Abstract:
This case study research was conducted to address the prevalence of ineffective
performance management tools and practices that negatively impact individual work
performance (IWP) of site administrative officers in one of the highest-graded construction
companies in Sri Lanka by developing a competency framework. A set of 30 competencies
were empirically tested based on the opinion of both administrative officers and project
managers using two questionnaires to ascertain desired, actual, and competency gaps which
were further analyzed based on their degree of ‘contribution for successful performance’ and
‘difficulty to improve’ to come up with a simplified four grid competency model uncovering
key, supportive, threshold-trainable and threshold-hardly-trainable competencies providing
important insights for effective hiring, performance management, training, and career
development.
The ability to create trust-building relationships was found the key competency that
differentiates best performers along with initiative, stress-tolerance, responsibility, and
achievement-orientation as the other key competencies useful as evaluative criteria for IWP.
Emotional awareness, commitment, and optimism were found as threshold-hardly-trainable
competencies that any administrative officer should embody making them a predictive
criterion in recruitment and selection. The study effectively addressed both empirical gap of
an evidence-based competency framework for the target job and a methodological gap in
developing the same incorporating a Weighted Proficiency Rating which sets a reference for
utility and future research. The development of a competency profile, competency framework,
and a simplified competency model of construction administrative officers providing
evaluative and predictive criteria for several HRM functions are the major contributions of the
study.
