. This new reality requires new ways of understanding the demand for competencies, including the correlation between competencies and career path; identifying the requisite competencies in potential and existing employees, and their ability/propensity to take responsibility for their own development; and developing a competence portfolio that is manageable, useful and globally appropriate. This chapter will provide an understanding of the issues, identify requisite competencies, and provide a road map for achieving a highly effective workforce for the global business environment.