Recently there has been a huge growth in use of ''competencies'' to select and develop executives in U.S. corporations. The reason is that competencies create a common language with which companies may discuss the executive skills crucial to corporate survival and competitive performance. Here, the authors report on a study of leading North American organizations' approach to competency modeling. That study identified three primary methods. In the research-based approach, competencies are derived from behavioral data on ''supervisor'' executives gathered through special interviews, observation, and validation. The strategy-based approach to competency modeling is based on careful and informed speculation by key informants (often senior leaders) about the demands of the future business environment and the direction in which the business will be moving. In the third approach, termed the values based approach, the competency model is based formally or informally on the company's values. Based ontheir research, the authors conclude that the current approaches are insufficient to meet future business needs, particularly in industries experiencing turbulent change. Consequently, they propose a new approach, a learning-based approach. In particular, they propose that learning metacompetencies be used to help executives learn how to learn.
