Outsourcing and the development of competencies

Summary form only given. This paper aims to establish a number of conceptual guidelines for the use of suppliers in the company's competence development activities. The paper develops preliminary guidelines for the use of suppliers in the competence development activities. The considerations in the paper are based in a knowledge-based perspective of a competence, emphasizing that a competence consists of three different types of knowledge specific, integrative and deployment. Specific knowledge that is an expression of, e.g., knowledge related to individual technologies or scientific disciplines. Integrative knowledge is concerned with the knowledge needed to integrate the different areas of specific knowledge into, e.g., a functioning system. Deployment knowledge and is concerned with the knowledge on how specific and integrative knowledge can be utilized to create value for the customers as well as the company it self. The different characteristics of these three types of knowledge are then discussed. The paper then proceeds by discussing the different learning processes contributing to competence development the paper distinguishes between learning by internalizing and learning by experimenting. The paper concludes by developing a method by which the individual constituents of a competence can be visualized and described. This method is inspired by the "house of quality" method. It is believed that analyzing and describing competencies using this method can provide a better basis for decisions in the company concerning the choice of areas suitable for outsourcing.