A Systematic Review of Evidence-based General Competency Models: Development of a General Competencies Taxonomy

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to develop a taxonomy of competencies common across different jobs, occupations, and organizations. To achieve this objective, a definition of competency was constructed and a systematic literature review was conducted, selecting studies that: a) included models with general competencies conceptually close to such definition, b) belonged to the Work and Organizational, and Employability areas, and c) were supported by one or more sources or empirical data. Through this procedure, 23 lists of general competencies were identified, whose content analysis, with a high degree of agreement between two independent reviewers, led to a taxonomy of 36 competencies containing the elements common to all of them. This taxonomy of general competencies is a resource intended to assist in the development of new models and serve as a reference for future competency modeling processes related to the work context.

Keywords

• competency model
• competency modeling
• general competencies
• employability
• systematic review
• taxonomy