Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
@
@
(continued)
268
Table 2.
Workshop
(continued)
Objectives
Public
Target audience
Personnel Management 42(2)
Competency related
Workshop Objective Audience
Project To understand the process Civil staff at the @ @ >*
Management of project management, t o central and local
explore issues that should governments.
be considered during project
planning and execution, and t o
use practical drills t o enhance
project management capability.
File Management For the implementation of File New staff in file x x x
of Central Law and related law, t o improve and information
Government the understanding of file management at central
management and professional government under
ability through practical learning Executive Yuan.
and experience exchange.
Note: KPI = key performance indicate. " @" means "competency related" and "*<" means no "competency related."
Research Analysis
In Taiwan, infroducing a new and different training model to the govemment organi-
zation is difficult, and sometimes the new training model may be misused. In other
words, employees may treat the new method as just the latest fashion. Although, as
seen from the literature review, competency-based training focuses on five critical
factors (organizational goals, high performance, competency model, competency gap,
and training package), in training practice, there are some problems when competency-
based training is conducted. These are described below.
Competency Setting Without a High Performance System
The basic competency-setting processes in Taiwan's public sector have involved policy
research by an extemal expert, definition of principles, duty analysis, a questionnaire
investigation, and dynamic competency analysis to match the competency concept in
literature and practice. Yet, the key point of the competency standard is based on the
high performance system, generated by high performance employees who have certain
distinctive personal characteristics. In the duty analysis and questionnaire investigation
process period, however, all civil servants were involved, whether they were high or
low performance employees. Hence, the competency-setting results may display only
an average level standard, not a high performance standard.
Competency-Based Training Without Integrated Checking of the
Competency Gap and Individual Differences
Checking gaps helps to target what is needed across the enterprise to create the right
skill sets. In Taiwan, the CPA has designed a management core competency scale for
Wu 269
high- and middle-level civil servants. This scale enables about 900 agencies to evalu-
ate their employees' competency. Yet, when the CPA interviewed practitioners in the
public sector, these agencies could not understand the function of the evaluation
method because the competency concepts and skills were new and difficult. The CPA
did not double cheek whether the agencies had completed the evaluation properly. In
addition, the CPA did not integrate its checking of the competency gap with assess-
ment of individual differences.
Annual Training Plan Without Effective Linkage With Competency
Model
In the Taiwan govemment, there is a Govemment Employees Training and
Reorientation Law, which legislates that each agency must set an annual training plan.
The CPA deals with annual training for middle- and high-level civil servants. Without
identifying individual differences in the competency gap, the CPA annual training
plan requires all civil servants to attend, regardless of whether they have a gap.
Moreover, while the annual training plan has 18 workshops, only 4 of them exactly fit
the competency model and the designs for middle- and high-level civil servants. Some
workshop objectives are not management competencies but general competencies,
such as "Briefing Skills" and "Press Release Writing." This means that the annual
training plan does not consider the association between competency and individual
competency deficiencies properly.
Research Suggestions
For Training Practitioners in the Public Sector
Competency-based training is not a fashionable term. However, as shown in this arti-
cle, competency-based training is an effective training approach for both the private
and public sectors. Because there are so many govemment employees who need train-
ing, it is difficult to manage class design and time schedules to meet every individual's
needs. With reference to Dubois and Rothwell's (2004) emphasis on "increased
responsibility for his or her own leaming," here are some suggestions conceming
competency-based training: (a) understanding what high performance in the public
sector is, (b) identifying the best civil servants and their attitudes, (c) evaluating differ-
ent individual training needs, (d) designing training packages for individual gaps,
and (e) developing a training roadmap for self-directed leaming.
For Future Research
In fact, human resource management and development in Taiwan's public sector does
emphasize competency setting and competency-based training, and revised compe-
tency items were issued in July 2009. But in the implementation period, the CPA is
still meeting obstacles. Suggestions for future research to address these are as follows:
(a) conduct research on the obstacles and why these obstacles occur, (b) focus on other
270 Public Personnel Management 42(2)
countries' implementation period, (c) design a fraining package and roadmap that is
effective for those agencies that have too many civil servants to operate the fraining
successfully, (d) conduct an experimental study to understand the results after
competency-based fraining has been given.
Author's Note
This paper was presented at The 8th International Conference of the Academy of Human
Resource Development (Asia Chapter), Manama, Bahrain, in December 2009.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
Note
1. In 2012, Central Personnel Administration changed its name to "Directorate-General of
Personnel Administration." But its function and work did not change. The Directorate-
General of Personnel Administration is still responsible for the training of civil servants.
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Author Biography
Jui-Lan Wu, PhD, graduate institute of human resource management of National Central
University, Taiwan, is the director of the Department of Training Assessment, Civil Service
Protection and Training Commission, R.O.C. (Taiwan).