Competence

The concept of competence is used in many different areas of research, including psychology, education, management, human resources, and information systems. It is also used in a variety of ways - sometimes as a synonym for performance, other times as a skill or personality trait. It is sometimes referred to with different prefixes or suffixes, such as in the terms 'competency', meta-competence', or 'supra-competence'. These different uses generate some confusion as to the meaning of the concept.

Competence is the potential that leads to effective behavior. Competence is often used as an umbrella term to cover almost anything that might directly or indirectly affect job performance. Various definitions can be grouped into three main ideas:

• Competence as skill: a large portion of the competence literature is discipline-specific and refers to the development of specific skills or "competencies" for a particular job or profession. The idea is that there should be a fit between the employee's skills and the job requirements. This approach assumes a predefined task. Competence is a fit between an individual and the task. It focuses on the minimum skills an employee needs to to do an effective job.
  
  
• Competence as a personality trait: other researchers use a broader definition of competence. ... generic knowledge, motive, trait, social role, or skill of a person linked to superior performance on the job. ... include general of specialized knowledge, physical and intellectual abilities, personality traits, motives, and self-images. ... often associated to a lifetime competency perspective.
  
  
• Competence as knowledge (here I think they make a confusion): ... two types of knowledge, explicit and tacit. ... the ability to perform well is tacit knowledge, or know-how. Practice, or experience, where the individual modifies his action based on the results of previous actions... worldviews add a cognitive component to tacit knowledge.

Andre Saito

Extraído de Andre Saito at JAIST