The Importance and the Developability of Interpersonal Competency at Work: Implications for Higher Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to derive behavior indicators of

interpersonal competency based on competency model used by business

organizations in Korea and to explore the importance and the

developability of those indicators. Five interviewees who were Human

Resource Development(HRD) professionals provided behavior indicators

of interpersonal competency according to the competency model of the

organizations. Three experts examined the set of statements for

redundancies and synthesized the ideas for identifying representative

indicators. Finally, 36 participants were asked to rate the importance

and the developability of each statement upon the organizational

situation on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 to 5.

Descriptive statistics, mean difference profile analysis, and the Go-Zone

analysis were used to represent the importance and the developability

of interpersonal competency at work. The findings provided practical

indicators of interpersonal competency in Korean business organizations

and understandings of their importance and developability perceived by

HR professionals in Korea. Applications of the findings to organizations

and implications for higher education were discussed.