Using Latent Semantic Analysis to inform HRD Program Design: Comparing Professional Competency Models for Potential Alignment

Abstract: Many academic programs align their curriculum with professional standards to increase relevancy of the curriculum and connection to a profession (Bravenboer & Lester, 2016; Vitale et al., 2020). This is an important aspect in preparing effective graduates as well as maintaining accreditation standards and relevancy. In the field of human resource development (HRD), no universal requirement exists in the U.S. to align academic curriculum to a professional body of knowledge or competency framework. However, benefits to doing so exist for students and the profession alike (Perera et al., 2017). This abstract reports on the first steps of understanding the semantic similarities between two competency models that can be used in guiding a HRD degree curriculum: Association for Talent Development (ATD) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Our research aims to inform HRD faculty and academic program directors in making curricular decisions in degree and course offerings.
One of the most compelling reasons for choosing to align with ATD and/or SHRM standards is the potential for professional certification from either organization. Certifications are voluntarily obtained credentials that can signify an individual’s level of knowledge in a profession (Gilmore & Williams, 2007). Specifically for job seekers or those new to a profession, certifications can “persuade certifiable professionals, their employers, and their customers that those who are certified exhibit high levels of job performance” (McKillip & Owens, 2000, p. 50).
In the broad field of human resources (HR), no legally required licensure exists that regulates professional practice. Instead, professionals may choose to obtain certifications to further develop their skills or advance their career. One study found that “external rewards [career advancement] are important reasons for HR professionals to certify” (Cumberland et al., 2018, p. 78). Furthermore, in competitive labor markets, HR certification can be utilized as a distinction between otherwise equally qualified job candidates (Aguinis et al., 2005). In fact, the vast majority of managers (90%) see HR certification as providing value to the organization (Lester, 2011).
Because no sanctioned competency model for HRD exists, many HRD degree programs either create their own competency models to fit their particular mission and environment or utilize aspects of existing competency models (or both). Commonly used models include those from organizations like ATD, SHRM, and the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). However, these models may overlap in their standards for practitioners (Werner, 2014).
As part of a larger curriculum realignment project for a graduate HRD program, we sought to understand the semantic overlap between ATD and SHRM competency models. These models were chosen for contextual and historical reasons, but also because each organization offers a professional certification, a useful credential for graduates should they choose to obtain one.
To measure the similarity between the ATD and SHRM competencies, we conducted latent semantic analysis using the application available at http://lsa.colorado.edu/. We selected the general reading space for college level topic space as it “uses a variety of texts, novels, newspaper articles, and other information from the Touchstone Applied Science Associated, Inc. (TASA) corpus” (Dennis, 2011, p. 69). According to Dennis (2011), this topic space includes 37,651 documents and 92,409 terms that cover a variety of academic areas including business.
We harvested all 188 competency statements from the ATD competency model and 259 competency statements from the SHRM model. We chose only to include SHRM competency statements labeled as relevant “for all HR professionals” (SHRM, p. 9). In this phase of our analysis, the ATD and SHRM competency statements were analyzed as singular documents, respectively (as opposed to analyzing individual statements). In addition to submitting the ATD and SHRM competency statements, we also submitted the first chapter of Alice in Wonderland as a comparison. We found that the ATD and SHRM competency statements are similar to each other (cosine = .78) but dissimilar to the first chapter of Alice in Wonderland (cosines = .08).
As an exploratory first step in understanding the semantic similarities between these two competency bodies, this analysis indicates that there is evidence that these two competency models share a high degree of overlap and thus might both be appropriate models for informing HRD degree program curriculum. Our ongoing analysis includes comparing competency statement sets to determine more granular similarities between each model including but not limited to developing a topic space from the body of competency statements. Such a topic space could be used to objectively assess similarity between course information (e.g., purpose, description, objectives, syllabus) and the competencies outlined by ATD and SHRM.
Keywords: latent semantic analysis, curriculum development