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competencies. As a result, employees may be developed but cannot cope with the or-
ganisational competence as it was not suited to them. CBHRM emphasises developing
core, functional and technical competencies in an integrated manner. In this case, train-
ing and development needs are identified in terms of talents and competencies and al-
ternative courses of action are developed and implemented, based on the extent to which
they can cost effectively minimise learning gaps. The major differences between
CBHRM and traditional HRM are explained briefly by Kumar (2006) and are summa-
rised in Table 10.1.

Table 10.1 Differences and similarities between CBHRM and HRM

S/N Areas of comparison HRM CBHRM

1 Role of HR function Ensures compliance. Achieves breakthrough competitive

advantage.

2

Employee sourcing Concentrates on head count.

Assumes education, qualification

and experience is equivalent to the

ability to perform work.

Concentrates on talents and value HR

brings to the organisation. Compares

applicants talents to competency models

to ensure high quality work is performed.

3 Employee training Builds employee knowledge, skills

and attitudes to conform with or-

ganisations’ expectations.

Builds individual competencies in line

with exemplary performance to continu-

ally enhance organisational performance.

4 Performance

management

Keeps costs to a minimum while

providing performance feedback on

their existing work output to

individuals.

Increases productivity by providing

feedback to individuals to help them

move towards exemplary performance.

5 Employee reward

process

Attracts and retains people who

perform the work of the

organisation.

Attracts and retains people whose meas-
urable contribution demonstrates their
ability to perform their very best.
6 Employee development The process is vague or ambiguous. The process is designed to help individu-
als discover their own competencies,
help the organisation to discover the
talent available for it to be cultivated.
Source: Kumar (2006).

Competencies for human resource professionals
Based on South African experience, Clark (2009) has identified desired attributes for
generic human resource (HR) competencies in a South African situation. A desired at-
tribute is a generic requirement applicable to all HR practitioners and describes the ideal
attribute to be displayed by all HRM practitioners, irrespective of their position.
However, due to the complexity of competency frameworks, such attributes do not
seem to be distinctly different from global experiences and trends.

Implementing a competency framework for human resource management
Usually, for the effective use of competency based human resource management, the
development of organisational tailor made functional competencies for human resource
job is important. The following are the important competency clusters:

Generic competencies
a) Professional ethics,
b) People skills, and
c) Emotional intelligence/Cognitive personality profile.