Core Management Competencies for Public Health Managers
SMDP's strategy for strengthening public health management training capacity is built upon a public health management competency framework that comprises the six principal and interrelated domains of leadership, communication, team building, planning and priority setting, performance assessment, and problem solving.
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Competencies are defined as a complex set of measurable behaviors consisting of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that can be shown to predict and measure effective performance1. Each of the competency domains shown in the model above is defined by measurable managerial performance behaviors that result in positive organizational outcomes.
The outer ring of the framework focuses on the roles that a public health manager must fulfill to build a strong organizational culture (leadership, team-building, communication); the inner ring describes the core tasks a manager oversees in accomplishing organizational objectives (planning and priority setting, performance assessment, problem-solving). The public health manager's roles of communicator, leader, and team builder strengthen and reinforce the manager's ability to successfully perform the planning, performance assessment, and problem-solving tasks required to achieve organizational objectives.
SMDP has developed training content to address the six public health management competency domains across five increasingly complex levels of performance for the public health manager:
Individual → Interpersonal → Managerial → Organizational → Contextual
The individual and interpersonal levels for each competency serve as the foundation upon which higher levels of managerial competency in each of the six domains can be built.
The SMDP public health management competency model is used to improve decision-making and to apply a consistent and system-level framework for developing public health management training programs, products, and services. The model helps to answer two important questions about how to develop the capacity of public health managers:
- What does a public health manager need to be able to do?
- How does a public health manager need to develop?
The model is also a flexible, practical guide that can be adapted to the unique needs and situations in a wide variety of partner countries.
Training Competencies
As a training of trainers course, the MIPH curriculum also includes content on core training performance competencies needed by public health management trainers.
The additional training competencies covered in the MIPH course in Atlanta are based upon the foundations of instructional design, and include how to deliver, develop, design, manage, and evaluate training programs.
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1 Parry SB. Just what is a competency? And
why should you care? Training 1998; 58-64.