| Chapter 2: | Competency Standards Design Methodology |
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The integration of personal attributes with the performance of a role or set of tasks is a core and essential aspect of this approach (ANTA, 2001a; Hager et al., 1990, p. 364). Three types of competency are thus implicated. These are the performance-based, attribute-based, and integrated conceptualisations. Among these, the concept of emotional intelligence competence is attribute-based.
Associated with this policy are prescribed processes and methodologies through which standards are to be set. The ANTA (2001a) approach followed fairly closely the model advocated by Mitchell in the U.K. (1989) and is contained in the Training Package Development Handbook (ANTA, 2001a).
A considerable advantage of the use of the ANTA (2001a) methodology is its likely contribution to the ability to implement the standards. This is because at the time of writing, it was the mandated way by which competency standards were specified for use in the workplace. The familiarity of this approach will help make the standards conceptually accessible and amenable to workplace utilisation. While implementation issues are separate from design issues, and hence, are essentially beyond the scope of this book, they cannot be entirely divorced from such issues.
What follows is a brief consideration of the nature of competency standards. This will be followed by a description of the construction of standards as specified by the ANTA (2001a) methodology. It will then be proposed that this methodology could be used for the specification of emotional intelligence competency standards.
Nature of Competency Standards
Within the ANTA (2001a) context, standards are framing instruments that have multiple uses. These include management, legal, human resources, educational, and industrial relations applications (see Chappell, Gonczi, & Hager, 2000, p. 191; Dawkins, 1989). In what follows it is argued that they are best seen as reflexibly modifiable statements of ends that need to be constantly renegotiated.