Abstract
Developing competence in organisations has received increased attention among both practitioners and academics during the last two decades. This chapter aims to investigate what constitutes competence development at work, that is, the basis for what it takes to develop competence. Without such an understanding, we are unable to know what to focus on when developing competence at work. As a first step, different theories of competence at work are outlined as a precursor to exploring what constitutes the development of that competence. Based on that review, it is argued that developing an understanding of work is the basis for competence development. As a second step, what constitutes understanding and how it operates is investigated by drawing on the phenomenological hermeneutic theory of understanding. Based on that analysis, it is argued that understanding is constituted by an inevitable circularity, in the sense that developing an understanding of something presupposes that something is already understood. Finally, I discuss the implications that this circularity of understanding has for the way we develop competence at work.
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Sandberg, J. (2001). Understanding the Basis for Competence Development. In: Velde, C. (eds) International Perspectives on Competence in the Workplace. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0742-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0742-9_2
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