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INTRODUCTION
It would seem that one of the reasons behind the need for a debate about managerial competences is the soft focus and blurred edges of the term "competence". Social science has a habit of taking a word which is in our common vocabulary and altering its meaning for adoption as a technical or academic term. This process is still happening to "competence" (and thus to "competent" and "competency"), and current differences in meaning result from the fact that a common consensus is not yet established as to what these words represent when removed from their lay meanings.
The dictionary definitions have retained a stability of meaning. For instance, in 1917, Funk and Wagnall's Desk Standard Dictionary[1] provides three definitions for "competence" and "competency":
(1) the state of being competent; ability;
(2) sufficient means; sufficiency;
(2) qualification admissibility (in law).
Seventy years later, the 1987 edition of The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English[2] defines "competence" and "competency" as:
(1) ability (to do, for a task);
(2) sufficiency of means for living, easy circumstances;
(3) legal capacity, right to take cognizance (of court, magistrate, etc.).
In the managerial literature, however, subtle changes in emphasis can be found[3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Unlike the dictionary definitions, the terms "competence" and "competency" are rarely used interchangeably in the singular, although they are often interchanged in the plural. For instance, Burgoyne states:
For the purpose of this article, competence will be defined simply as the ability and willingness to perform a task. Such a definition is broadly compatible with most usages of the term[8].
Burgoyne has added an element to the dictionary "ability to do" --that of willingness to do. For Hayes, president of the American Management Association[9, 10, 11], competence is more than a simple ability to do. It is:
a generic knowledge, motive, trait, social role, or skill of a person linked to superior performance on the job[9, p.3].
For Prahalad and Hamel[12], in an article concerned with competence at an organizational, rather than individual managerial level, the goalposts have moved yet again, and
Core competencies are the collective learning in the organization, especially how to coordinate diverse production skills and integrate multiple streams of technologies... Core competence is communication, involvement, and a deep commitment to...