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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


competency

(2004)


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


competency

(2004)


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

Choice Decisions," Academy of Management Journal, 56 (April) 414-427.

Gray, L. (1999). New Zealand HRD practitioner competencies: application of the ASTD

competency model, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 10(6,) 1046-1059

Hartog, Deanne. N. D, Caley, A and Dewe. P. (2007), Recruiting leaders: an analysis ofleadership advertisements, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 17 (1), 58-75.

McLagan, P.A. and Suhadolnik, D. (1989) Models for Human Resource Development Practice:

The Research Report. Alexandria: American Society for Training and Development

Page, C. and Wilson, M. (1994) Management Competencies in New Zealand: On the Inside

Looking In? Wellington: Ministry of Commerce

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

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