Developing Competencies for Professional Performance

The debate about the role of competency development in management education reveals a philosophical divide between those who favor aca-demic content and those who favor practical experience as the outcome of professional education. Many faculty members believe that the role of edu-cators is to convey academic knowledge, arguing that the focus of a college education should be on content and analytical skills; other skills will be acquired in the workplace. Other educators, dissatisfied with what they per-ceive as a too narrow view of professional learning, advocate management competency development as a legitimate purpose of management education (Boyatzis, 2009). With its historic emphasis on experiential learning, JME has consistently published contributions from the pro-management skills development camp. Special issues (Bradford, 1983; Boyatzis & McLeod, 2001) have explored questions about student competency development as well as the skills fac-ulty need to teach managerial competencies. A recent research report, like numerous others published over the years