Document Information
Compensating for Incomplete Domain Knowledge
It is not always possible for the Air Force to assign someone with all possible desirable qualifications to a specific job. Senior leaders compensate for such things as lack of technical knowledge or functional experience by using compensating competencies. To discover what these are and how they are used, the authors interviewed 27 senior officers and civilians and found the techniques fell into four general categories: enterprise knowledge, integration skills, problem-solving skills, and people skills. Leaders who need more domain knowledge can use these to gain more and to leverage the staff for developing solutions and making decisions. But even leaders with high levels of knowledge find these competencies immediately useful, facilitating work with expert subordinates, complex integrations, and proven domain-specific strategies. Moreover, these competencies are teachable, so the Air Force should develop them through its education and development programs. Doing so, to appropriate degrees, at all levels will increase the pool of potential leaders and staff members who can cope in a wider variety of organizations and operating domains in the future.
See Also:
Support RAND Research — Buy This Product!
Paperback Cover Price: $23.00
Discounted Web Price: $20.70
Pages: 78
ISBN/EAN: 978-0-8330-4129-6
Free, downloadable PDF file(s) are available below.
RAND makes an electronic version of this document available for free as a public service. If you find this information valuable, please consider purchasing a paper copy of the full document to help support RAND research.
Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.
Contents
Chapter One:
Background and Introduction
Chapter Two:
Methodology
Chapter Three:
Findings
Chapter Four:
Conclusions
Chapter Five:
Recommendations
Appendix A:
Sampling Design
Appendix B:
Interview Protocol
Appendix C:
Compensating Competencies Analysis Taxonomy
The research described in this report was sponsored by the United States Air Force and conducted by RAND Project AIR FORCE.
This product is part of the RAND Corporation documented briefing series. RAND documented briefings are based on research presented to a client, sponsor, or targeted audience in briefing format. Additional information is provided in the documented briefing in the form of the written narration accompanying the briefing charts. All RAND documented briefings undergo rigorous peer review to ensure that they meet high standards for research quality and objectivity. However, they are not expected to be comprehensive and may present preliminary findings. Major research findings are published in the monograph series; supporting or preliminary research is published in the technical report series.
Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.
* RAND research is conducted across divisions, centers, and projects; these organizational components are represented in the "Related RAND Divisions" section above.
Top
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2009 RAND Corporation. Last Modified: December 07, 2007 