Organizational Competencies: Clarifying the Construct

Abstract

This article presents the results of research examining the composition and internal dynamics of organizational competencies held by four major technology corporations. The research used content analysis of corporate documents and in-depth interviews with corporate professionals to reveal that these competencies draw upon corporate understanding of phenomena related to communication networks, documents, and integrated circuits. The competencies identified contain seven component categories. Five involve understandings of core phenomena, intellectual disciplines, various technologies, and classes of products and services. Two involve functional, technological, and integrated skills. Importantly, during their use, the understandings and skills within competencies dynamically interact with one another, powerfully supporting corporate competitiveness. Interview results reveal organizational competencies to be intermediate term knowledge. They are developed by applying more enduring corporate capabilities, such as strategic vision, and they enable the creation of more transient knowledge, such as familiarity with specific customers.

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