THE PRACTICE OF COMPETENCY MODELING

The purpose of this article is to define and explain a trend that has caused a great deal of confusion among HR researchers, practitioners, and consumers of HR-related services: competency modeling. The Job Analysis and Competency Modeling Task Force, a work group jointly sponsored by the Professional Practice Committee and the Scientific Affairs Committee of the Society For Industrial and Organizational Psychology, has recently concluded a 2-year investigation into the antecedents of competency modeling and an examination of the current range of practice. Competency modeling is compared and contrasted to job analysis using a conceptual framework (reflected in a 10-dimension Level of Rigor Scale) that practitioners and researchers may use to guide future work efforts, and which could be used as a basis for developing standards for practice. The strengths and weaknesses of both competency modeling and job analysis are identified and, where appropriate, recommendations are made for leveraging strengths in one camp to shore-up weaknesses in the other.     

The code of the street and romantic relationships: A dyadic analysis

Since its publication, Elijah Anderson's (1999) Code of the Street thesis has found support in studies connecting disadvantage to the internalization of street‐oriented values and an associated lifestyle of violent/deviant behavior. This primary emphasis on deviance in public arenas has precluded researchers from examining the implications of the code of the street for less public arenas, such as intimate relationships. In an effort to understand if and how the endorsement of the street code may infiltrate such relationships, this study examines the associations between the code of the street and relationship satisfaction and commitment among young adults involved in heterosexual romantic relationships. Using a dyadic approach, the study finds that street code orientation, in general, negatively predicts satisfaction and commitment, in part due to increased relationship hostility/conflict associated with the internalization of the code. Gender differences in these associations are considered and discussed at length.