The Influence of Organizational Context on Differentiating Competencies

Abstract

The subject of this paper is based on the definition of competence as the individual’s ability to activate, utilize and merge the knowledge acquired when faced with complex, diverse and unpredictable situations. The first part of this paper presents an outline of the fundamental hypotheses dealing with the subject of interpretative typology of competences, which does not regard the worker and the job as two separate identities, but rather as one single identity that is formed through the work experience. The goal of this research is to find an answer to the question, whether the differentiating competences that are necessary for a job in marketing depend on the work context of the specific organization within which they are put into practice. The subjects of our research were the employees of three medium-sized Slovenian enterprises, who function in three different work contexts, according to our findings. The results of the research show that the differentiating competences that separate superior job performance worker from an average one, who holds the same position as marketer, depend on the nature of the work context within which the employees perform their jobs.