A competence model for professional practice in the clerical–administrative occupations

Abstract

This article is one of a series which draws on qualitative and quantitative data to determine: the nature of recruitment and selection practices; the types of competency information employers want to know about applicants when making clerical–administrative (office) personnel hiring decisions; and in what form they want to receive the information so that it is most useful. It also builds on a previous article which explored what and how much employers needed to know about reporting trainee competence. Fifty-two administrators and clerical–administrative personnel drawn from the Australian Council of Private Education Training Providers (ACPET) constituted the sample. A multimethod approach was used incorporating telephone interviews, personal interviews and questionnaire design. Of the respondents, 21 persons responded to a postal questionnaire and 31 to telephone interviews. This article reports on qualitative results derived from personal interviews with 14 non-managerial and managerial staff who were drawn from the original sample, and reports on four conceptions of the nature of a clerical–administrative worker as: the technically proficient worker; the knowledgeably-supportive worker; the skilled adviser; and the multiskilled, interactive, decision-maker. The results were obtained using a particular qualitative research approach called phenomenography, which reveals the differences in people's experience of the nature of a clerical–administrative worker. It also draws from the results of the two previous articles associated with this study in a triangulation process to inform the development of a model for assessing and reporting trainee competence in the clerical–administrative occupations.