Development of a Competency Framework for Site Administrative Officers in a Sri Lankan Construction Company

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.