Discuss the concept of competency mapping.

Discuss the concept of competency mapping. Briefly explain the methods of competency mapping citing suitable examples.


Ans. Competency mapping
Competency means capacity of a person to work up to his or her finest ability. Mapping means to represent on map or graph or any other way togetherly we can say that competency mapping means to represent abilities of employees and workers on a map or graph or any other method. It makes easy for employers and organization to find that at which level they lie. Competence mapping is done to judge the abilities of an employee various methods of competencies mapping are:-
(a) Rating Scale
The rating scale method providers a form wherein, for each person who is to b rated or mapped, the number of qualities and characteristics are enumerated, for example, analytical ability, leadership, decisiveness, job performance, emotional stability etc. One form of rating scale is the continuous wherein the rater places a mark somewhere on a continuous. Work attitudes also can be rated easily.
(b) Employee comparison methods
(i) Ranking System
The ranking system requires the map per to rank his subordinates on overall performance. This consists in simply mapping the competency man in a rank order.

(ii) Forced distribution
This method is designed to prevent the employees from clustering their men mostly on the high side or on the low side. It tackles the errors due to excessive linens, stiffness and central tendency. It requires the map per to allocate the rating of his subordinates in a pattern conforming to a normal curve for example-the supervisor must put 10% of his people in the top few, 20% in the next highest category, 40% in the middle and 10% at the bottom.
(b) Checklist
(i) Weighted checklist method
In this system, a large number of statements that describe a particular job are given. Every statement has a weight or a scale value attached to it while mapping the competence of employee the supervisor checks all those statements closely describe the behavior of the individual under assessment. The rating sheet is then scored by average the weights of all the statements.
(ii) Forced choice method
This method was developed during the Second world wide by a group of industrial psychologists to evaluate the competence of officers in the U.S army. In this system a rating form is specifically constructed for a type or group of jobs with a group of four to five statements for every factor.

(c) Critical incident method
Some organizational follow this method which requires every superior
to adopt the practice of keeping a notebook of significant incidents in each employees behavior that indicates his poor or good performance. There are specifically designed note books containing appropriate characteristics mapping is done
(d) Field Renew System
The essence of this method is that line officers do not themselves of personnel department come to the shop floor and interview the employers to obtain the information. This information is then sent to the supervision for their approval. Then, the men are mapped on this basis.
(e) Group Approval
The group appraised method is in vogue in some organizations. Decisions pertaining to the promotions pay increases, job changes and other such issues are discussed in a meeting between the supervisor and his subordinates.
(f) Free form essay
In this method no scale, checklists, or other devices are used, but a supervisor simply required to write down his impressions about an individual on a sheet of paper.

(g) Behaviorally Anchored rating scale method (BARS)
BARS combines major elements from the critical incident and graphic rating scale approaches. The appraised rates the employees on the
actual behavior on the job given or general traits of employees.