understanding human competence at work: an …

" Academy of Management Journal2000, Vol. 43. No. 1, 9-25.

UNDERSTANDING HUMAN COMPETENCE AT WORK:AN INTERPRETATIVE APPROACH

JORGEN SANDBERGStockholm School of Economics

In the prevalent rationalistic approaches, human competence at work is seen asconstituted by a specific set of attributes, such as the knowledge and skills used inperforming particular work. As an alternative to the rationalistic approaches, aninterpretative approach, "phenomenography," is proposed and explored here. Find-ings suggest that the meaning work takes on for workers in their experience of it, ratherthan a specific set of attributes, constitutes competence. More specifically, the resultsdemonstrate that the particular way of conceiving of work delimits certain attributesas essential and organizes them into a distinctive structure of competence at work.

Organizational actions such as producing cars,treating illnesses, transporting, and educating are al-ways based on human competence. A fundamentalmanagerial problem is to develop human competenceat work in a way that enables an organization toremain viable. Today, developing competence is alsobecoming an increasingly important issue. Rapidtechnological change within areas such as microelec-tronics and communications in comhination withgrowth in service and knowledge-based industries(Ekstedt, 1988; Eliasson, Folster, Lindberg, Pousette,,& Taymaz, 1990; Neef, 1998) has led to the need for anongoing development of competence for competitivesuccess (Kanter, 1983; Porter, 1990). Thus, from amanagerial perspective, this need leads to a furtherdemand for efficient ways to manage training anddevelopment in organizations. However, in order tomanage training and development efficiently, manag-ers need to understand what constitutes human com-petence at work. Without such an understanding,competence development cannot be managed effec-tively and, therefore, effectiveness in organizationscannot be achieved.

The aim of this study was to investigate whatconstitutes human competence at work. In this arti-cle, an interpretative approach is proposed as an al-ternative to the prevalent rationalistic approaches. Inthe rationalistic approaches, competence is seen asconstituted by specific sets of attributes, such as theknowledge and skills used in performing particular

The work reported herein was supported by grantsfrom the Volvo Foundation and the Swedish Council forWork Life Research. I would like to express my gratitudeto Gloria Dall'Alba, to the editor, and to the anonymousreviewers for their careful reading of, and valuable com-ments on, earlier versions. This article has profited tre-mendously from their contributions.

work. Approaches to competence developed withinthe interpretative research tradition are reviewed tofurther clarify what constitutes competence. On thebasis of that review, I propose an interpretative ap-proach, "phenomenography," and report an empiri-cal examination of that approach conducted througha competence analysis of engine optimizers at theVolvo Car Corporation in Sweden.

IDENTIFYING HUMAN COMPETENCE:A CLASSIC MANAGERIAL PROBLEM

Only recently has the concept of competencebeen used more systematically in management. Pri-marily, it is the concept's focus on the relationbetween person and work that researchers such asMcClelland (1973), Boyatzis (1982), Kolb (1984),Morgan (1988), and Nordhaug (1993) have foundattractive when identifying and describing essen-tial human knowledge and skills at work. As Mor-gan (1988) argued, the concept of competence en-courages scholars to think not only about knowledgeitself, but also about the knowledge that is required incompetent work performance. Hence, the expression"human competence at work" used in this study doesnot refer to all knowledge and skills, but to thosepeople use when working.

Although the concept of competence has notbeen in frequent use until recently, the problem ofidentifying what constitutes competence at work isnot new. Taylor (1911) was one of the first in mod-ern times to address this problem. When workingas an engineer, he noticed a large difference be-tween the least and most competent workers' waysof accomplishing their work. To enable the identi-fication of what constituted competence among themost competent workers, Taylor argued for leader-ship based on scientific principles from the rational-

10 Academy of Management Journal February

istic tradition. Drawing on those principles, heelaborated his well-known "time and motion stud-ies." Taylor proposed that by using these studies,managers should be able to identify what consti-tutes workers' competence by classifying, tabulat-ing and reducing it to rules, laws, and formulas.Using these descriptions of competence as a start-ing point, Taylor demonstrated that managerscould set up systematic training and developmentactivities that yielded improvements in workers'competence and consequently, increased effective-ness in organizations.

Current Rationalistic Approaches to Competence

Today, the dominant approaches used within man-agement to identify competence do not consist oftime and motion studies but of job analysis (Arm-strong, 1991; Cascio, 1995; Ferris, Rowland, & Buck-ley, 1990; Gael, 1988). However, they are essentiallybased on the scientific principles of the rationalisticresearch tradition. Three main approaches can be dis-tinguished: the worker-oriented, the work-oriented,and the multimethod-oriented (Sandberg, 1994;Veres, Locklear, & Sims, 1990).

Within the worker-oriented approaches, compe-tence is primarily seen as constituted by attributespossessed by workers, typically represented asknowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs) and personaltraits required for effective work performance(Veres et al., 1990: 87). For example, a commonlyused worker-oriented approach is the job elementmethod (Veres et al., 1990). The relevant attributesare captured through use of a group of joh incum-bents and supervisors. The attributes identified areorganized into predefined categories, such asKSAs. The attributes are then rated to allow quan-titative measurement of the correlation betweensuccess in accomplishing the work and possessionof the designated attributes.

More recently, researchers have used the termcompetencies to further stress the importance ofattending to worker attributes that are strictly work-related (Armstrong, 1991; Boyatzis, 1982; Kolb,1984; McClelland, 1973; Morgan, 1988; Nordhaug,1993; Woodruffe, 1990). For instance, Boyatzis(1982) descrihed a job competency as "an underly-ing characteristic of a person in that it may he amotive, trait, skill, aspect of one's self-image orsocial role, or a hody of knowledge he or she uses"(1982: 21; emphasis in original). Furthermore, Boy-atzis argued that "because job competencies areunderlying characteristics, they can be said to begeneric" (1982: 21; emphasis added). The generic,context-independent nature of job competenciesmeans that they can appear in many different work

activities. For example, drawing on Boyatzis's ap-proach. Spencer and Spencer (1993) investigatedwhich competencies superior performers were us-ing in more than 200 different jobs. Their findingsshow that superior performance at work is usuallya result of specific sets of competencies combinedin a particular way. However, the worker-orientedapproaches have heen criticized for producing de-scriptions of competence that are too general andabstract. For instance, Jacobs (1989) questionedBoyatzis's (1982) generic model of competence inmanagement, which has been widely applied inBritain and the United States. In a study of morethan 500 organizations in the United Kingdom thathave used Boyatzis's method, Jacobs found thatdifferent managerial johs required different compe-tencies. From those findings, he concluded that theuse of the Boyatzis method tended to produce de-scriptions of competence that are too generic andahstract and therefore of limited value as a basis forcompetence development.

In the work-oriented approaches, competence isalso regarded as a specific set of attributes. How-ever, although advocates of the worker-oriented ap-proaches take the worker as the point of departure,advocates of the work-oriented approaches take thework as the point of departure (Fine, 1988; Flana-gan, 1954). More specifically, they first identifyactivities that are central for accomplishing specificwork and then transform those activities into per-sonal attributes. By doing so, they are able to gen-erate more concrete and detailed descriptions ofwhat constitutes competence and, thus, largelyovercome the problem of generating descriptions ofcompetence that are too general. One basic criti-cism of the work-oriented approaches is that a listof work activities does not sufficiently indicate theattributes required to accomplish those activitiesefficiently (Raven, 1994).

Proponents of the multimethod-oriented ap-proaches also stipulate that competence is consti-tuted by a specific set of attributes. What distin-guishes the multimethod approaches from theothers is their more comprehensive approach tocompetence. More specifically, their advocates at-tempt to avoid the criticisms raised against theworker- and work-oriented approaches by drawingon both of those approaches. For example, Veresand colleagues (1990) adopted a multimethod-oriented approach to identify competence in thework of police lieutenants. Their description con-sisted of 46 worker attributes expressed in the formof KSAs that corresponded to 23 police activities. Thework activities and the attributes were then quanti-fied in percentage terms relating to police work.

To sum up, although the rationalistic approaches

2000 Sandberg 11

differ in the ways they identify competence, theyprovide similar theories of competence at work:they all regard competence as an attribute-basedphenomenon. More specifically, within the ratio-nalistic approaches, human competence is de-scrihed as constituted hy a specific set of attrihutesthat workers use to accomplish their work. Hence,those who perform their particular work more com-petently than others are regarded as possessing asuperior set of attrihutes. Furthermore, attrihutesare primarily seen as context-independent. That is,a specific attrihute, such as communication skills,is regarded as having a fixed meaning in itself; it isviewed as independent of context and thus as ahleto he adopted in a range of work activities.

A Critical Evaluation of the RationalisticApproaches to Competence

Although the rationalistic approaches have con-tinued to contrihute to understanding of compe-tence, their view of competence as a set of at-trihutes has heen criticized as prohlematic foridentifying and descrihing competence at work.According to Attewell (1990), Norris (1991), andSandherg (1991,1994), the rationalistic "operation-alizations" of attrihutes into quantitative measuresoften result in ahstract and overly narrow and sim-plified descriptions that may not adequately repre-sent the complexity of competence in work perfor-mance. Yukl (1994) came to a similar conclusion.He found that the ahstract nature of the categoriesof competence used in most leadership studiestended to limit their utility. Moreover, the use ofKSAs and other general models of competencewithin the rationalistic approaches tends to pre-define what constitutes competence. As I argued inearlier work (Sandherg, 1994), such predefinitionsof competence may confirm a researcher's ownmodel of competence, rather than capture workers'competence. The strongest concern, however, isthat the descriptions of competence produced hythe rationalistic approaches are indirect. That is,the sets of KSAs or competencies do not illuminatewhat constitutes competence in accomplishingwork. Rather, an identified set of attrihutes speci-fies central prerequisites for performing particularwork competently. But such descriptions demon-strate neither whether the workers use these at-trihutes, nor how they use them in accomplishingtheir work. For example, two workers may he iden-tified as possessing identical attrihutes hut mayaccomplish work differently, depending uponwhich attrihutes they use and how they use them.

Why direct descriptions of human competenceare not forthcoming is not immediately apparent in

the rationalistic theories and methods themselves.Instead, these reasons emerge when one examinesassumptions underlying these theories at the meta-theoretical level, ontological and epistemologicalassumptions in particular. In a general sense, therationalistic researchers invoke a dualistic ontol-ogy, assuming that person and world are distinctentities, and an ohjectivistic epistemology, assum-ing the existence of an ohjective reality indepen-dent of and hey ond the human mind (Bernstein,1983; Husserl, 1970/1936; Rorty, 1979; Schon,1983; Searle, 1992; Shotter, 1992; Winograd &Flores, 1986). The dualistic ontology underlies di-vision of the phenomenon of competence into twoseparate entities, namely, worker and work. Theobjectivistic epistemology implies objective, know-able work that is beyond workers and leads to de-scriptions of work activities that are independent ofthe workers who accomplish them. Taking this oh-jective, dualistic perspective, advocates of rational-istic approaches identify and describe human com-petence indirectly, viewing it as consisting of twoindependent entities—prerequisite worker attributesand work activities.

Interpretative Approaches to Competence

The interpretative research tradition may pro-vide an alternative to the rationalistic approachesto competence. Weher (1964/1947) was the primaryinitiator of this tradition, but phenomenologicalsociologists such as Schutz (1945, 1953), Bergerand Luckmann (1966), and Giddens (1984, 1993)developed it further. The main feature of the inter-pretative research tradition is its phenomenologicalhase, the stipulation that person and world areinextricahly related through persons' lived experi-ence of the world (Berger & Luckmann, 1966; Hus-serl, 1970/1900-01; Schutz, 1945, 1953). Accord-ingly, competence is not seen as consisting of twoseparate entities; instead, worker and work formone entity through the lived experience of work.Competence is thus seen as constituted by themeaning the work takes on for the worker in his orher experience of it (Dall'Alba & Sandberg, 1996;Sandberg, 1994). The shift in the point of depar-ture—from worker and work as two separate enti-ties to the workers' lived experience of work—gives rise to an alternative way of understandinghuman competence at work.

A major finding that has emerged from interpre-tative studies of competence carried out in a rangeof different areas such as artificial intelligence(Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986), education (Schon, 1983),nursing (Benner, 1984), and ethnographic and eth-nomethodological studies of competence within

12 Academy of Management Joumal February

sociology (Atkinson, 1988; Barley, 1996; Brown &Duguid, 1991; Fielding, 1988a, 1988b; Garfinkel,1986; Kusterer, 1978; Livingston, 1987; Tyre & VonHippel, 1997) is that attributes used in accomplish-ing work are not primarily context-free but are sit-uational, or context-dependent. More specifically,the attributes used in particular work acquire theircontext-dependence through the workers' ways ofexperiencing that work, A central feature of thecontext-dependence of competence is its tacit di-mension (Polany, 1967), Giddens noted the follow-ing: "[Work activities are] largely carried out inpractical consciousness. Practical consciousnessconsists of all the things which actors know tacitlyabout how to 'go on' in the contexts of social lifewithout being able to give them direct discursiveexpression" (1984: xxiii). When attributes areviewed as context-free, the tacit dimension of com-petence is overlooked (Brown & Duguid, 1991;Fielding, 1988a; Schon, 1983), Reviewing recentethnographic studies of workplace practices.Brown and Duguid concluded "that the ways peo-ple actually work usually differ fundamentallyfrom the ways organizations describe that work inmanuals, training programs, organizational charts,and job descriptions" (1991: 40), Within education,Schon (1983) made a similar point in his criticismof universities and other institutions that educateprofessional workers. He argued that such institu-tions are principaiiy based upon a rationalisticepistemology that "fosters selective inattention topractical competence and professional artistry"(1983: vii). He closely examined what professionalworkers such as architects, psychotherapists, engi-neers, planners, and managers actually do whenthey work. Schon discovered tbat when workersencounter their work, tbey frame and set the prob-lem situations of the work through their experienceof it. In other words, as workers frame their work,the attributes used in performing that work are notseparate from their experience of it, but internallyrelated to work through their way of framing thespecific work situation.

Hence, if attributes acquire their context-depen-dent nature through workers' experience of theirwork, as suggested by the findings of interpretativestudies, then people's ways of experiencing workare more fundamental to their competence than theattributes themselves. Although the reported inter-pretative studies further clarify what constitutescompetence by highlighting the context-depen-dence of attributes, the studies do not demonstratehow these attributes are integrated into competentwork performance. Nor do they explicitly capturethe variations in competence that may occur withina group of workers. The interpretative studies of

Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) and of Benner (1984)capture variations in competence in terms of differ-ent levels of competence acquisition. However,these authors did not describe variations in compe-tence that may occur at any one level, among nov-ices, advanced beginners, or experts, for example.In other words, tbey do not sufficiently explainwhy some people perform work more competentlythan others.

Pbenomenography as an Interpretative Approachto Competence

Building upon previous interpretative researchon competence, in earlier research (Sandberg,1994) I explored how attributes are integrated intowork performance and outlined the possible varia-tion in workers' competence. In that study, phe-nomenography was adopted as an interpretativeapproach to competence. This approach was origi-nally developed by an educational research groupin Sweden in the seventies (Marton, Dahlgren,Svensson, & Saljo, 1977) to describe the qualita-tively different ways in which aspects of reality areexperienced (Marton, 1981). Overviews of the de-velopment and use of this approach are offered byDall'Alba and Hasselgren (1996), Marton (1981),Marton, Hounsell, and Entwistle (1984), Martonand Wenestam (1984), Ramsden (1988), and Mar-ton and Booth (1997), As in other approacheswithin the interpretative research tradition, the pri-mary focus of phenomenography is on the meaningstructure of lived experience—that is, the meaningan aspect of reality takes on for the people studied.In the phenomenographic approach, the term con-ception is used to refer to people's ways of experi-encing or making sense of their world. In thepresent study, a conception signifies the indissol-uble relation between what is conceived (the con-ceived meaning of reality) and how it is conceived(the conceiving acts in which the conceived mean-ing appears).

METHODS

Selecting Participants and Collecting Data

A phenomenographic approach to competencewas adopted during an empirical study in tbe de-partment of engine optimization .at the Volvo GarCorporation in Sweden, The task of an all-malegroup of approximately 50 engineers was to de-velop engines for new models of cars. To obtaindata that captured the greatest possible variation incompetence within this group, I selected 20 opti-

2000 Sandberg 13

mizers, following Glaser and Strauss's (1967) no-tion of theoretical sampling in terms of theoreticalrelevance. More specifically, maximum variationin formal education and length of time in optimi-zation work were criteria for selection. The selec-tion of 20 optimizers was based on previous phe-nomenographic studies (more than 50 doctoraltheses and between 500 and 1,000 research reports[Alexandersson, 1994]), in which the variation of aphenomenon reached saturation at around 20 re-search participants, after which no new concep-tions emerged. In this study, the variation in com-petence began to repeat itself after about 15optimizers.

In exploring what constituted competence inengine optimization by taking engineers' concep-tions of their work as the point of departure, Iused observation and interviews. The aim of theobservation and interviews was to capture thepossible variation in conceptions of engine opti-mization in a rich and comprehensive way. First,I tried to establish what Apel (1972) called acommunity of interpretation. According to Apel,the production of valid knowledge presupposesan understanding between researcher and re-search participants about what they are doing.First of all, I arranged a seminar with the opti-mizers in which I explained that my aim was tounderstand their lived experience of engine op-timization. I then spent approximately one weekin their department, observing and talking withthe optimizers about their work. I also attendedinternal seminars about their work, such as theintroduction program for new employees. Fi-nally, on beginning each interview with a worker,I reminded him that my purpose was to discusshis experience of engine optimization.

The interviews took place in the department ofengine optimization and lasted between two andthree hours. Two principal questions were put tothe selected optimizers: "What does optimizationwork mean for you?" and "What is a competentoptimizer for you?" These questions were elabo-rated and substantiated with follow-up questions.For example, questions such as "What do you meanby that?", "Can you explain that further?", and"Can you give an example?" were posed so that theworkers were required to elaborate and demon-strate what their statements meant in practical sit-uations. This dialectical process continued untilwe made no further progress. The interviews wereaudiotaped and transcribed word-for-word. In all,the transcriptions amounted to some 700 pages ofsingle-spaced text.

Analyzing Data

My aim in the subsequent analysis was to searchfor variation in the optimizers' conceptions of en-gine optimization and to make explicit the basicmeaning structure of these conceptions. The anal-ysis was carried out in an ongoing iterative processin which I alternated between what the optimizersconceived of as work and how they conceived ofthat work. The starting point was acquiring a gen-eral grasp of the optimizers' conceptions of engineoptimization. I did this by reading each transcriptseveral times. After I had grasped each optimizer'sconception generally, I sorted the optimizers intogroups according to their conceptions. Second, Iread all the transcripts again, to systematicallysearch for what each optimizer conceived of asengine optimization. The main focus here was noton the particular statements in themselves, as inmost forms of content analysis. Instead, the pri-mary focus was on the meaning of a particularstatement in relation to the context of tbe surround-ing statements and the transcript as a whole. WhenI had analyzed what each optimizer conceived of asengine optimization, I shifted the analysis fromsingle optimizers and compared the conceived op-timization work across optimizers. First, I com-pared the individuals within each group from thefirst phase of the analysis. Second, I comparedthem between groups. This process resulted insome optimizers being moved from one group toanother.

Third, I analyzed all the transcripts again, butnow in terms of how each optimizer conceived ofengine optimization. The primary focus in thisphase of the analysis was on how the optimizersdelimited and organized what they conceived asengine optimization. After I had analyzed eachtranscript, I compared the optimizers with eachother, first within and then between groups. Again,this process led to some regrouping.

Finally, I analyzed all the transcripts once again,simultaneously focusing on what each optimizerconceived of as the work in relation to how theyconceived of that work. I then cross-checked myinterpretations of each conception, I did so by read-ing through the transcripts expressing a particularconception while testing whether an alternative in-terpretation held. I performed this cross-checkinguntil I believed I had found the most faithful inter-pretation of each optimizer's way of conceiving ofengine optimization. This cross-checking also ledto clearer and more precise formulations of theconceptions. I eventually reached a point where,despite further cross-checking, each conception ofengine optimization remained stable. The analysis


resulted in three groups of optimizers expressingqualitatively different conceptions of engine opti-mization. Six optimizers expressed conception 1; ten,conception 2; and four, conception 3.

Validity and Reliability Criteria

As noted, phenomenology was my point of de-parture in this research. In the phenomenologicalview, person and world are inextricably relatedthrough a person's lived experience of the world.This notion applies not only to workers' compe-tence, but also to a researcher's interpretation ofthat competence. Therefore, to justify my interpre-tations, I used three criteria: communicative andpragmatic validity (Kvale, 1989, 1996) and reliabil-ity as interpretative awareness (Sandberg, 1994,1995). Establishing communicative validity in-volves an ongoing dialogue in which alternativeknowledge claims are debated throughout the re-search process (Kvale, 1989). Pragmatic validity in-volves testing the knowledge produced in action(Kvale, 1989). Striving for pragmatic validity in-creases the likelihood of capturing knowledge inaction rather than what Argyris and Schon (1978)called "espoused theories." Reliability as interpre-tative awareness means acknowledging tbat re-searchers cannot escape from their interpretationsbut must explicitly deal with them throughout theresearch process. In tbis study, phenomenologicalreduction was used as a strategy for achieving in-terpretative awareness. Adopting phenomenologi-cal reduction means striving to withhold theoriesand prejudices about the research object (Giorgi,1990; Ihde, 1977). The main ways in which I triedto meet the above criteria are elaborated below.

In collecting data, communicative validity wasachieved by: (1) establishing a community of inter-pretation to ensure an initial understanding be-tween the optimizers and me about their work andmy research, (2) using only two principal open-ended interview questions to encourage the opti-mizers to identify and describe to me what theythemselves conceived of as central in engine opti-mization, and (3) dialectically using follow-upquestions during the interviews to help me furtherensure that I understood the optimizers' ways ofconceiving of engine optimization. When obtainingdata, pragmatic validity was achieved by: (1) ob-serving the optimizers at work and comparing whatI had observed with what they said in the inter-views, (2) asking follow-up questions that requiredthe optimizers to demonstrate what statementsmeant in practice, and (3) observing the optimizers'reactions to particular interpretations of their state-ments. Reliability as interpretative awareness was

achieved when obtaining data by being oriented tothe ways in which the optimizers were conceivingof their work tbrougbout tbe observation and inter-view phase. More specifically, (1) I primarily askedwhat and how questions in order to encourage theoptimizers to focus on describing what engine op-timization meant for them, (2) initially strived totreat all the optimizers' statements about their workas equally important, and (3) asked extensive fol-low-up questions that required tbe optimizers toelaborate on and be more specific about what theymeant by their statements.

In the analysis, communicative validity wasachieved by making interpretations of the optimiz-ers' statements about their work that were consis-tent with both the immediate context of surround-ing statements and with the transcript as a whole.Also, the identified conceptions were presented tothe optimizers on two occasions, initially to tbe 20study participants and then to all 50 optimizers inthe department. On both occasions, the optimizersconfirmed that tbe identified conceptions werevalid. Reliability as interpretative awareness wasachieved in a similar way in the analysis as in tbeinterview phase. Throughout the analysis, I fo-cused on the ways the optimizers conceived ofengine optimization. I tried to maintain such a fo-cus by: (1) both trying to hold back my own preun-derstandings of competence and continuouslychecking if my interpretations were grounded inthe optimizers' descriptions of their work, (2) ini-tially treating all the statements made by the opti-mizers as equally important in my interpretations,and (3) checking my interpretation of each optimiz-er's conception by reading through transcripts ex-pressing one particular conception using a qualita-tively different conception.

Besides achieving the above criteria, the resultswere replicated in two ways. First, I chose a ran-dom sample often transcripts, tbree for conception1, five for conception 2, and two for conception 3.An independent researcher coded the selected tran-scripts against the conceptions, achieving agree-ment of 90 percent with my categorizations. Sec-ond, my presentation of the results to theoptimizers led to a request from Volvo for a modelfor competence development based on the concep-tions I had identified. To elaborate such a model,Theman (1995) replicated the study using 7 addi-tional optimizers from the group of 50, selectedaccording to tbe criteria of the original study. Theselection of 7 more individuals was primarily mo-tivated by the requirement for a deeper and moredetailed description. Theman's study confirmedthe three identified conceptions of engine optimi-zation in the reported study. The distribution of the

2000 Sandberg 15

optimizers across the conceptions was the follow-ing: 2 in conception 1; 3 in conception 2; and 2 inconception 3.

express the frequency with which the attributeswere expressed by the optimizers for each concep-tion.'

RESULTS

Competence in Engine Optimization

As noted above, optimizers develop car enginesfor new models of cars. They develop these enginesby optimizing a range of qualities such as driveabil-ity, fuel consumption, emissions, and enginepower (performance) according to particular re-quirements. These qualities are optimized by ad-justing different parameters within the electronicmonitoring systems in such a way that an engineworks smoothly. An "approved" car (one thatmeets the Volvo Corporation's requirements)should be able to be driven by almost any driver,under almost any conditions. Also, a number ofrequirements from authorities need to be met, suchas limiting exhaust to a given amount. However,the large variation in markets for the company'sproducts, which include warm, cold, humid, anddry places and places at high and low altitudes,makes it impossible for the optimizers to test thequalities of an engine in all potential driving situ-ations. They are therefore never certain of havingsucceeded in achieving the optimum. In addition,engine optimization is characterized by continuoustechnological development. In particular, tbe de-velopmental pace within electronics has acceler-ated in recent years, leading to continuous changein optimization work. Given these conditions, howcan engine optimizers refine an engine accordingto the stipulated requirements? In my interpreta-tion, three qualitatively different conceptions ofengine optimization emerged from the optimizers'descriptions. These were engine optimization as (1)optimizing separate qualities, (2) optimizing inter-acting qualities, and (3) optimizing from the cus-tomers' perspective.

Within each conception, it is possible to distin-guish several essential attributes of competence.More specifically, each conception is characterizedby a specific structure of attributes that appear asthe optimizers accomplish their work. Thus, a par-ticular way of conceiving of the work delimits cer-tain attributes as essential and organizes them intoa distinctive structure of competence in engine op-timization. Hence, the workers conceptions of thework constitute their competence in engine optimi-zation. The way each conception and its key at-tributes form a distinctive structure of competencein engine optimization is summarized in Table 1and elaborated below. The numbers in the table

Conception 1: Optimizing Separate Qualities

The most characteristic feature of this conceptionis that tbe individuals expressing it delimit andorganize the optimization work in terms of a num-ber of separate steps focusing on the relation be-tween the monitoring parameters and eacb singlequality of an engine. Within each step, they testvarious adjustments of the parameters to optimize asingle engine quality, such as driveability or fuelconsumption, according to stipulated require-ments. The optimizers optimize one single qualityat a time until all qualities meet tbe requirements.The following discussion between the interviewer(I) and an optimizer (O), which developed out ofthe key question "What is a competent optimizerfor you?" illustrates this view:^

I: What do you use these [measurement results] for?

07: You get measurement results about how muchhydrocarbon and NOX (nitrous oxide) and CO(carbon monoxide) the engine leaves and fuelconsumption. You do a whole .series of testsand it [the measurement] will change a little bit.Then you take a mean value for it and the resultshould be under a particular value and when itdoes that, it's okay,

I: What do you do when you have reached it?

07: Well, then one says it's okay and begins toconcentrate on other qualities.

^ What matters concerning the reliability of resultswithin the interpretative approach adopted in this studyis not the frequency of statements about the attributes.Instead, the crucial reliability question concerns the con-ception as a whole and the way in which essential at-tributes are related to each other. As I described in theMethods section, the interpretative approach used in thisstudy does not focus on the statements themselves, as iscommon in most forms of content analysis. Rather, astatement has a particular meaning in relation to thecontext of the surrounding statements and the transcriptas a whole.

In this study, reliability was achieved in terms of in-terpretative awareness and the coding of selected tran-scripts against a conception and its attributes by an in-dependent researcher achieving agreement of 90 percent.The reliability of the statements was checked in the sensethat the independent researcher did not find statementsthat were inconsistent with the conceptions or their at-tributes,

^ In the quotations, the number following "O" indi-cates the particular optimizer who was speaking.


TABLE 1The Constitution of Three Distinctive Structures of Competence through Variation in Ways of Conceiving

of Engine Optimization"

Conception

(1) Optimizingseparatequalities

(2) Optimizinginteractingqualities

(3) Optimizingfrom thecustomers'perspective

Main Focus

Relationbetweenmonitoringparameter andsingle enginequality

Relationsbetween thequalities of theengine

Relationbetweenoptimizedengine andcustomers'experience ofdriving

Ahility toAnalyze and

Interpret

Analyze andinterpret howone or severalmonitoringparametershave influencedthe quality

19

Ahility toOptimize

Accurately

Be accurate andmethodical intheoptimization

20

Optimize thequalities of theengine in theright order andbe accurate

37

Key Attrihutes

Knowledgeof theEngine

Understandhow thequalities of theengine react tochanges in theparameter

15

See linksbetween thequalities of theengine

48

Practical senseof the engine

26

of Competence

Knowledgeof the

MonitoringSystems

Understandwhichmonitoringparametershave aninfluence on aspecific qualityof the engineand how theydo so

16

Understandand developmonitoringsystems (toreach a desiredinteractionamong theenginequalities)

41

Understandand developmonitoringsystems (toachievecustomers'requirements)

15

Ahility toSelf-Teach

Interest inengines andself-teaching(about linksbetween enginequalities)

28

Interest inengines andself-teaching(aboutcustomers'requirements)

13

Ahility toCooperate

With Others

Cooperate withthe otherpeople involvedandcommunicate tothem on howthe engineought to beoptimized

23

Cooperate andhave relevantcontacts

10

' Numbers are the frequencies with which the attributes were expressed.

The focus of the conception 1 optimizers on therelation between monitoring parameters and a sin-gle engine quality implies that all their key at-tributes are centered around that relation, forming adistinctive structure of competence in engine opti-mization. The ability to analyze and interpret howone or several monitoring parameters have influ-enced engine quality is one of the most fundamen-tal attributes of this conception. It is through thisattribute that these workers evaluate each optimi-zation. They build up their understanding of ana-lyzing and interpreting the particular optimizationthrough the attribute of being accurate and me-thodical. Wben addressing a specific quality, theseindividuals change one monitoring parameter at atime, analyze the influence it had on the currentquality, note it, choose a new parameter and change

it, investigate the influence on the quality, and soon. Analyzing and interpreting also implies theattribute of understanding how the qualities of anengine react to changes in the parameter. This isthe kind of knowledge that the optimizers build uparound the qualities of an engine so tbat they canjudge which parameter should be adjusted and byhow much in order to reach the desired require-ment. This attribute is closely connected to tbeattribute of understanding which monitoring pa-rameters have an influence on a specific quality ofan engine and how they do so. Togetber, these twolatter attributes form two poles of the focused rela-tion between the parameter and engine quality.This basis allows for the optimizers to analyze andinterpret the results from the tests and tben adjustthe relevant parameter so that the optimum value of

2000 Sandberg 17

the quality in question will be reached in eachseparate optimization step.

Conception 2: Optimizing Interacting Qualities

In contrast to the workers described above, tbeindividuals wbo hold conception 2 do not delimitand organize engine optimization into separatesteps but see it as several interacting steps in whichevery engine quality is optimized in relation toevery other. Delimiting and organizing the optimi-zation work as interacting steps shifts the focusfrom the relations between monitoring parametersand single engine qualities to the relations amongthe qualities of the engine. These optimizers takeall optimizing steps into consideration at each sin-gle step, thinking "If I optimize a specific quality,what will happen to the remaining engine qualitiesthat will subsequently be optimized?" Hence, forthese optimizers, the primary aim in each step is tooptimize a single quality so that it will interact withthe remaining qualities to ultimately produce anapproved engine:

I: But if we say it like this, what is a competentengine optimizer for you?

OlO: It's someone who has an idea about, , , some-one who can see into this crystal ball, in thisengine's future, yeah, into the future of mywork. The further you are able to understandthe future, the better I think it is. We have tomake modifications to certain things to be ableto achieve other things later on. So to be ableto understand how , , , a certain optimizationinfluences other qualities. It's not so simplethat if I optimize X, then all other qualities areindependent, because they aren't. The link be-tween these qualities, I think, is important andyou learn them through experience. That'swhat I'm talking about, being able to under-stand things, understand the links, because ifyou understand the links you can more easilylook into the future and judge what will hap-pen.

This change in focus implies that the attributeswithin this conception emerge from the relationsbetween tbe qualities of tbe engine, again forming adistinctive structure of competence in engine opti-mization. As the qualities of the engine interactwith each other, the optimizers must understand inwhich order and how accurately the qualitiesshould be optimized in eacb situation. Thereforethe attribute of optimizing the qualities of the en-gine in the right order and being accurate is offundamental importance for tbese optimizers. It isof interest to note tbat accuracy means differentthings to the optimizers expressing this conception

and to those expressing the former conception.Those in the first group described take one tbing ata time, recording measurements and so on, toachieve a desired optimum for a certain quality in aspecific step. Those in the second group attempt tooptimize a quality as accurately as possible withina specific step, without negatively influencing theremaining qualities. It is through tbe attribute ofseeing links among the qualities of the engine thatthese optimizers are able to establish the right orderof steps and to judge the degree of accuracy withinthe optimization.

Like the optimizers expressing conception 1, theoptimizers in the second group also point out theattribute of understanding and developing monitor-ing systems as central in the optimization work.However, although knowledge of monitoring sys-tems means being able to influence a single enginequality in a desired way for tbe first group, for tbesecond group it means being able to reach the de-sired interaction among the qualities of an engine.To develop new monitoring functions but, aboveall, to build up knowledge about the links amongqualities of the engine, the attribute of interest inengines and self-teaching appears. However, thetask is not only to learn for oneself. It is also amatter of communicating with others. Here, theattribute of co-operating with the other people in-volved and communicating to them how the engineought to be optimized appears as central. Theseoptimizers not only develop tbeir own knowledge,but also include otber optimizers in the learningprocess, so a shared understanding is built upabout the ongoing work. By their doing so, othersinvolved in the optimization become more moti-vated and efficient in their work.

Conception 3: Optimizing from the Customers'Perspective

As in tbe previous conception, optimizers whoexpress this conception take account of all steps ateach single optimization step. However, these in-dividuals focus on the relation between an opti-mized engine and tbe customers' experience ofdriving. Wberever these workers are optimizing anengine, be it in tbe testing room or on the road, theydrive the car as an ordinary customer would. Asillustrated by tbis response to a follow-up to tbekey question, "Wbat is a competent optimizer foryou?", the optimizers relate the single optimizationsituation to the approved car and, in so doing, theytry to incorporate the customers' requirements ateach step of the process:


02: The reality is in fact that you should be like,yeah like any one of the customers. You shouldbe able to take a young boy's perspective on acar, and an older person, how he wants to ex-perience the car. Then if your car works, hope-fully in both ways, then they'll both be satisfied.This is what I think is the role of the optimizer,it's to be able to drive a car as you think peoplewant to experience the car.

The attributes appearing within this conceptionare all centered around the relation between spe-cific qualities of the engine and customers' require-ments, forming a third distinctive structure of com-petence. The most essential attribute for theseoptimizers is a practical sense of the engine. It isthrough this attribute that they are able to evaluatethe interaction between qualities of the engine fromthe customers' perspective. The attribute consistsof knowledge of customers' requirements for a goodcar. At the same time, these workers also need tounderstand how optimizing a particular quality in-fluences the end result. Of greatest importance isknowledge of the relation between the customers'requirements and the optimization of particularqualities in producing the end product; these engi-neers might sum up their view like this: "If I changethis particular quality, then the other engine qual-ities will react in this way but, above all, the cus-tomers will experience it like this."

Although the attribute of understanding and de.-veloping monitoring systems is also essential forthese optimizers, its meaning differs from thatgiven by those who expressed the first and secondconceptions. The third group wants to allow for allthe situations in which customers drive a car byadjusting suitable parameters and by developingnew operations within the monitoring system thatare better suited to meeting a particular customerrequirement. Also, the attributes of interest in en.-gines and self-teaching and cooperating and havingrelevant contacts appear to be as central for theseoptimizers as they are for those expressing the sec-ond conception. However, in contrast to the secondgroup, whose self-teaching involves increasingtheir knowledge about relationships among enginequalities, the optimizers in the third group build upknowledge about the relation between customers'wishes and approved engines. Therefore, collabo-ration with the department for complete vehicletesting, which tests the cars from the customers'viewpoint, is of particular importance for these op-timizers. Here, the relation to the attribute a prac-tical sense of the engine becomes clear. The mostimportant transformation is the knowledge aboutthe relation between the character of the engine andthe customers' requirements.

A Hierarchy of Competence in EngineOptimization

As was described in the previous section, theoptimizers' conceptions of work constitute theircompetence at work. More specifically, the differ-ent ways of conceiving optimization work consti-tute three distinctive forms of competence in en-gine optimization. However, the conceptions donot only constitute and give rise to variation incompetence, but also to a hierarchy of competence.More specifically, a hierarchy of competence inengine optimization is established in terms of anincreasing comprehensiveness of conceptions. Inthe first conception, optimizing separate qualities,the work is delimited as several separate steps,with the relation between single parameters andsingle engine qualities the focus. In the secondconception, optimizing interacting qualities, thework is expanded so that it includes not only sep-arate steps, but also the relations among the quali-ties of an engine. In the third conception, optimiz-ing from the customers' perspective, the work isexpanded still further so that it not only consists ofseparate steps and the interaction among qualities,but also of the relation between the optimized en-gine and customers' requirements.

The hierarchy of competence in terms of an in-creasing comprehensiveness of conceptions is stillmore evident through the attributes within eachconception of engine optimization. For instance,the attribute knowledge of the engine was expressedby all the optimizers as essential to engine optimi-zation. However, the meaning of the above attributevaries depending on the conception it appears in.In the first conception, optimizing separate quali-ties, knowledge of the engine means understandinghow the qualities of an engine react to changes inmonitoring parameters. The second conception,optimizing interacting qualities, also includes anunderstanding of how the various qualities react todifferent influences from the parameters. However,this knowledge of the engine is inadequate for thesecond conception. In order to optimize interactingqualities, it is also necessary to see links betweenengine qualities. And in the third conception, op-timizing from the customers' perspective, under-standing how the qualities of an engine interact isimportant but insufficient. Of greater importance isa practical sense of the engine, as the focus for theseoptimizers is the relation between engine qualitiesand customer requirements. Hence, the hierarchyof competence has the following character: the firstconception is the least comprehensive, the secondis more comprehensive than the first, and the thirdconception is the most comprehensive.

2000 Sandberg 19

The finding that the third conception is the mostcomprehensive suggests that the individuals hold-ing that conception are the most competent andthat those holding the first conception are the leastcompetent with regard to engine optimization.Some empirical evidence supported this proposal,in that optimizers who expressed more comprehen-sive conceptions also expressed less comprehen-sive conceptions, while the reverse did not occur.This became particularly clear when the optiniizerswere asked to review their peers. Optimizers ex-pressing the most comprehensive conception werejudged to be the most competent by the other opti-mizers interviewed. However, when I asked theoptimizers expressing the first and second concep-tions what distinguished their colleagues express-ing the third conception, they all indicated thatthose colleagues had more of the attributes typicalof their own conceptions. For example, an opti-mizer expressing the first conception believed hiscolleague, who expressed conception 3, had moreof the attribute of being accurate and methodical inthe optimization work than he himself had:

O7: But then there are people who have the sameamount of knowledge as XX [a colleague ex-pressing the third conception] but despite thatdon't reach a desirable result. I don't know whythat is.

I: Don't you have any ideas about that? What do youmean when you say that some of the optimizershave the same amount of knowledge as XX?

O7: There are a number of optimizers who havebeen here for a long time but despite that theyhave to carry out ten tests in order to reach thesame result that XX maybe will see from one ortwo tests.

I: So you mean the fact that they have many years ofexperience doesn't mean everything?

07: No.

I: But what do you think it depends on then?

O7: A great sense of being methodical and system-atic in the work. You change one thing at a timeand you don't change ten things because thenyou don't know which one was the cause of thechange or the result of the change.

The same pattern is also evident among the opti-mizers who expressed the second conception, opti-mizing interacting qualities. When they attempted todescribe the most competent optimizers, they as-serted that these optimizers had more of the attributestypifying their own conception, optimizing interact-ing qualities. For example, an optimizer expressingthe second conception believed his colleague ex-

pressing conception 3 had more of the attribute ofseeing links among the qualities of the engine than hehimself had:

O14: You know here how accurately you have toadjust the parameters. . . . You have to havethose rules of thumb to be able to judge whereto make the thrust [direct efforts] because weare always under time pressure, and it's thosesmall tricks [seeing links between qualities ofthe engine].

I: But how have you acquired those small tricks?

014: You have to listen, and XY [a colleague ex-pressing the third conception] is that type ofperson, because he's an old hand . . . you dis-cuss with him.

I: Does he have even more tricks then?

014: Yes, he has a great many tricks, it's obvious,well tricks, he has knowledge, he knows howit works.

I: But tricks, does it mean that you know what todo?

014: Yes, yes, it isn't really anything strange, but it,strange or strange, but it isn't any kind ofcheating, but it's like that.

The optimizers who expressed the more compre-hensive conceptions, however, were able to pointout that there were less comprehensive concep-tions of engine optimization and were also able toarticulate the less comprehensive conceptions ac-curately. For instance, one optimizer who expressedthe second conception described optimizers express-ing the first conception as less competent:

O19: You can say that this is the whole project . . .there is also a time axis. So it's very easy tojust work with this issue [a quality of the en-gine] here [at present] and not realize the linksbetween other qualities that are here [in thefuture]. Then you work in isolation and don'tsee what will happen here [in the future]. . . .It's difficult for the "technician" to avoid fall-ing into the trap and . . . to prioritize.

One possible explanation for the observation thatoptimizers who expressed more comprehensiveconceptions also expressed less comprehensiveconceptions accurately, but that the reverse did notoccur, is that the conceptions are not separate buthierarchically related to each other. This meansthat those with a more comprehensive conceptioncan move to a less comprehensive conception in agiven situation. For instance, if a specific situationrequires the first conception, optimizing separatequalities, workers expressing the second or thirdconception can temporarily shift their focus in


their work performance. However, it is important tonote that this shift takes place within the morecomprehensive conception. Therefore, if the opti-mization situation requires the third conception,optimizing from the customers' perspective, opti-mizers expressing the first or second conceptionwould not be able to make such a shift. This isbecause the third conception is not included in thefirst and second conceptions of engine optimiza-tion, but goes beyond them.

Possible Sources of Variation in Conceptions ofEngine Optimization

A question of interest is the extent to which thevariation in conceptions is related to the optimiz-ers' formal educations and/or length of work expe-rience in the department of engine optimization.Table 2 shows the education and experience of theoptimizers holding the three conceptions of com-petence.

It is difficult to see strong links between formaleducation and the three conceptions of engine op-timization. As can be seen in Table 2, optimizerswith master of engineering degrees and high schoolengineering diplomas are represented in every con-ception. Work experience does bear some relation-ship to the variation in conceptions, but not astrong one. The optimizers expressing the first orsecond conception cannot be distinguished interms of length of experience in the optimizationdepartment, but all those who expressed the thirdconception had more than 11 years of experience inthe department. One possible explanation for thisrelationship is that competence increases with thetime spent doing the same type of work. In the caseof optimization work, it may take at least 11 yearsto reach the third conception. This explanation,hoWever, is highly questionable. If this were thecase, optimizers with the shortest work experience

would express the first conception, and those ex-pressing the second conception would have morework experience than those expressing the first.This is clearly not the case. As we can see fromTable 2, the length of work experience varies frombetween 1 and 12 years in both the first and thesecond groups, and there is little difference inmean years in the department between the two. Aclosely related explanation is that the workers whodid not achieve the third conception after 10 yearswere removed from optimization work. However,this does not seem to be the case, since optimizerswho have 12 years experience are represented inboth the first and the second conceptions.

DISCUSSION

Toward a New Understanding of Competence

In contrast to the prevailing rationalistic ap-proaches to the study of competence, this study isbased on an interpretative approach, namely phe-nomenography. The empirical findings and the ap-proach adopted provide a new understanding of,and a new method for, identifying and describingwhat constitutes human competence at work. Themost central finding generated by the phenomeno-graphic approach is that human competence is notprimarily a specific set of attributes. Instead, work-ers' knowledge, skills, and other attributes used inaccomplishing work are preceded by and basedupon their conceptions of work. More specifically,the findings suggest that the basic meaning struc-ture of workers' conceptions of their work consti-tutes human competence. It is the workers' ways ofconceiving work that make up, form, and organizetheir knowledge and skills into distinctive compe-tence in performing their work. Hence, the findingssuggest that a worker's particular conception of

TABLE 2Education, Experience, and Conceptions of Engine Optimization

Characteristic

Formal educationMaster of engineering degree"High school engineering diploma

Length of experience in optimizationRangeMean

° This is a university degree.'' In years.

(1) OptimizingSeparate Qualities

15

department''0-124.8

Conceptions of Engine Optimization

(2) OptimizingInteracting Qualities

64

0-125.5

(3) Optimizing from theCustomers' Perspective

13

11-1813.8

2000 Sandberg 21

work defines what competence she or he developsand uses in performing that work.

A number of other previously concealed aspectsof competence are highlighted by the findings thatworkers' ways of conceiving of their work consti-tute competence. First, attributes do not have fixedmeanings, but rather, acquire meanings through thespecific way that work is conceived. For instance,the empirical results demonstrated that the mean-ing of the attribute knowledge of the engine varieddepending on the particular conception in which itappeared. In the first conception, optimizing sepa-rate qualities, knowledge of the engine meant un-derstanding how the qualities of an engine reactedto changes in parameters. In the second conception,optimizing interacting qualities, knowledge of theengine meant seeing links among the qualities of anengine and, finally, in the third conception, opti-mizing from the customers' perspective, knowledgeof the engine meant a practical sense of an engine.Hence, workers' ways of conceiving of their workcreate and shape the context from which the at-tributes acquire their specific meaning for compe-tent work performance.

Second, the conceptions of work stipulate notonly the meaning of the attributes, but also whichparticular attributes are developed and maintainedin accomplishing work. For instance, being accu-rate and methodical only appeared as a separateattribute in the first conception. Similarly, carryingout the optimization in the right order and beingaccurate only appeared as a separate attribute in thesecond conception, and a practical sense of theengine only appeared in the third conception.Thus, depending on the conception of work, a spe-cific set of knowledge, skills, and other attributes isdeveloped and maintained in work performance.

Third, workers' conceptions of work not onlygive rise to distinctively different forms of compe-tence but also to a hierarchy of competence at work.The hierarchy of competence was empirically dem-onstrated by an increasing comprehensiveness ofconceptions of engine optimization. More specifi-cally, conception 3 included three forms of compe-tence, conception 2 included two forms, and con-ception 1 included one form of competence inengine optimization. This hierarchy suggests thatthose optimizers expressing conception 3 are themost competent, and those expressing conception 1are the least competent. This suggestion was em-pirically confirmed by the fact that those optimiz-ers who expressed the more comprehensive con-ceptions were able to operate according to the lesscomprehensive conceptions, but the reverse didnot seem to be the case.

Finally, the findings provide an alternative un-

derstanding not only of what constitutes compe-tence, but also of how competence is developed.Departing from the rationalistic approaches, inwhich competence development is regarded as at-tribute acquisition, the findings of this study sug-gest change in conceptions of work as a more basicform of competence development. This is becausethe results show that workers' ways of conceivingof work stipulate which attributes they develop andwhat meaning these attributes take on in work per-formance. More specifically, the results suggest twobasic forms of competence development: (1) chang-ing the present conception to a different conceptionof work and (2) developing and deepening presentways of conceiving of work.

Moreover, the results also challenge the tradi-tional view of competence development as a step-by-step process from novice to expert status (e.g.,Benner, 1984; Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986). Clearly,when a worker has no work experience, he or she isa novice. After some time, the novice acquires thestatus of advanced beginner, and other stages fol-low later. However, my findings suggest that amove from one level to another in the novice-to-expert hierarchy does not necessarily mean a shiftfrom one conception to another. An optimizer ex-pressing the conception, optimizing separate qual-ities, may progress from novice to advanced begin-ner without changing the way he conceives thework. Hence, a change in conceptions of work ap-pears to be more fundamental to developing com-petence than the linear progression from novice toexpert that has traditionally been proposed. In con-clusion, the proposed understanding of compe-tence presented here provides an alternative an-swer to the question of why some perform betterthan others. The variation in performance is notfirst and foremost related to a specific set of at-tributes possessed by those who are regarded as themost competent. Instead, why some people per-form particular work better than others is related tovariation in ways of conceiving of tliat work.

Implications for Competence Development

The understanding that the conception of workconstitutes competence has major implications formanaging competence development in organiza-tions. The most basic implication concerns how toidentify and describe competence as a starting pointfor training and development activities. The find-ings of the present study suggest a major shift inhow managers might identify and describe compe-tence at work, a shift from attributes to workers'conceptions of their work. Taking workers' concep-tions as one's point of departure makes it possible


to more fully describe how attributes are formed,developed, and organized into distinctive struc-tures of competence in work performance. Hence,using such descriptions as a starting point mayincrease managers' chances of achieving the de-sired development of the competence in question.

Moreover, seeing changing conceptions of workas the most fundamental form of developing com-petence has major implications for designing andconducting training and development activities. Inthe rationalistic approaches, the primary aim ofcompetence development is to transfer importantattributes, such as knowledge and skills, to workerswho do not possess them {Dall'Alba & Sandberg,1996). Depending on the attributes, various activi-ties such as classroom teaching, on-the-job training,and job rotation are used. However, if managerstake attributes as the point of departure, they areunable to encourage development of a particularconception of work. Moreover, transferring at-tributes may encourage less desirable conceptionsof work, through simply reinforcing those ways ofconceiving of the work in question.

The present findings suggest some guiding prin-ciples that may facilitate the development of com-petence through changing conceptions of work.The most fundamental guiding principle is to takeworkers' conceptions of their work as the point ofdeparture. Doing this does not mean that develop-ment activities such as classroom teaching, appren-ticeship, on-the-job training, and job rotationshould be abandoned, but rather, that they need tobe designed and conducted in a way that activelypromotes changes in workers' conceptions of theirwork. For instance, to enable an optimizer whoseconception is optimizing interacting qualities toachieve the conception of optimizing from the cus-tomers' perspective, the basis of development ac-tivities should be the optimizers' present concep-tion. If he does not reflect on his present way ofconceiving the work, such an optimizer will beunlikely to achieve the targeted, more comprehen-sive conception. If, instead, the targeted conceptionis the point of departure, the only developmentlikely to take place is a transformation of attributesof the targeted way into the present way of conceiv-ing the work. The worker would then continue toaccomplish optimization in much the same way ashe had done previously.

Another central guiding principle is to organizeparticular encounters between workers and theirwork as developmental triggers. These encounterscan be seen as directed "reflective practicum" sit-uations, which Schon (1987: 18) suggested forschools. The aim of presenting a challenge in theform of a work problem is to stimulate a worker to

reflect on his present conception; here, questionswould include these: Why is it not possible toaccomplish the encountered optimization situationin an appropriate way? and What is inappropriatein my present competence in accomplishing it? Theencounter must also be organized in such a waythat when an optimizer begins to realize the limi-tations of his present conception, the desired con-ception is revealed as an alternative. However, ashift from one conception to another is unlikely totake place through a single encounter between anoptimizer and an organized optimization situation.Even if optimizers change their ways of conceivingof an optimization situation and begin to conceiveit according to the desired conception, they mayrevert to their former conception when encounter-ing a new situation. Therefore, the development ofcompetence is more likely to proceed as a chain ofchanges in conceiving different work situationsrather than as a single, major change. Moreover, inorder to reinforce and refine a certain competence,it is necessary to organize several encounters be-tween the workers and the work that highlight theattributes of the newly achieved conception in dif-ferent situations.

Finally, it may appear paradoxical that althoughI recommend that managers understand compe-tence as workers' conceptions of .work, I criticizeadvocates of rationalistic approaches for predefin-ing competence as a set of attributes. However, I donot question the need to predefine competence it-self. Predefining a research object is unavoidablebecause basic assumptions of ontology and episte-mology underlie any research approach. Instead,my qoncern is that by defining competence in ad-vance as a set of attributes, researchers overlookworkers' conceptions of work, which, according tomy findings, define what competence workers de-velop and use in performing their w^ork. Predefin-ing competence in terms of conceptions of workenables a fuller description of competence and,thus, a better likelihood of achieving the desiredcompetence development.

Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research

The interpretative theory and method developedhere can be used to identify and describe compe-tence at work in terms of workers' conceptions oftheir work. That is, by taking workers' conceptionsas the point of departure, it is possible to identifyand describe what constitutes competence in vari-ous work and professions such as management,engineering, accounting, medicine, policing, teach-ing, and finance. But can the conceptions of engineoptimization described here also be generalized to

2000 Sandberg 23

other work? The findings of this study and of otherinterpretative studies on competence, such as theworks of Barley (1996), Benner (1986), and Schon(1983), suggest that competence is context-depen-dent. Even if apparently similar conceptions couldbe identified in other work, they would express adifferent competence in that work. For example,conceiving of managerial work in terms of optimiz-ing separate qualities might mean dealing withemerging issues separately and sequentially. Whetheror not conceptions identified in one work contextare applicable to another is ultimately an empiricalquestion. Therefore, further empirical studies sim-ilar to the present one are needed to explore thepossibilities of generalizing identified conceptionsto other types of work. Being able to identify simi-lar conceptions in different types of work couldalso be a way to further enrich understanding ofcompetence at work more generally.

Another issue is the extent to which the identifiedconceptions refiect the entire variation of competencein engine optimization among the group studied.Since not all 50 optimizers employed at the Volvo CarCorporation participated, there is no guarantee thatall conceptions of engine optimization were de-scribed, although Theman's (1995) study also indi-cated that no additional conceptions existed. More-over, it should also be acknowledged that additionalresearch might illuminate further aspects of whatconstitutes competence in engine optimization.

My primary tool for obtaining empirical dataabout workers' conceptions of work was interviewsbased on observations of work. However, otherways of obtaining data, such as making video re-cordings and collecting what workers say whenthey "talk aloud" about what they are doing whenthey accomplish their work, would provide moredetail about how competence is constitutedthrough workers' ways of conceiving of their work.Obtaining such data could be of particular impor-tance in assessing work in which the physical bodyplays an important role, such as various crafts.

Another question that needs further attentionconcerns the possible sources of variation in con-ceptions. In the present study, the sources of vari-ation were investigated in terms of formal educa-tion and length of work experience, but no clearlinks emerged between those sources and the threeconceptions identified. However, other sources,such as the type of work experience particularworkers have gained, may provide insights. Theneed for further research also relates to competencedevelopment as changing conceptions. In particu-lar, there is a need for research that highlights howchanges in conceptions take place and how such

changes can be facilitated in organizations to en-hance competence at work.

A focus on workers' conceptions of work for devel-oping competence has many further implications fora range of managerial activities, including recruiting,staffing, appraising employee performance, and man-aging careers, pay systems, and motivational strate-gies for improving performance. All these activitiescan facilitate or constrain the competence that is de-veloped and maintained in organizations. The resultssuggest that such managerial activities should be de-signed and conducted in a way that actively promoteschanges in workers' conceptions of their work. More-over, since how workplaces are organized also has animpact on the competence that is developed andmaintained at work, implications for the organizationof work need to be addressed.

Conclusion

In the introduction to this article, I pointed to theissue of what constitutes human competence atwork as a fundamental managerial problem. It wasargued that understanding what constitutes compe-tence is crucial to managing competence develop-ment effectively in organizations. The aim of thisstudy was to investigate what constitutes humancompetence at work. An interpretative approach,phenomenography, was adopted as an alternativeto the prevalent rationalistic approaches. The studymakes two contributions: (1) presenting a new un-derstanding of competence at work and (2) suggest-ing a method for identifying and describing suchcompetence. These contributions are achieved byidentifying and describing competence in a particularcontext—automobile engine optimization. The mostcentral implication emerging from the findings of thisstudy is that conceptions, rather than attributes,should be the point of departure both for efforts toidentify and describe competence and for efforts todevelop competence in various jobs and professions.For identifying and describing competence, tbis shiftmakes it possible to capture how certain attributes aredelimited as essential and organized into a distinctivestructure of competence at work. For developingcompetence, such a shift makes it possible to activelypromote the development of a particular conceptionof work and its specific attributes. It is my hope thatthe findings and the approach adopted bere willprove useful as an interpretative imderstanding of,and method for, identifying and describing what con-stitutes himian competence at work. Hopefully, suchdescriptions of competence will provide an alterna-tive approach to managing competence developmentin organizations.


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Jcjrgen Sandberg is an associate professor in the Genterfor Management and Organization at Stockholm Schoolof Economics. He received his Ph.D. from Goteborg Uni-versity. His research interests focus on competence andlearning in organizations, leadership, social construc-tionism, and qualitative methods, including their philo-sophical assumptions.

understanding human competence at work: an …

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