Jörgen sandberg. Stockholm School of Economics. A classic managerial problem, страница 13

One possible explanation for the observation that optimizers who expressed more comprehensive conceptions also expressed less comprehensive conceptions accurately, but that the reverse did not occur, is that the conceptions are not separate but hierarchically related to each other. This means that those with a more comprehensive conception can move to a less comprehensive conception in a given situation. For instance, if a specific situation requires the first conception, optimizing separate qualities, workerS expressing the second or third conception can temporarily shift their focus in their work performance. However, it is important to note that this shift takes place within the more comprehensive conception. Therefore, if the optimization situation requires the third conception, optimizing from the customers' perspective, optimizers expressing the first or second conception would not be able to make such a shift. This is because the third conception is not included in the first and second conceptions of engine optimization, but goes beyond them.

Possible Sources of Variation in Conceptions of Engine Optimization

A question of interest is the extent to which the variation in conceptions is related to the optimizers' formal educations and/or length of work experience in the department of engine optimization. Table 2 shows the education and experience of the optimizers holding the three conceptions of competence.

It is difficult to see strong links between formal education and the three conceptions of engine optimization. As can be seen in Table 2, optimizers with master of engineering degrees and high school engineering diplomas are represented in every conception. Work experience does bear some relationship to the variation in conceptions, but not a strong one. The optimizers expressing the first or second conception cannot be distinguished in terms of length of experience in the optimization department, but all those who expressed the third conception had more than 11 years of experience in the department. One possible explanation for this relationship is that competence increases with the time spent doing the same type of work. In the case of optimization work, it may take at least 11 years to reach the third conception. This explanation, however, is highly questionable. If this were the case, optimizers with the shortest work experience would express the first conception, and those expressing the second conception would have more work experience than those expressing the first. This is clearly not the case. As we can see from Table 2, the length of work experience varies from between 1 and 12 years in both the first and the second groups, and there is little difference in mean years in the department between the two. A closely related explanation is that the workers who did not achieve the third conception after 10 years were removed from optimization work. However, this does not seem to be the case, since optimizers who have 12 years experience are represented in both the first and the second conceptions.

DISCUSSION

Toward a New Understanding of Competence