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SAJMMR Volume 2, Issue 3 (March, 2012) ISSN 2249-877X
South Asian Academic Research Journals
http://www.saarj.com
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Publ ished by: South Asian Academic Research Journals
SAJMMR:S o u t h A s i a n J o u r n a l o f
M a r k e t i n g & M a n a g e m e n tR e s e a r c h
A CONTENT ANALYSIS OFCOMPETENCIES SOUGHT AFTER IN
HR JOBS
S. DEEPTI*; SUBHADIP ROY**
*Research Scholar,
ICFAI Institute for Management Teachers
Survey No. 156/57, Dontanapally Village
Shankerpally Mandal, R.R.District501203, A.P, India.
**Assistant Professor,ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad
Survey No. 156/57, Dontanapally Village
Shankerpally Mandal, R.R.District
501203, A.P, India.
ABSTRACT
Recently, organizations are using various routes to communicate its positive
characteristics to the various stakeholders, one of which is specific to internal andpotential employees. Popularly known as Employment Branding, this is a tool for
attracting new talent and one way of achieving it is through job advertisements. Thisimplies that job advertisements could be a source of observing the competencies
required for various positions in organizations. The purpose of the present study is
to examine the competencies sought by the organizations for HR positions in India.The study also tries to identify the changes (if any) that have taken place in the
requirements over two time periods using Content Analysis. A sample of HRM job
advertisements from 2004 and 2008 were content analyzed. The results werecompared to the competency list given by the American Society of Training and
Development in 1987. Most of the competencies given by the McLagan and
Suhadolnik (1989) were not found to be prevalent in the Indian context. Majority ofads in both time periods focused on technical competencies. The exploratory studywas aimed to throw light of the current HR recruitment practices and has elements
of interest both for academia and industry.
KEYWORDS: Job advertisements, Content Analysis.
______________________________________________________________________________
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INTRODUCTION
The concept of Branding has been has been widely addressed to in the marketing literature;brands are the products and services of an organization. Most of the organizations have
concentrated on how to build a positive brand image in the minds of the consumers. From a total
concentration on customers, organizations are shifting towards a concept of stakeholder focus.Stakeholder concept is the existence of a fiduciary duty to all groups and individuals with a
legitimate stake in the activities of the firm not merely to the shareholders and other investors
who own the enterprise in the financial sense (Ewing et. al., 2002). Employees are alsoconsidered to be the stakeholders of an organization, thus, effective communication to both the
existing employees and potential employees is important.
The concept of employment branding is one such tool to communicate the positives of the
organization and can be used as a tool for internal marketing as well as a tool for attracting
prospective candidates to join the organization. In the present study the concentration is on the
employment branding for the potential employees and job advertisements can be one such tool.The purpose of these job advertisements is to attract potential employees as well as avoiding
unmatched applications (Cascio, 1998).
These advertisements will list down all the expected competencies that the employers are
looking for so that individuals who have these competencies are attracted towards theorganization. Thus, the job advertisements are a good source of knowing what employers are
looking in as competencies in their potential employees.
The ASTD HRD competency model is based on a study done by McLagan and Suhadolnik,
1989, the authors studied thirty-five competencies and these competencies were clustered on
three parameters: 1) technical, 2) business, 3) interpersonal and 4) intellectual. Research thoughhas been limited but has looked into application of the ASTD model in the context of New
Zealands HR practices (Gray, 1999).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Content analysis in job advertisements has been prevelant to see what competencies
organizations are looking for in their prospective candidates. Job advertisements are a very good
source of looking at competencies in demand. Competencies can be defined as:
'The skills, abilities, and personal characteristics required by an "effective" or "good" manager' -
(Page and Wilson, 1994 p.12)
Competencies are an integral part of an individual to be able to perform well in the job assigned
to him/her (Spencer and Spencer 1993). Different jobs might require different type ofcompetencies and to be able to do the particular task it is important that organizations select
candidates with those competencies. Some competencies like the personal competencies are
developed in an individual as a process which starts right from thebeginning of an individualslife, thus, it is very difficult to change or modify these competencies. It is because of this Spencer
& Spencer 1993 proposed that organizations must look in for the suitable personality traits and
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give training for development of required knowledge and skills as these competencies can be
improved or modified.
The American Society of Training & Development (ASTD) in the year 1981 published a study
on competencies of training & development, the study identified 31 competencies. Competencies
were defined as the knowledge and skills that enabled people to do HRD work, with outputsdescribed as those products and services for which an HRD department is accountable (Gray,
1999, p. 1049). McLagan and Suhadolnik, 1989 in another study increased the number of
competencies to 35 and divided these competencies into four heads of (a) Technical; (b)Business; (c) Interpersonal; (d) Intellectual.
Job advertisements are means by which companies invite a large pool of prospective employeesto apply for the vacant positions in the organization. A large pool of applicant is desirable
because it maximizes the chances of recruiting the right candidate for the vacant position. Job
advertisements are intended to just that, organizations list down the requirements and try to
attract the best suited applicant. Recruitment ads or job advertisements have message specificityand this specificity impacts individuals in varying ways. These ads have two objectives, by
specifying the exact requirements ads tend to minimize the possibility of an unsuitable candidateapplying and secondly by specifying the requirements it also attracts the right candidate to applyfor the job (Gowan & Lautenschlager, 1993). The recruitment ads are the primary source of what
competencies for a particular functional area is required and thus is a good reflector of the
competencies in demand.
The existing literature on HRD competencies suggests that the emphasis for HR related jobs
emphasized more on the interpersonal and the personal competencies. As HR jobs require moreof human interaction and thus interpersonal and personal competencies of the ASTD model are
required more than the other competencies. Job advertisements have been content analysed by
various authors (Feldman, Bearden, and Hardesty, 2006; Gray, 1999; Hartog, Caley and Dewe,
2007) to look in for various competencies in demand and also to compare the various trends inthe requirement of these competencies overtime. The present study also looks in for the prevalent
competencies in the field of HR in Indian context which has not been researched previously. The
increasing importance of the role of HR in organizations reflects the need of such a study inpresent time.
METHOD
The sample was selected in such a manner that it is the representative sample of Human
Resource job advertisements. These ads were selected and McLagan and Suhadolnik (1989)
HRD competency model was applied to the competencies mentioned in these job advertisements.
The advertisements were taken from Times Ascent, a supplementary paper of Time of Indiawhich is totally dedicated to job advertisements across India. The job advertisements were
selected from the years 2004 and 2008, to check the trend of competencies required by
organizations in relation with HR practitioners. The paper comes every Wednesday and ads were
collected from this issue only, because this is the only day in which the supplement is printed.The number of pages of Times Ascent could be taken as a good indication as to the number of
jobs available in the market, the number of pages of ascent declined in 2008 as compared to
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2004. In the months of October, November and December 08 the supplement had only 4 -5
pages whereas when we look at 2004 the supplement had around 9-10 pages per issue.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The various positions for which the ads were posted are given in Table 1, the maximum number
of ads was for the post of HR manager in the year 2004 and same was the case in the year 2008.
From the selected job advertisements the competencies asked by these organizations wereanalysed and grouped into the categories given by McLagan and Suhadolnik (1989). Once the
competencies were categorized the trend prevalent in the year 2004 and the year 2008 were
analysed, result of which is mentioned in Table. Most of the competencies given by the two
authors were not prevalent in the Indian context. Many of the job ads in the newspaper did noteven have the competencies mentioned, thus, these ads were removed from the sample and the
sample included only those which have at least one line description of the position. The number
of ads in the year 2008 was very less than compared to 2004, this is because of the effect of US
recession in India had started showing signs and organizations were going slow on recruitmentsand by the end of 2008, the organizations actually started laying off their existing employees.
A most important part of these ads is that, none of the ads were for opening positions in the field
of HR. All the positions for which the advertisements were given required at least an experience
of 2-3 years, indicating that the organizations were looking for attracting only those candidateswho have had a good hands on experience on the various HR related fields (see Table 1).
TABLE 1: LIST OF CATEGORIES OF JOB ADVERTISEMENTS OF HR POSITIONS
Categories No. of ads
(2004)
No. of ads
(2008)
Sr. Mgr. HR 7 7
Recruitment consultant 1 -
HRD manager 9 -
HR manager 34 25
Head HR 5 4
Asst. Mgr. HR 5 7
HR Executive 6 4
Training Manager 3
Performance Management Manager 1
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Sr. Mgr. Personnel 2
Manager Admin. 3 1
Head HRD 1
VP HR 1 5
GM HR 8 7
HR Assistant 1 1
AGM 1 1
HR coordinator 2
Training & HR Exec. 1
Compensation & Benefit HR mgr. 1
HR Officer 1 4
Manager T&D 1 1
DGM HRD 1 3
Manager HR & Admin. 2 0
Total 104 70
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FIGURE 1: CATEGORIES OF HR JOB ADVERTISEMENTS FOR THE YEAR 2004
(NO. OF ADS PER POSITION)
FIGURE 2: CATEGORIES OF HR JOB ADVERTISEMENTS FOR THE YEAR 2004
(NO. OF ADS PER POSITION)
7
1
9
34
55
6
3
1
2
31
1 8
1 12 1 1 1 1 1
2
2004 Sr. Mgr. HR
Recruitment consultant
HRD manager
HR manager
Head HR
Asst. Mgr. HR
HR Executive
Training Manager
Performance Management Manager
Sr. Mgr. Personnel
Manager Admin.
Head HRD
VP HR
GM HR
HR Assistant
25
47
4
1
5
7
11
4
1
3
0
2008HR manager
Head HR
Asst. Mgr. HR
HR Executive
Training Manager
Performance Management Manager
Sr. Mgr. Personnel
Manager Admin.
Head HRD
VP HR
GM HR
HR Assistant
AGM
HR coordinator
Training & HR Exec.
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TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES
Technical competencies are those competencies exclusive to the HR professional, i.e. thecompetency of performing the various tasks related to the accomplishment of HR tasks.
Technical competencies included subject matter expertise, need analysis, presentation skills and
etc. In most of the ads the total emphasis was on the subject matter expertise i.e. the candidatewho have knowledge about the various functions of HR are only invited. Though many of the
competencies did not show up in the analysis the most prevalent was the subject matter
knowledge.
TABLE 2: LIST OF TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES SOUGHT AFTER IN ADS
Competencies No. of ads containing the
competency
(2004)
No. of ads containing the
competency
(2008)
Subject-matter expertise 49 21
Needs analysis 6 2
Presentation skills 1 2
Train. design (objective) - -
Evaluation - -
T&D theory
Computer literacy 3 5
Adult learning theory
OD theory 5 1
Documentation
Cost-benefit analysis
Career develop. theory 4
Total 68 (104) 31 (70)
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FIGURE 3: TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES SOUGHT IN THE ADS FOR THE YEAR
2004 & 2008
BUSINESS COMPETENCIES
As per McLagan and Suhadolnik (1989) business competencies are those having strongmanagement base, thus, in the ads analyzed here only industry experience stood out and others
either had a low percentage or did not even exist in the ads. This is similar to other studies to
some extent as Gray, 1999 found only Industry experience and project management to be
standing out. Here, only industry experience showed importance and no other competencies wererequired by the organization (see Table 3).
TABLE 3: LIST OF BUSINESS COMPETENCIES SOUGHT AFTER IN ADS
Competencies No. of ads containing thecompetency
(2004)
No. of ads containing thecompetency
(2008)
Industry Experience 25 28
Customer Focus 4 -
Organization Understanding - -
Project Management - -
Total 29 (104) 28 (104)
2004
T&D theory
Computer
literacy
Adult learning
theory
OD theory
2008
T&D theory
Computer
literacy
Adult learning
theory
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FIGURE 4: BUSINESS COMPETENCIES SOUGHT IN THE ADS FOR THE YEAR
2004 & 2008
INTERPERSONAL COMPETENCIES
It is notable to see that in a field like human resource management, were the interpersonal skillsmust be strong as it includes constant interaction with people; very few organizations
emphasized the need for interpersonal skills in the job advertisements. Very few mentioned the
requirement of interpersonal skills and communication skills. Even conceptual clarity was notemphasized much by these organizations. Though ads also included the positions of vice
president and general manager, which is a leadership position and it is very important to have an
appropriate leader, the ads did not mention much of the leadership qualities that these positions
must have. This defies the previous studies and in India these skills are not required in greatnumber as compared to industry experience.
TABLE 4: LIST OF INTERPERSONAL COMPETENCIES SOUGHT AFTER IN ADS
Competencies No. of ads containing the
competency
(2004)
No. of ads containing the
competency
(2008)
Interpersonal skills 4 3
Communication skills 9 6
Conceptual clarity 3 2
Strong acumen 1 -
Team Player 2
Negotiation skills 1 3
2004
Industry
Experience
Customer Focus
Organization
Understanding
Project
Management
2008
Industry
Experience
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Leadership 1 1
Total 21(104) 15(70)
FIGURE 5: INTERPERSONAL COMPETENCIES SOUGHT IN THE ADS FOR THE
YEAR 2004 & 2008
PERSONAL COMPETENCIES
Personal competencies was not a part of the study done by McLagan and Suhadolnik (1989), but
the study done by Gray 1999, they studied the HR competencies in the context of New ZealandHR practitioners, they came up with the certain list of personal competencies that emerged while
the study. Those competencies have been used here and the ads where analyzed on the basis of
these competencies.
Again as most of the competencies, in case of personal competencies also the results showed that
the personal competencies were also not much emphasized by the organization here. The only
competency that was slightly better was professionalism, but in the year 2008 again none of thecompanies emphasized on the personal competency of professionalism. Only 20 out of 104 ads
2004
Interpersonal
skills
Communicati
on skills
Conceptual
clarity
Strong
acumen
Team Player
Negotiation
skills
Leadership
2008
Interpersona
l skills
Communicati
on skills
Conceptual
clarity
Strong
acumen
Team Player
Negotiation
skills
Leadership
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actually mentioned some of the competencies but when we look at ads in 2008 only 5 of the 70
ads, mentioned the competencies.
TABLE 5: LIST OF PERSONAL COMPETENCIES SOUGHT AFTER IN ADS
Competencies No. of ads containing the
competency
(2004)
No. of ads containing the
competency
(2008)
Motivation/drive 7 2
Enthusiasm 2 -
Autonomous - -
Flexible - 1
Professional 10 -
Judgment - -
Business acumen 1 -
Credibility/integrity - -
Humorous/fun - -
Personal Presentation - 2
Confident/positive - -
Enjoy Pressure - -
Mature - -
Pragmatic - -
Total 20 (104) 5 (70)
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FIGURE 6: PERSONAL COMPETENCIES SOUGHT IN THE ADS FOR THE YEAR
2004 & 2008
2004Motivation/drive
Enthusiasm
Autonomous
Flexible
Professional
Judgement
Business acumen
Credibility/integrity
Humorous/fun
Personal Presentation
Confident/positive
Enjoy Pressure
Mature
Pragmatic
2008
Motivation/drive
Enthusiasm
Autonomous
Flexible
Professional
Judgement
Business acumen
Credibility/integrity
Humorous/fun
Personal Presentation
Confident/positive
Enjoy Pressure
Mature
Pragmatic
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The above results indicated that, most of the organizations who were posting ads for the various
HR positions had an emphasis more on the industry experience part and it is assumed here that
since an individual who has varied experience of 3-4 years in the field will be well equipped withall the competencies that are in picture. Since the major focus was on industry experience and
organizations have mentioned the kind of experience they are looking for, thus, other things are
assumed to be existing in the individual. Also the technical competency was a majority here asalmost 50% of the ads in 2004 and around 30% ads were emphasizing on the subject matterexpertise. Though the emphasis has lowered as compared to 2004.
When we look at the trend prevailing in both the years, it is evident that in the year 2004, the
elaborate description of positions was prevalent and in 2008, ads were less elaborate and gave
only key role requirements like educational background and number of years of experience. Inmost of the competencies the ads given in the year 2008 ranked low, this may be because of the
use of other sources of recruitment other than through job advertisements. Also the emphasis in
the year 2008 was more on cost cutting, so may be due to space restrictions and costs related to
that the ads might have been restricted only to the essential information than giving a detaileddescription. There has been no change in the various profiles that were asked for in both the
years. The required technical competencies and the subject matter knowledge remain almost
similar.
CONCLUSION
The analysis here revealed significant results to get an insight about the recruitment policies that
the Indian organizations employ. When compared to the ASTD model and the addition of
personal competency in this model by Gray 1999, the ads that the organizations put innewspapers, do not employ much of jargons and organizations majorly look in for individuals
who have the required experience and the required subject matter knowledge. HR in India has
still not gained much of importance in the organizations and thus skills which are integral part of
the job are not asked for. Most of HR professionals work goes in recruitment and other areas likecareer development of employees, leadership development and etc are ignored facets.
Gray 1999, proposition that communication skills will add to the success of a practitioner than
the technical knowledge get defied here as in India organizations emphasize more on the
technical expertise than the communication skills and etc. An implication for managers would belook into the fact that how these jobs advertisements help organizations attract potential
candidates. Redman and Mathews (1992) studied that the advertisements which included
personal competencies were much more capable of attracting the potential candidates thanadvertisements which mentioned only the technical competencies. Practitioners can look into
better ways so that the appropriate candidate applies for the position.
REFERENCES
Cascio, W.F. (1998) Applied Psychology in Human Resource Management, 5th edn. EnglefieldCliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
Ewing, M.T., Pitt, L.F., de Bussy, N.M. and Berthon, P. (2002), Employment branding in the
knowledge economy, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 21, pp. 3-22
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Feldman, D. C., Bearden W.O. and Hardesty D. M. (2006). Varying the content of job
advertisements, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 35(1), 123-141.
Gowan, M and Lautenschlager, G (1993), "Corporate Image, Recruitment Image, and Initial Job
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McLagan, P.A. and Suhadolnik, D. (1989) Models for Human Resource Development Practice:
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Redman, T. and Mathews, B.P. (1995) 'Trends in Recruitment: A Ten Year Retrospective
Review', International Journal of Career Management, 7(2): 10-16
Spencer, L.M. and Spencer, S.G. (1993) Competence at Work: Models for Superior
Performance. New York: Wiley