Management of capabilities and situations in R&D centres: the matrix of competences

The paper presents the first results of research carried out by the authors in the research centre of an important Italian industrial group. The management of the centre is strongly interested in new methodological approaches to identify and to represent individual competences. To satisfy this specific need, the authors suggest a method based on the matrix of competences that is the set of relationships between capabilities and situations. The situations and the capabilities are identified by analysing the judgements that other subjects, internal or external to the organization, express on an individual's behaviour.
A sample of fifteen individuals has been investigated in order to identify their individual competences and the most significant situations within the centre. For each individual a network of subjects, the supervisor and some clients and collaborators, has been considered. On the basis of the results, the implications for management are discussed, with particular regard to the design of new procedures for personnel evaluation.