With the above context of organisational development, as well as other heuristic tools that we have introduced, I would like to introduce the key themes that will be discussed in this book.
The main theme of the books deals with the most important building block and value enhancers in organisations, namely individuals and their competency. We define individual competency holistically within a business organisation. In order for us to discuss individual competency tightly against the requirements of business, we need to define a framework that will help us to match and understand competency requirements necessary for business performance. We also need to match employees physically to ensure their optimum performance within the business. By looking at both individual, as well as organisational components, we thus focus on creating organisational, as well as individual wellness and sustainability and in so doing achieve exactly what we have defined organisational development to be, namely development and enhancing of all the components in the organisation, i.e. the socio-technical, as well as the socio-behavioural. The framework that we use to understand the competency requirements in the business are made up of work complexity bands in the organisation, as well as role outputs that are necessary to produce the work in these complexity bands.
Chapter one deals with an overview of competency where we discuss the competency of an individual employee in a business organisation. In chapter two, we define the concept of a work output within the context of work complexity. Chapter three deals with the complexity of work bands in a business organisation in order to explain the work complexity construct from a business point of view. Chapter four explains the individual factors that lead to individual competency. In chapter five to chapter ten, we explain and explore each of these factors and explain their linkage to individual competency. In the last three chapters, we explore the enabling factors in the organisational environment that will enhance competency development and application within the business environment.
We hope that you enjoy the book, and that the practical explanation of the concepts motivate you to implement some of these to further enhance individual and organisational well being!
Foreword and introduction compiled by