28Assessment CentresWhat are competenciesThe UK CIPD describes competencies as:a signal from the organization to the individual of the expected areas and levels of performance. They provide the individual with a map or indication of the behaviours that will be valued, recognized and in some organizations rewarded. Competencies can be understood to represent the language of performance in an organization, articulating both the expected outcomes of an individual efforts and the manner in which these activities are carried out.Competence has been defined in different ways. Some see competence as an underlying characteristic of an individual that causally relates to superior performance in a job or situation. This is a fairly wide definition and includes aspects such as:�����motives, for example the motivation to achieve; traits and attitudes such as conscientiousness; self-concept, say the level of self-confidence; knowledge; behaviours or skills.Others see competence more narrowly, in terms of a set of observable behaviours. In essence, competencies are defined only in terms of skills. As we saw in Chapter 1, they argue that the causes of behaviour are not only difficult to measure but are, in a sense, irrelevant in that we only really need to know if people can display certain behaviours, not why. Whilst it can be highly beneficial to find out what motivates prospective employees, it is also very difficult to do in practice. Motives are internal to the person. In general we infer them through what people do or say; in other words; their behaviours. This leads us back into assessing only behaviours. There are some questionnaires that aim to assess motives, values or attitudes. However, as discussed in Chapter 1, these have high face validity,
