International Journal of Public Sector Management: Volume 13 Issue 4

Introduction – the competency movement: its origins and impact on the public sector

Sylvia Horton

This introduction seeks to locate the origins of the competency management in American and British management concerns with declining international competitiveness and the need…

Professional sense‐makers: managerial competencies amidst ambiguity

Mirko Noordegraaf

In this article, managerial competencies are derived from observations of public managers in action. Based on institutional theory, it is assumed that public managers are…

Changing competences of public managers: tensions in commitment

Turo Virtanen

The literature on managerial competences has not sufficiently addressed the value contents of competences and the generic features of public managers. This article presents a…

Competency management in the Flemish and Dutch civil service

Annie Hondeghem, Filip Vandermeulen

Competency management has become a new trend in the public sector. There is some doubt, however, if competency management is really something new or whether it is just old wine in…

Competency management in the British civil service

Sylvia Horton

Competency management is an idea that was developed in the private sector and transposed to the public sector during the 1990s. First this article examines the concept of…

Developing and implementing competence‐based recruitment and selection in a social services department – A case study of West Sussex County Council

David Farnham, Amanda Stevens

This article reports and evaluates how a traditional approach to recruitment and selection in the Social Services Department of West Sussex County Council was superseded by a…