Differential effects of competency due to BPO and KPO industry differences in ITES sector in Sri Lanka

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify competency requirements that discriminate between Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) and IT‐enabled business process outsourcing (ITES‐BPO) industries.Design/methodology/approach – There are 25 firms operating in Sri Lanka that fall into the category of ITES‐BPO/KPO. HR managers of the 25 firms and a random sample of 117 employees from those 25 firms responded to the survey. In addition to descriptive statistics, independent sample t‐test and logistic regression were used in the data analysis.Findings – There are differences in competency requirements for KPO and BPO services. Further, demographic variables, namely, age, the level of education, and total years of industry experience shape competency requirements.Originality/value – Despite greater volume of theoretical foundations and empirical evidence for people management in BPO/KPO services, specific literature investigating and comparing competency requirements, recruitment, selection and training o...

[1]  Gregoris Mentzas,et al.  Competency based management: a review of systems and approaches , 2006, Inf. Manag. Comput. Secur..

[2]  Sam McClell,et al.  Gaining Competitive Advantage through Strategic Management Development (SMD) , 1994 .

[3]  Graham Elkin,et al.  COMPETENCY‐BASED HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT – MAKING SENSE OF THE IDEAS , 1990 .

[4]  T. Reio,et al.  Employer assessment of work‐related competencies and workplace adaptation , 2006 .

[5]  Pawan S. Budhwar,et al.  The dynamics of HRM systems in Indian BPO firms , 2006 .

[6]  L. Tovey.  Competency Assessment: A Strategic Approach – Part I , 1993 .

[7]  D. Bartram,et al.  Assessment in Organisations , 2004 .

[8]  F. Sen,et al.  From business process outsourcing (BPO) to knowledge process outsourcing (KPO): Some issues , 2006 .

[9]  Vathsala M. Akuratiyagamage.  Management development practices: empirical evidence from Sri Lanka , 2006 .

[10]  Louise Fitzgerald,et al.  Reframing Competency in Management Development: a critique , 1996 .

[11]  Call centres: High on technology—high on emotions , 2003 .

[12]  Mark Borman,et al.  Applying multiple perspectives to the BPO decision: a case study of call centres in Australia , 2006, J. Inf. Technol..

[13]  Patrick C. Flood,et al.  An exploration of the relationships between the adoption of managerial competencies, organisational characteristics, human resource sophistication and performance in Irish organisations , 2000 .

[14]  J. Peiró,et al.  Individual and contextual influences on managerial competency needs , 2003 .

[15]  I. Goldstein.  Training in Work Organizations , 1980 .

[16]  Murray Turoff,et al.  The Delphi Method: Techniques and Applications , 1976 .

[17]  Dalia. Marin.  A New International Division of Labour in Europe: Outsourcing and Offshoring to Eastern Europe , 2006 .

[18]  Richard E. Boyatzis,et al.  The Competent Manager: A Model for Effective Performance , 1982 .

[19]  Bo Hansson,et al.  Competency Models: Are Self-Perceptions Accurate Enough?. , 2001 .

[20]  Fabrizio Gerli,et al.  An Integrated Competency-Based Approach to Management Education: An Italian MBA Case Study , 2004 .

[21]  Diana Farrell.  Offshoring: Value Creation Through Economic Change , 2005 .

[22]  Meeting business and management training and development needs through competency assessment , 1994 .

[23]  Ronald A. Ash,et al.  THE PRACTICE OF COMPETENCY MODELING , 2000 .

[24]  A. Armenakis,et al.  Challenges and opportunities of business process outsourcing in India , 2006 .

[25]  V. Wickramasinghe.  Staffing practices in the private sector in Sri Lanka , 2007 .

[26]  Filip Vandermeulen,et al.  Competency management in the Flemish and Dutch civil service , 2000 .

[27]  Sudhir Voleti,et al.  Business Process Outsourcing (BPO): Emerging Scenario and Strategic Options for IT-enabled Services , 2004 .

[28]  P. Budhwar,et al.  HRM systems of Indian call centres: an exploratory study , 2006 .

[29]  William J. Rothwell,et al.  Competency Identification, Modelling and Assessment in the USA. , 1999 .

[30]  Elwood F. Holton,et al.  Redefining State Government Leadership and Management Development: A Process for Competency-Based Development , 2003 .

[31]  K. Evans,et al.  Self-Evaluation of Tacit Skills and Competences of Adult Learners : Facilitating Learning Success and Work Reentry , 2005 .

[32]  Mark L. Homer,et al.  Skills and competency management , 2001 .

[33]  K. Mahmood,et al.  Assessing competency of Pakistani primary school teachers in mathematics, science and pedagogy , 2002 .

[34]  Sheila Jackson,et al.  Executive development: meeting the needs of top teams and boards , 2003 .

[35]  Pawan S. Budhwar,et al.  People management issues in Indian KPOs , 2007 .

[36]  Stephen Hackett.  Educating for competency and reflective practice: fostering a conjoint approach in education and training , 2001 .

[37]  Rajendra K. Bandi,et al.  Capability development in knowledge intensive IT enabled services , 2003 .