Activation: The Core Competency

K. Lynn Taylor is coordinator of the Instructional Development Program
in the Centre for Higher Education, University of Manitoba.

Many workplaces today are facing the challenges posed by increasingly
insistent demands for productivity in the context of diminishing human
and material resources. The author of this book argues that the
responsibility for meeting those challenges will increasingly fall to
individual employees. Although external managers will still play
critical roles in identifying objectives, setting standards, and
evaluating performance, employees will increasingly control the
decision-making process.

Freedberg outlines the three core competencies employees will require
in order to become effective self-managers—namely, self-confidence,
self-direction, and self-commitment. As Freedberg acknowledges, the
focus is more on self-management processes than on how these processes
can be implemented, particularly in work contexts that reflect more
traditional management models. Those new to the workforce and those
struggling to become more effective within it will find this book
particularly helpful, although some of the resonance for female readers
may be lost because of Freedberg’s use of male pronouns throughout.
Managers who read the book will come away with a far better
understanding of the common difficulties experienced by those they
manage (and perhaps even themselves).