Introduction
Competency models are lists that specify sets of behaviours necessary for effective job performance (Campion et al., 2020). Despite their widespread use, they have been strongly criticised, mainly for the lack of consensus regarding their development methodology (Goldman and Scott, 2016) and weak empirical support (Furnham, 2018; Arribas-Aguila et al., 2024). Consequently, a gap persists between models developed internally by organisations and those in the academic literature. Addressing this gap requires models that meet organisational needs while remaining generic enough to capture overlap across leading competency frameworks (Campion et al., 2020; Shippmann et al., 2000).
Purpose
Develop a new model of cross-occupational competencies that are considered important for job performance, integrating empirical data from two sources of evidence.
Method
Two studies were conducted: a panel of 168 HR subject-matter experts and a survey of a representative Spanish sample of 676 employees. Both rated the importance of the competencies in the taxonomy developed by Arribas-Aguila et al. (2024) for the successful performance of tasks in four occupational groups consistent with the Spanish National Classification of Occupations (CNO-11): 1) directors and managers; 2) professionals (scientific and intellectual); 3) technicians and associate professionals; and 4) accounting, administrative, and other employees.
Results
A factor-analytic approach was used to extract 21 competencies judged by both experts and employees to be important across all four occupational groups. Using a criterion-based approach, different combinations of competencies from the taxonomy that were important for each specific occupational group were added to these cross-occupational competencies, which together form a new model of general competencies.
Conclusions
The proposed model is consistent with the literature in the field of I/O Psychology and includes competencies rated as highly important for job performance while remaining general and applicable across multiple occupational groups.