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What is "competence"

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competence
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
competence
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
communicative
▪ Being a communicator, having what Hymes calls communicative competence, involves much more.
▪ Which of the questions below will reveal most about the reader's communicative competence?
high
▪ The possibility of progression to modules requiring higher levels of competence should also be borne in mind when designing programmes.
▪ Mary achieved a high degree of competence in all projects.
▪ The tapes and scores which they produce come across with real sincerity, and display surprisingly high levels of competence.
▪ Not surprisingly, therefore, they appear to be reaching a higher level of competence.
▪ Adults are at least able to acquire, even though this may not be at a sufficiently high level of competence.
▪ Secondly, instruments tend to dwell on deficits in performance rather than levels of higher competence.
linguistic
▪ The second solution is to regard linguistic knowledge or competence as a characteristic of the individual child.
▪ In order to construct an integrated theory of linguistic competence, it is essential to discover the logical ordering of components or levels.
▪ We are concerned, then, with more than simply linguistic competence.
▪ Fewer assumptions are made in such dictionaries about the linguistic competence of the user.
▪ Work should start from the pupils' own linguistic competence.
▪ This represents a very great pool of linguistic competence.
▪ Despite extensive research, how humans achieve their linguistic competence has still to be fully explained.
▪ Only if this latter requirement is met can we begin to talk of linguistic competence.
national
▪ At first sight, this would appear to be a Community instrument instructing Member States as to how to exercise their national competence.
▪ Local competence and national competence are, as one would expect, fairly closely related.
▪ To argue this point is to speculate beyond our data on national and local competence.
professional
▪ Licentiateship, Graduateship, Membership and Fellowship awards are available as a means of recognising professional competence to the highest levels.
▪ They need to provide better information and more evidence of courtesy, caring and professional competence, researchers concluded.
▪ For example, in professional education, professional competence is equally important, if not more so.
▪ Whom you see depends sometimes on professional competence and journalistic ability.
▪ All however, share the aim of developing professional competence.
▪ Voluntary certification can attest to professional competence in a specialized field of accounting and auditing.
▪ When the pressure is on to respond to an event after it happens, the client will then judge your professional competence.
▪ Less formally educated people can acquire professional competence.
technical
▪ The traditional approach to the training and selection of headteachers has been on the basis of technical competence reinforced by practical experience.
▪ Still, they had been promoted primarily for their technical competence, not their management or interpersonal skill.
▪ There are certain opportunities that only occur to organisations with the necessary technical competence, market position or trading relationships.
▪ The managers did come to see that acquiring managerial competence actually meant sacrificing some of their technical competence.
▪ As a result of increasing specialisations and technical competence, delegation of authority has increased.
▪ A lack of technical competence shouted from the report, asserted Cook.
▪ Appointments are rarely made on the basis of professional or technical competence alone.
■ NOUN
language
▪ In each case, the language competence acquired is additive: it does not replace earlier competencies.
▪ It is clear, as Chomsky ceaselessly points out, that language competence enables almost infinite variations in language performance.
▪ It is this which enables language competence and thus also language performance.
■ VERB
achieve
▪ The trainees will know that they have achieved this competence.
▪ Those who are privileged achieve the competence with which to shape the future.
▪ Despite extensive research, how humans achieve their linguistic competence has still to be fully explained.
▪ Human survival is the final indispensable objective of all efforts to achieve a universal humane competence in 1985.
acquire
▪ Less formally educated people can acquire professional competence.
▪ But as they acquired managerial competence, the balance began to shift.
▪ The two main tasks of acquiring oral/aural competence and achieving basic literacy are dealt with in the course's two parallel streams.
▪ The managers did come to see that acquiring managerial competence actually meant sacrificing some of their technical competence.
demonstrate
▪ The managers built up portfolios which enabled them to demonstrate competence in ten specific areas from their day to day work.
▪ Students will be asked to demonstrate competence with a problem posed in this area. b. Abstract / Scientific Mathematics.
▪ Few things were more demoralising than to stand uselessly by while other men demonstrated their professional competence.
▪ Many have demonstrated that professional competence can be acquired quite simply and successfully by less educated people.
develop
▪ Classroom teaching is therefore important in helping the student to develop confidence and competence.
extend
▪ We will insist on more effective control over Community spending and will resist pressure to extend Community competence to new areas.
require
▪ The possibility of progression to modules requiring higher levels of competence should also be borne in mind when designing programmes.
▪ This will require considerable competence on behalf of the teacher who will need to set the general framework.
▪ Modern agriculture demands not only scientific and biological knowledge, it also requires managerial competence.
show
▪ Evidence to show competence is agreed in the personal learning contract.
▪ This, when once achieved, will show a competence in the area being studied.
▪ But babysitters who've completed the course can show a certificate of competence to the child's parents to reassure them.
▪ Much evidence shows that interpersonal competence is a prerequisite for a successful managerial career.
▪ Plentiful quotations from the Bible and from the Fathers show a competence but nothing more.
▪ The country, too, needs a government which shows confidence, competence and a sense of purpose.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Players are judged by their competence on the field.
▪ The level of competence among hospital staff was not as high as expected.
▪ Understanding the instructions requires a ninth grade reading competence.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ All however, share the aim of developing professional competence.
▪ But we act in these matters not by authority of our competence but by force of our commissions.
▪ It is the competence to recognize and enact the rules, procedures and forms of understanding of a particular cultural environment.
▪ It is this which enables language competence and thus also language performance.
▪ Mastery, absolute competence, is mandatory for a leader.
▪ There was never any question about his competence.
▪ Whom you see depends sometimes on professional competence and journalistic ability.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Competence

Competence \Com"pe*tence\, Competency \Com"pe*ten*cy\, n. [Cf. F. comp['e]tence, from L. competentia agreement.]

  1. The state of being competent; fitness; ability; adequacy; power.

    The loan demonstrates, in regard to instrumental resources, the competency of this kingdom to the assertion of the common cause.
    --Burke.

    To make them act zealously is not in the competence of law.
    --Burke.

  2. Property or means sufficient for the necessaries and conveniences of life; sufficiency without excess.

    Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words -- health, peace, and competence.
    --Pope.

    Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.
    --Shak.

  3. (Law)

    1. Legal capacity or qualifications; fitness; as, the competency of a witness or of a evidence.

    2. Right or authority; legal power or capacity to take cognizance of a cause; as, the competence of a judge or court.
      --Kent.

      5. the quality of being adequately or well qualified physically and intellectually, especially possession of the skill and knowledge required (for a task).

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
competence

1590s, "rivalry" (based on compete); c.1600 "adequate supply;" 1630s, "sufficiency of means for living at ease," from French compétence, from Latin competentia "meeting together, agreement, symmetry," from competens, present participle of competere, especially in its earlier sense of "fall together, come together, be convenient or fitting" (see compete). Meaning "sufficiency to deal with what is at hand" is from 1790.

Wiktionary
competence

n. 1 (context uncountable English) The quality or state of being competent, i.e. able or suitable for a general role. 2 (context countable English) The quality or state of being able or suitable for a particular task; the quality or state of being competent for a particular task. 3 A sustainable income. 4 (context countable English) In law, the legal authority to deal with a matter.

WordNet
competence

n. the quality of being adequately or well qualified physically and intellectually [syn: competency] [ant: incompetence]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Competence

Competence may refer to:

  • Competence (biology), the ability of a cell to take up DNA
  • Competence (geology), the resistance of a rock against either erosion or deformation
  • Competence (human resources), a standardized requirement for an individual to properly perform a specific job
  • Competence (law), the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings
    • Competency evaluation (law)
  • Jurisdiction, the authority of a legal body to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility
  • Linguistic competence, the ability to speak and understand language.
  • Communicative competence, the ability to speak and understand language.
Competence (law)

In United States law, competence concerns the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings or transactions, and the mental condition a person must have to be responsible for his or her decisions or acts. Competence is an attribute that is decision specific. Depending on various factors which typically revolve around mental function integrity, an individual may or may not be competent to make a particular medical decision, a particular contractual agreement, to execute an effective deed to real property, or to execute a will having certain terms. Depending on the state, a guardian or conservator may be appointed by a court for a person who satisfies the state's tests for general incompetence, and the guardian or conservator exercises the incompetent's rights for the incompetent. Defendants who do not possess sufficient "competence" are usually excluded from criminal prosecution, while witnesses found not to possess requisite competence cannot testify. The English equivalent is fitness to plead.

Competence (geology)

In geology competence refers to the degree of resistance of rocks to either erosion or deformation in terms of relative mechanical strength. In mining 'competent rocks' are those in which an unsupported opening can be made. Competent rocks are more commonly exposed at outcrop as they tend to form upland areas and high cliffs or headlands, where present on a coastline. Incompetent rocks tend to form lowlands and are often poorly exposed at the surface. During deformation competent beds tend to deform elastically by either buckling or faulting/ fracturing. Incompetent beds tend to deform more plastically, although it is the 'competence contrast' between different rocks that is most important in determining the types of structure that are formed. The relative competence of rocks may change with temperature, such as in metamorphosed limestones, which are relatively competent at low metamorphic grade but become highly incompetent at high metamorphic grade.

Competence (human resources)

Competence is the ability of an individual to do a job properly. A competency is a set of defined behaviors that provide a structured guide enabling the identification, evaluation and development of the behaviors in individual employees. The term "competence" first appeared in an article authored by R.W. White in 1959 as a concept for performance motivation. Later, in 1970, Craig C. Lundberg defined the concept in "Planning the Executive Development Program". The term gained traction when in 1973, David McClelland, Ph.D. wrote a seminal paper entitled, "Testing for Competence Rather Than for Intelligence". It has since been popularized by one-time fellow McBer & Company (Currently the "Hay Group") colleague Richard Boyatzis and many others, such as T.F. Gilbert (1978) who used the concept in relationship to performance improvement. Its use varies widely, which leads to considerable misunderstanding. This is all the more true, that competence appeared in varied countries and varied scientific contexts, with different meanings (Klarsfeld, 2000).

Some scholars see "competence" as a combination of practical and theoretical knowledge, cognitive skills, behavior and values used to improve performance; or as the state or quality of being adequately or well qualified, having the ability to perform a specific role. For instance, management competency might include systems thinking and emotional intelligence, and skills in influence and negotiation.

Competency is also used as a more general description of the requirements of human beings in organizations and communities.

Competency is sometimes thought of as being shown in action in a situation and context that might be different the next time a person has to act. In emergencies, competent people may react to a situation following behaviors they have previously found to succeed. To be competent a person would need to be able to interpret the situation in the context and to have a repertoire of possible actions to take and have trained in the possible actions in the repertoire, if this is relevant. Regardless of training, competency would grow through experience and the extent of an individual to learn and adapt.

Competency has different meanings, and continues to remain one of the most diffuse terms in the management development sector, and the organizational and occupational literature.

Competencies are also what people need to be successful in their jobs. Job competencies are not the same as job task. Competencies include all the related knowledge, skills, abilities, and attributes that form a person’s job. This set of context-specific qualities is correlated with superior job performance and can be used as a standard against which to measure job performance as well as to develop, recruit, and hire employees.

Competencies and competency models may be applicable to all employees in an organization or they may be position specific. Identifying employee competencies can contribute to improved organizational performance. They are most effective if they meet several critical standards, including linkage to, and leverage within an organization’s human resource system

Core competencies differentiate an organization from its competition and create a company’s competitive advantage in the marketplace. An organizational core competency is its strategic strength.

Competencies provide organizations with a way to define in behavioral terms what it is that people need to do to produce the results that the organization desires, in a way that is in keep with its culture. By having competencies defined in the organization, it allows employees to know what they need to be productive. When properly defined, competencies, allows organizations to evaluate the extent to which behaviors employees are demonstrating and where they may be lacking. For competencies where employees are lacking, they can learn. This will allow organizations to know potentially what resources they may need to help the employee develop and learn those competencies. Competencies can distinguish and differentiate your organization from your competitors. While two organizations may be alike in financial results, the way in which the results were achieve could be different based on the competencies that fit their particular strategy and organizational culture. Lastly, competencies can provide a structured model that can be used to integrate management practices throughout the organization. Competencies that align their recruiting, performance management, training and development and reward practices to reinforce key behaviors that the organization values.

Usage examples of "competence".

To have pulled it off, the agents concerned would have had to act with far greater technical competence in framing him than they had in attempting to hunt him down.

It was good to be back in that calm, purposeful, well-ordered world, where an atmosphere of assured competence prevailed and questions of life and death were discussed in cool, measured undertones.

Navy SEALS have the reputation of being the baddest of the bad in the Special Forces world, where bad inferred supreme competence rather than a capacity for malice.

He gives Tim cookies while addressing the boxes, exhibiting that ambidextrous bilateral competence so characteristic of contemporary American parents - all boasting hypertrophic corpora callosa, no doubt, could one but see them.

The majority of the cases, as was pointed out earlier, dealt with the competence of the treaty-making power to grant aliens the right to inherit real property contrary to State Law.

Sermons-- Infant School As we advanced towards Baltimore the look of cultivation increased, the fences wore an air of greater neatness, the houses began to look like the abodes of competence and comfort, and we were consoled for the loss of the beautiful mountains by knowing that we were approaching the Atlantic.

So Beatrice had joined him, showing him as much as she could before surgery started, and then stayed with him to give him a hand with the ease of long competence.

It would be worth their classifications if they ever spoke to Kloofman except on matters of their own sphere of professional competence.

I went to bat for you, of course, but it was your own competence as a cloning technician that earned you the privilege.

In this period, which you will note is more distinguished by the desire for the accumulation of money than far the general production of wealth, the standard of a fortune has shifted from a fair competence to that of millions of money, so that he is no longer rich who has a hundred thousand dollars, but he only who possesses property valued at many millions, and the men most widely known the country through, most talked about, whose doings and sayings are most chronicled in the journals, whose example is most attractive and stimulating to the minds of youth, are not the scholars, the scientists, the men of, letters, not even the orators and statesmen, but those who, by any means, have amassed enormous fortunes.

With each blink, that cloudy, unfocused look disappeared from her eyes, to be replaced with a brisk air of utter competence.

Behind him came Vicky Camberwell, driving Miss Wobbly with competence and precision.

Miroe spoke quietly, complimenting her competence, asking innocuous questions.

Rainscourt courted without affection: and, by his assiduities and feigned attachment, ultimately succeeded in persuading the fond girl to destroy all the golden visions of her parent, and resign herself to his arms, where he assured her that competence and love would be found more than commensurate to a coronet and neglect.

I don't know what the Department would make of my taking psychiatric advice from a vet, but since at the moment my competence in this case makes me feel I have less intelligence than a billberry bush, I might as well listen to a vet, since the Enterprise is lacking a horticulturist.