Skills Management

Introduction For a Renewed Approach to Skills Management

Why write a book on skills management, when the concept has been a part of managerial practices for the last 20 years?

Even if the time for epitaph-like assessments has not yet come, it is, however, necessary to propose an update on the subject. The 2000s saw the stabilization of the concept and could have led someone to believe, under the influence of the neo-institutionalist current, that the generalization of the skills approach would conclude with a standardization of the definition and practices.

However, 20 years later, this is not the case. Not only has skills management not fallen into oblivion, but its renewal presents both a theoretical and a practical challenge. First of all, theoretical, to the extent that new associated concepts have emerged, with key or critical skills, or even inter-organizational skills. Second, practical, as these skills are now declining according to singular types of populations and must be translated into each context of collective action. What is left of “the” competence? How should we rethink this approach when traditional business models and boundaries become fragmented, as the adaptability of individuals becomes a new social norm?

This is the ambition of this book.

It is important to remember at this point some fundamentals.

Skills management brings together two distinct worlds: the jobs that characterize the company organization, and the people who will occupy them. In the first ...