CASE STUDY SUMMARY

The renowned confectioner manufacturers, the Barker Foods, were amidst crisis when Doug Lothian was fired due to his impulsive and aggressive behavior. Since Doug had been a brilliant employee with the great performance for all along, this incident made Barker to consider on regulating the Competency modeling. The competency modeling is about defining the preferred leaders traits of behavior, competency model, specifics instruction and outcome. But during the data collecting process, they found that its merely impossible to specific such in depth definition about such definite behavior. Everyone has their own opinion about the whole issue but not talking in details.

ISSUES :
A leadership crisis has erupted at Barker Foods. Doug Lothian, the national sales director of the chocolates and confections division, was just fired for making some bad marketing choices, engaging in questionable selling behaviors, and, ultimately, losing the confidence of his customers and his staff. As a result, theres a fall in Sales. Senior managers are wondering whether a competency model would help the company replace Doug with the right kind of leader and prevent other leadership problems from cropping up. HR director Anne Baxter thinks Dougs situation is the perfect example of why Barker Foods needs to define exactly what its looking for from its top people. Colin Anthony, the CEO, has given Anne the go-ahead to work with a special task force on a framework that would not only highlight the critical values, knowledge, and skills necessary to lead any of the companys divisions but also identify the corresponding tasks, behaviors, and measures of success. Colin has asked Anne and her team to present their findings to the executive committee, which has voiced mixed opinions about competency modeling. On the one hand, it makes sense to hire and develop the right people to execute the companys strategy; on the other, it doesnt seem wise to oversimplify the work that senior executives doand boiling down great leadership to a check list of qualities could be a step in that direction.

Question: Should Barker go forward with Competency Modeling

Barker Foods, should continue with the process of Competency Model , where Competencies are behaviors that encompass the knowledge, skills, and attributes required for successful performance.1 Competencies enable employees to achieve results, thereby creating value. It follows that competencies aligned with business objectives help foster an organization's success.

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/arossett/pie/interventions/career_1.htm

Organizations must understand their core competency needs - the skills, knowledge, behaviors, and abilities that are necessary for people in key roles to deliver business results. According to Boulter, et al (1998)2, there are six stages involved in defining a competency model for a given job role. These stages are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Performance criteria - Defining the criteria for superior performance in the role. Criterion sample - Choosing a sample of people performing the role for data collection. Data collection - Collecting sample data about behaviors that lead to success. Data analysis - Developing hypotheses about the competencies of outstanding performers and how these competencies work together to produce desired results. 5. Validation - Validating the results of data collection and analysis. 6. Application - Applying the competency models in human resource activities, as needed. Further, organizations increasingly focus on human assets as a competitive advantage, they expect higher levels of performance from their employees. Schoonover and Anderson (2000) anticipate the use of competencies as a strategic intervention to continue, and even to accelerate.3 The renowned confectioner manufacturers, the Barker Foods can also focus on regulating the Key Performance Indicators, also known as KPI or Key Success Indicators (KSI), which help an organization to define and measure progress toward organizational goals.4 As per the case study we can know that both of Doug Lothian and Kian Hesemeyer, although both of them have completely different of traits of behaviors, they still deemed qualified for National Sales Director position from managerial level. Barker Foods can establish the leadership framework, through which one can integrate some traits of behavior theory. Although there is no the universally best traits of leadership, but there are the most potential type exist. One of such theories are, Karl Joongs DISC behavior theory, which is a powerful method for selfdiscovery. The DiSC Behavior Styles that are so popular today are based on the Harvard educated psychologist, Dr. William Moulton Marston. His theory recognizes four basic, predictable behavior patterns observed in human beings. DiSC is an acronym for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. The science behind DISC Behavioral Styles suggests that all people possess these four basic behavioral tendencies to differing degrees. 5

Boulter, N., Dalziel, M., PhD., & Hill, J. (Eds.). (1998). Achieving the Perfect Fit. Houston: Gulf Publishing Company 3 Schoonover, S. (2000). Applying Technology to Maximize Human Assts. Retrieved February 7, 2004, from http://www.humanasset.net/resources/htm 4 http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/keyperfindic.htm
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http://www.discprofiles4u.com/pages/DiSC-Behavioral-Styles.html