Competency Based Curriculum Development Model of Operations
Managers in Indonesian Logistics Industry
Khresna Bayu Sangka
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia
Keywords: Competency development, analytic hierarchy process, economic education.
Abstract: Indonesia’s robust economic growth after struggling from financial crisis during last decade is having a
progressive effect on its logistics industry. But, the deficiency of competency development programs and
training for operations managers in this sector generates a static improvement if compared to the other nations.
Calibrating competencies and skills of operations manager in this industry along its education curriculum is
critical to make a standpoint in Indonesian economy. This study is outlined to fill the gap of competencies’
necessity in this area and try to formulate the adaptive approach and understanding. Engaging an intensive
literature review and collaborated with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), this study identified several
critical competencies that need to strengthen to establish national competency standard that could be
employed for training and education curriculum development.
1 INTRODUCTION
The rapid growth of Indonesia economy has
impacted on the logistics sector which has continued
to grow in recent years. But this result is not yet
followed by the logistics performance quality as a
whole. As a parameter, Indonesia’s 2014 Logistic
Performance Index (LPI) is in 53rd (Bank, 2014). It
was a big leap, while it was in 43rd in 2007; in 75th
in 2010 and 59th in 2012. However, Indonesia’s
ranking is currently the lowest in the six largest
ASEAN economies, and remains above the average
performance of the group of lower middle income
economies (Bank, 2012). Detailed score for each
criterion in LPI compared with the first rank
(Singapore) and the nearest country (Malaysia).
Over the last decade, the growth of Indonesia
industry and logistics business has not been
supported by the growth of professional human
resources. There is a gap between the availability of
education and training with demands in the logistics
sector and the lack of competency and human
resource development which has not been well
planned (Gaol, 2013; Ministry of Economics, 2010).
As stated by the Chairman of Indonesian Logistics
Association, the infrastructures such as education,
training and policy framework are needed to be
developed to leverage on the emerging opportunities
in the logistics sector in Indonesia (Gopal, 2012).
Since the capability and integrated logistics systems
need the competent human resources, it is critical to
take a consideration to improve the competency of
supply chain operations managers in Indonesia in
order to improve the quality of logistics
performance (Melisa, 2012).
Although many technologies are involved in the
wheel of the organization, the organization still
needs human resources as the driving force of other
resources owned by the organization in any form.
One of the factors driving success in organisations
is the capabilities and competencies of its managers.
They represent a unique discipline responsible for
supporting the global network of delivering products
and services across the entire supply chain, from raw
materials to end customers. It is crucial that all
organisations understand that competency refers to
the demonstrated ability including knowledge,
skills, and attitudes, to perform a task successfully
according to specified standards (Porasmaa &
Kotonen, 2010).
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Employed theory
This study adopt the resource-based view (RBV)
theory to provide a better understanding of how the
366
Sangka, K.
Competency Based Curriculum Development Model of Operations Managers in Indonesian Logistics Industry.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Economic Education and Entrepreneurship (ICEEE 2017), pages 366-372
ISBN: 978-989-758-308-7
Copyright © 2017 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
competency model for operations managers could be
utilised to enhance companies’ competitive
advantage. This theory argues that an organisation’s
internal and external resources are a source of
competitive advantage that leads to better
performance (Barney, 1991). Resources can be either
tangible or intangible. Tangible resources are
financial resources, buildings and machinery;
intangible resources are aspects of human capital such
as organisational training, the culture of the
organisation, intelligence, relationship such as
collaboration and quality of employees. Firms’
resources comprise all assets, capabilities,
organisational processes, firm attributes, information,
and knowledge controlled by an enterprise. All of
these resources enable firms to conceive of and
implement strategies aimed at improving their
efficiency and effectiveness (Barney, 1991; Daft,
2010).
2.2 Competency definition
It is necessary to make clear what competence and
competency mean in the discussion of the
professionalization of evaluators. As defined earlier,
competence is an abstract construct. It describes the
quality of being competent. It is the “habitual and
judicious use of communication, knowledge,
technical skills, clinical reasoning, emotions, values
and reflection in daily practice for the benefit of the
individual and community being served” (Epstein &
Hundert, 2002).
In contrast, competency is a more concrete
concept that includes particular knowledge, a single
skill or ability, and attitudes. It refers to the quality
of being adequately or well qualified, physically and
intellectually. There is misuse and/or cross-use of
the terms competence and competency. For
example, competence is used as a synonym for
performance, a skill, or personality trait (Griffin,
2007). Not only is competence treated as
performance, but it is also used indiscriminately to
refer to either the observable performance or the
underlying neural functions that support the
observable behaviour (Trivellasa & Drimoussis,
2013). Furthermore, professional competence is more
to addressing the upcoming task than to identify
competencies (Griffin, 2007). In addition,
professional competence suggested by Gooty et al.
(2010) is more than a demonstration of isolated
competencies.
Although there is no agreed-upon definition of
competence, there are researchers and organisations
that have sought to depict it. A review of literature
finds that competence is often associated with
knowledge, skills, or attitudes that enable one to
effectively perform the activities of a given
occupation or function to the standards expected by
someone (Bartoska, Flegl, & Jarkovska, 2012). A
comprehensive example of definitions of competence
can be found in Chouhan & Srivastava (2014).
In this study, we used the definition given by
Porasmaa and Kotonen (2010) that stated
competency as a demonstrated ability including
knowledge, skills, and attitudes to perform a task
successfully according to the standards. The
definition above show that competencies are a
combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes
required to do a job successfully.
2.3 Competency Model
The development and application of a competency
model is a proven approach to investing in human
resources in order to achieve a more effective and
productive workforce. The functioning of an
organisation largely depends upon several
distinctive components, with the talented employee
occupying the central role in the accomplishment of
organisational goals. In the present economic
scenario, the need for a forward-looking and
proactive approach to competency modelling is
driven by the increasing pace of change in the
business environment (Chouhan & Srivastava,
2014; Thai, Ibrahim, Ramani, & Huang, 2012).
Broader competencies that should be included in
the logistics competency model were broken down
into several competencies and skills. Logistics
competency indicates dimensions within strategic
management skills, business knowledge, and
effective leadership skills. These dimensions
provide outstanding inputs for the Malaysian higher
education sector and also for logistics managers for
integrating competency into logistics programs,
recruitment, and development functions (Daud,
Ahmad, Ling, & Keoy, 2011).
We conducted an extensive literature review on
the determinants of competency for operations
managers in the context of logistics providers. And
found four dimension contained of fifteen
competencies related to the specific domain of
operations managers. Those are: first, Business
dimension (leadership, people management,
teamwork and communication, negotiation and
change management competency); second,
Logistics dimension (transportation and distribution
management, warehouse and inventory
management, and project management
Competency Based Curriculum Development Model of Operations Managers in Indonesian Logistics Industry
367
competency); third, Management dimension
(analytical, managing result, continuous
improvement, creating and managing CSR, and
cultural awareness competency); and the last
dimension is Information and Communication
Technology (hardware and software handling and
information handling).
From the identified competencies above, we
made the hierarchical (conceptual) model as shown
in Figure. 1 below:
Figure 1: Hierarchical competency for operation manager in logistics industry
2.4 Analytic Hierarchy Process
Numerous studies in logistics domain have been
conducted using the analytic hierarchy process
(AHP) approach, as it is a simple but powerful
method used in the decision-making process which
integrates qualitative and quantitative information
simultaneously, and for prioritising alternatives
when facing multi criteria that need to be
considered. As expressed by Radnor and Barnes
(2007), the single decision-making criterion is
oriented with cost minimization (i.e., to produce as
efficiently as possible) in the early days. Later,
consideration is given to several criteria such as
quality, flexibility, timeliness, service delivery and
innovation. Hence, the use of the Multi-Criteria
Decision Making (MCDM) method enables effective
decisions to be made in order to meet all relevant
criteria at various levels and for different purposes.
Several limitations of AHP that need to be
considered for research purposes are: first, its
assumption of independency among various
decision-making criteria which makes it difficult to
assess the correlation between criteria. Secondly,
AHP uses crisp judgements for pair-wise
comparison of criteria, as the traditional AHP
employs a scale with exact whole numbers between
1-9 (Saaty, 1990). Research conducted by Ho (2008)
reviews the application of AHP when integrated
with other techniques. We consider this as a
significant gap in the literature and aim to provide
an updated review of the application of AHP in this
area.
Number of studies have shown the results and
prospective implications for many of the parties
involved in the field of logistics. Logistics
managers, employers, students, educators, and
professional organisations can all benefit from the
perspectives and recommendations of executive
placement specialists. Executive recruiters should
prove insightful for career development in terms of
planning and selecting their continuing education
ICEEE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Economic Education and Entrepreneurship
368
and executive development activities not only for
managers but also for employers. Furthermore, it is
critical to prove the usefulness of identifying the
educational preparation set that might be expected
and/or required for potential candidates.
3 METHODS
Employed a mixed research method, a three parts of
questionnaire been used for interviews and data
collection. Part 1 contains general questions about the
firm and respondents’ background, while, Part 2
contains fifteen open-ended questions designed to
capture respondents’ opinions on the importance of
fifteen competencies of the proposed competency
model. Part 3 contains pair-wise comparisons
questions between fifteen competencies to
determine the level of importance and the priorities
among individual competencies.
The critical case sampling method has been used
to identify the potential cases for this study. Critical
case sampling is a type of purposive sampling
(Neuman, 1991) that looks for cases that are
‘particularly information rich in relationship to the
questions under consideration (Yin, 2003). Then,
respondents compare a pair of competencies in a level
importance respecting to a competency in the level
above in a hierarchical manner, referring to their
importance in terms of a particular measure, and
make a judgement alternative on a scale of 1 to 9.
Score of 1 represents indifference between two
competencies, while score of 9 represents
overwhelming dominance of a row component over a
column component. When scoring is conducted for a
pair, a reciprocal value is automatically assigned to
the reverse comparison within the matrix. For that
result, score of 1/9 represents overwhelming
dominance of a column component over a row
component within the pair-wise comparison matrix
(Saaty, 2004). The set of questionnaires are
distributed to five multinational logistics providers,
and five large local logistics providers operating in
Indonesia. Respondents will be assured that their
answers would be kept confidential. These
questionnaires were distribute to ten high profile third
party logistics companies (5 locals ownership and 5
multinational ownership) whom operate in Indonesia
for more than 20 years. List of the respondent with
their main serviced area is presented in table 1 as
follow:
Table 1: Surveyed serving area
Firm
Industry served area
MNC1
Aerospace, automotive, chemical, consumer,
fashion, industrial and engineering
MNC2
Mail, parcel, chemical, consumer, fashion,
industrial and engineering
MNC3
Electronics, fashions, healthcare, chemical, oil
and gas, minerals.
MNC4
High technology, oil & gas, retail and industrial,
medical equipment, chemical, fashion.
MNC5
Electronics, automotive, chemical, healthcare,
consumer goods, fashion.
LOC1
Documents, printed materials, books, electronics,
telecommunication.
LOC2
Automotive, machinery, chemical, consumer,
fashion, industrial and engineering, life sciences
and healthcare, retail and technology, fashion
LOC3
Pharmaceuticals
LOC4
Fashion, retails, healthcare, consumer goods,
electronics, technology, palm oil, petroleum.
LOC5
Retails, consumer goods, pharmaceutical,
automotive, machinery, fashion, minerals, oils
and
gas.
Collected data were analysed using the
Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach to
assess the critical determinants for operations
managers’ competency model of logistics
providers. This method is a systematic approach
using comparison concepts in a hierarchical structure
analysis. In this research data will be analysed using
softwares such as Expert Choice ver.12.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
All respondent from put logistics dimension as the
most important for succeed operations managers in
logistics providers industry. While the transportation
and distribution came in the first priority, that’s
mean this competency have to be maintain and even
improved regarding to company success. We can
say for Indonesian logistics business, an operations
manager has to master the transportation and
distribution knowledge as the first step to achieve
bigger success. Although the operations managers
in each surveyed companies have different
education background, but they’re able to manage
and emphasize their subordinates to find company
excellences.
The warehouse and inventory management and
project management competency can be a leading
factor for company success as well as the
transportation and distribution, since the almost all
of respondents have the specific service such as
Competency Based Curriculum Development Model of Operations Managers in Indonesian Logistics Industry
369
providing warehouse and managing the customers
inventory.
After 3 highly important competencies, the
priorities are slightly different between MNCs and
local. For MNC, Managing result (business
dimension) combine with Leadership (management
dimension) came to accompany the competencies
under logistics dimension. While in locals
perspective, continuous improvement, managing
result (business dimension) came after the first
three competencies. Figure 2 shows the detailed
prioritisation result which respect to the goal.
Figure 2. Priorities of competencies respect to goal
Since the various educations background of
operations managers, these five competencies have
to upgraded, maintained and improved according to
the industry situation. The most important thing in
this situation is develop a comprehensive logistics
education and training program for the existing
logistics providers operations managers and
future’s competent logistics providers' operations
managers.
For MNCs logistics providers, Teamwork
(management dimension), Continuous
improvement, People management, Analytical
(business dimension), Information handling (ICT
dimension) came on the second layer of
prioritization. The combination of these
competencies for logistics providers Operations
Managers suggested as the art of managing
business. Including how to deal with people,
managing and accommodate them into to challenge
the market. Information handling also important
according to the rapid growth of information, the
MNCs realized that the winner of the competition is
not only because of how they run the core business
(logistics) but also in how they manage the
information from others (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Priorities among MNC and Locals
Continuous improvement usually related to the
vision of the company, empowerment the people in
company, sharing learning and knowledge, and
coaching subsidiaries. It’s become very important
while the connected to the next competencies that
an operations managers should have, such as
change management and negotiation.
Even the value of change management is far
below the first important competency, but the
manager should able to achieve personal change to
be more successful by entails thoughtful planning
and sensitive implementation, consultation with,
and involvement of, the people affected by the
changes. Regarding all the respective
competencies, operating supporting software and
hardware is a must. An operations manager has to
show their ability to operate the tools as good as
their subsidiaries.
As negotiation for MNCs might be not as
important as for Locals, since usually they only
receive and process order from the head quarter.
The negotiation for new customers are relatively
hard, since there is a unofficial agreement to
protect locals providers - MNCs could only deal
with MNCs principals while the locals could deal
with both MNCs and localsprincipal.
Cultural awareness and creating corporate
social responsibility will be a big issue in the future,
company trend to give more attention to their
community and constituents. The cultural
awareness probably can be named as the greatest
complexity, and the challenge is how to reduce the
mistakes. Since the nature of Indonesian which can
be said as “take it for granted” this not become a big
issue (yet). While the CSR regulation is not settled
yet, the logistics providers companies feel that they
don’t need to put a big attention in this area. They
better put attention and underlined the critical areas
that they have to improve most.
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5 CONCLUSIONS
Certification of competencies is needed to recognize
the right man with the right competencies in order to
accomplish their duties and responsibilities. In the
field of employment or certain professions in
accordance with the demands of the company and
the business environment. Certification of
competencies is necessary to face global
competition. In the ASEAN Economic Community
(AEC), for instance, foreign professionals are free
enter Indonesia job market which is very limited of
skilled person in this area.
Job competence certification is the process of
granting a certificate of competence are carried out
systematically and objectively through competency
test standard refers to the work of national and
international competence. Indonesian National
Competence System (SKKNI) is a formulation of
workability covers aspects of knowledge, skills,
expertise, and work attitudes that are relevant to the
duties and terms of office are set in accordance with
the provisions of Law No. 13 of 2003 on Labor and
PP 23 of 2004 on the National Professional
Certification Board (BNSP) and Regulation 31 of
2006 on the National Vocational Training System.
Furthermore there are lack of national and
international networks, and multinational
companies are dominating the logistics industry in
Indonesia. In addition, in terms of human resources
management, local logisticians have poor training
and education in their profession. In terms of
regulatory policy, there is no integrated national
policy for the logistics sector; regulations and
policies are not comprehensive and specific, and
any existing policies and regulations are not
enforced. Coordination between educational
institutions and government or industry
organisations is still poor. The human resources
field of national logistics needs to implement a
national certification system covering all levels of
management. This will reduce the dependence on
international certification; moreover, the relevant
organisations can ensure that such training and
education takes into account Indonesia’s
characteristics.
It imply that educators, professional
organisations and government can use the findings
to enhance their roles in the development of such
programs. More specifically, the results may prove
insightful for planning annual conferences and
educational tracks, regional roundtable/chapter
meetings, Internet seminars, and distance learning
programs.
In addition, it is critical to establish
collaboration and cooperation between
government, academia, entrepreneurs and logistics
associations to develop a comprehensive logistics
curriculum based on the competencies for every
managerial level. Accommodating logistics
associations that are concerned about national
logistics certification in the field of human
resources is a must. Also, companies which already
provide logistics training for their employees can be
motivated to collaborate. Under the supervision of
the Ministry of Education, vocational high schools
and tertiary institutions should devise and deliver
courses specifically for logistics, and offer
qualifications at all levels from diplomas to doctoral
degrees.
It is crucial to establish and implement a
competency-based curriculum tailored specifically
for the needs of the logistics profession. To achieve
a strong competitiveness in logistics, there needs to
be logistics competence, professional and reliable
performance at the operational managerial and
strategic levels, and standards that meet national
needs to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in the
performance of the national logistics system itself.
The certification of competencies ensures that
the right man with the right competencies is given
an appropriate role and can successfully undertake
the tasks and responsibilities associated with certain
professions, in accordance with company demands
and the business environment. Employing different
variations under analytic hierarchy process
approach such as by accommodating fuzzy and also
increase bigger respondent for the future research,
suggested will improve the deeper understanding
and result a crispier policy making process at this
area.
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