Abstract
Applying competency models to identify and develop capabilities of civil servants is now a leading strategy for every government. However, an ideal competency model usually contains too many intended competencies, impeding implementation. Recently, some scholars and experts argued that there is a maximum of eight competencies for effective assessment. Hence, how to simplify a set of competencies becomes an important issue. This study is presented as a test case to extend practical applications of rough set theory (RST) in the human resource field of Government. A well-known data mining technique, RST is a relatively new approach to this problem and is good at data reduction in qualitative analysis. Hence, the rough set approach is suitable for dealing with the qualitative problem in simplifying a set of competencies. This paper slimmed a set of competencies using RST, thus helping the Taiwan Government to better understand the perceived competency levels of its civil servants. Using the rough set analysis, this paper successfully reduced the numerous essential competencies into a more compact set, by omitting low-consensus competencies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Athey TR and Orth MS (1999). Emerging competency methods for the future. Hum Res Mngt 38: 215–226.
Beynon MJ and Peel MJ (2001). Variable precision rough set theory and data discretisation: An application to corporate failure prediction. Omega: Int J Mngt Sci 29: 561–576.
Curry B (2003). Rough sets: Current and future developments. Int J Knowl Eng Neural Networks 20: 247–250.
Dimitras AI, Slowinski R, Susmaga R and Zopounidis C (1999). Business failure prediction using rough sets. Eur J Opl Res 114: 263–280.
Dive B (2004). Education Management. New Zealand Management: Auckland.
Dubois D and Prade H (1992). Putting rough sets and fuzzy sets together. In: Slowinski R. (ed). Intelligent Decision Support: Handbook of Applications and Advances of the Rough Sets Theory. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Dordrecht, pp. 203–232.
Goh C and Law R (2003). Incorporating the rough sets theory into travel demand analysis. Tourism Mngt 24: 511–517.
Kelner SP (2001). A few thoughts on executive competency convergence. Center for Quality Mngt J 10: 67–72.
Krusinska E, Slowinski R and Stefanowski J (1992). Discriminant versus rough sets approach to vague data analysis. Appl Stochastic Models Data Anal 8: 43–56.
Mansfield RS (1996). Building competency models: Approaches for HR professionals. Human Res Mngt 35: 7–18.
McClelland DC (1973). Testing for competence rather than for ‘intelligence’. Am Psychol 28: 1–24.
Mi JS, Wu WZ and Zhang WX (2004). Approaches to knowledge reduction based on variable precision rough set model. Inform Sci 159: 255–272.
Mirable R (1997). Everything you wanted to know about competency modeling. Training Dev 51(8): 73–77.
Mori N, Tanaka H and Inoue K (2004). Rough Sets and KANSEI: Knowledge Acquisition and Reasoning from KANSEI Data. Kaibundo: Japan, Tokyo.
Pawlak Z (1982). Rough sets. Int J Comput Inform Sci 11: 341–356.
Pawlak Z (1984). Rough Classification. Int J Man–Machine Stud 20: 469–483.
Pawlak Z (1997). Rough Sets. In: Lin T.Y. and Cercone N. (eds). Rough Sets and Data Mining: Analysis for Imprecise Data. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Norwell MA.
Pawlak Z (2002). Rough sets, decision algorithms and Bayes' theorem. Eur J Opl Res 136: 181–189.
Rodriguez D, Patel R, Bright A, Gregory D and Gowing MK (2002). Developing competency models to promote integrated human resource practices. Human Res Mngt 41: 309–324.
Schoonover SC, Schoonover H, Nemerov D and Ehly C (2000). Competency-based HR applications: Results of a comprehensive survey. Andersen/Schoonover/SHRM, Schoonover Associates: MA (Massachusetts).
Sinnott GC, Madison GH and Pataki GE (2002). Competencies: Report of the competencies workgroup, workforce and succession planning Work Groups. New York State Governor's Office of Employee Relations and the Department of Civil Service, New York.
Skowron A and Grzymala-Busse JW (1993). From the rough set theory to the evidence theory. In: Fedrizzi M., Kacprzyk J. and Yager R.R. (eds). Advances in the Dempster–Shafer Theory of Evidence. John Wiley & Sons: New York, pp. 295–305.
Slowinski R and Zopounidis C (1995). Application of the rough set approach to evaluation of bankruptcy risk. Int J Intell Syst Account Finance Mngt 4: 27–41.
Tay FEH and Shen L (2002). Economic and financial prediction using rough sets model. Eur J Opl Res 141: 641–659.
Walczak B and Massart D (1999). Rough sets theory. Chemometrics Intell Laboratory Syst 47: 1–16.
Wang YF (2003). Mining stock price using fuzzy rough set system. Expert Syst Appl 24: 13–23.
Works Institute (2003). What is the competency? Works 57: 1–47.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Huang, IF., Wu, WW. & Lee, YT. Simplifying essential competencies for Taiwan civil servants using the rough set approach. J Oper Res Soc 59, 259–265 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602516
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602516