For my part, I would tend to agree with the point, made by Pat, that the
word 'managerial' presents as much difficulty as the word 'competency'
when dealing with research into the issue. We need to use a language in
research that we can all understand.
However, this is not always possible. In my current work looking at
'culture' and 'management', there is no concensus at all about what we
mean by the term 'culture'. The same applies to the term 'sustainability'
(I have recently returned from a conference looking at sustainability in
construction).
So, I disagree with Pat's view that we have a single definition, because
everyone will inevitably have a different definition to the next person.
At times like this I normally turn to Raymond Williams' 'Keywords' (1987)
but he doesn't include either competence or sustainability in his list
(later editions might).
So, how do we deal with the problem of ensuring we're all talking about
the same thing? Or do we just have to resign ourselves to defining what WE
mean by the words we're using, every time we use them?
Something to ponder.
Regards
Mark
Mark Hall
Construction Procurement Research Unit
School of the Built Environment
Liverpool John Moores University
Clarence Street
Liverpool
L3 5UG
Tel: +44 (0)151 231 3137
Fax: +44 (0)151 709 4957
Email: bltmhall@livjm.ac.uk
--BLTMHALL <BLTMHALL@livjm.ac.uk>
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