Managing employee incompetence in Lebanese organizations

Abstract

In 2011, the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS) Lebanon and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) within the context of the EU Twining project have published “Statistics in Focus (SIF)”, a series of social statistics, entitled “The labor market in Lebanon”. One main finding triggered the development of the research question: in Lebanon, when someone is given a job opportunity, he/she will accept it even if it does not match his/her own qualification level. Competence is the combination of knowledge, experience, skills, attitude and abilities that enable the employee to perform his/her job effectively and efficiently. Thus it is integral to study the effect of employee incompetence on the performance of Lebanese organizations. The analysis is done on five different levels: H0: Incompetent employees negatively affect the performance of competent employees. H1: Having more than one responsible for recruiting minimizes the effect of incompetent employees on competent employees. H2: Use of competency based framework minimizes the effect of incompetent employees on competent employees. H3: Competency based framework allows an organization to reach its objectives. H4: Competency based framework improves employee customer service. In order to answer those questions, a qualitative study was developed. 150 questionnaires were administered to 50 managers and 100 employees along with two interviews with a consultant and a human resource manager. The Pearson Chi square test was used to study the relation between the variables. The results were entered into SPSS. In Order to answer those questions, a qualitative study was developed. 150 questionnaires were administered to 50 managers and 100 employees along with two interviews with a consultant and a human resource manager. The Pearson Chi square test was used to study the relation between the variables. The results were entered into SPSS. After an intensive analysis of the results, the five hypotheses were all accepted. The reasons behind employee incompetence which are listed below were derived: 1- Incompetent managers: there is no reference for employees in the work place. 2- Not enough training for the employees. 3- Bad recruiting process: the recruiter is not aware of the huge responsibility in hand. 4- Job procedures are constraints: employees are not motivated. 5- Lack of communication: the company goals and mission are not clear for the employees so are the job objectives and processes. Therefore a competency based framework is essential to help Lebanese organizations overcome employee and managerial incompetence. A competency based framework is the basis for all human resource functions and serves as the linkage between the individual performance and business results. The framework compiled from the literature stressed on the necessity of training and on ameliorating the recruiting process.