Workforce Development for Sustainability Development: Investigating Differences in Competencies for Sustainability among Africa, Asia, and North America

Abstract: Considering the interconnectedness and interdependence of global environmental, societal, and economic issues, it is critical to develop necessary competencies for the workforce that can understand and create solutions for sustainable development issues. The concept of competencies for sustainable development includes understanding complex multi-dimensional systems, anticipating the future, communicating sustainability issues and setting goals, creating and implementing intervention strategies, and fostering motivation for sustainable development (Weik et al., 2011). Recently, UNESCO (2017) articulated eight competencies for sustainability, including systems thinking, anticipatory competency, normative competency, strategic competency, collaboration, critical thinking, self-awareness, and integrated problem-solving based on previous works of de Hann (2010), Rieckmann, and Wiek et al. (2012). These competencies are associated with the specific attributes of individuals' need for action and self-regulation in various complex contexts and situations. However, there is little research about how these competencies can be developed and practiced in real-world projects and differ across cultures.
There are different perspectives to understand sustainability issues depending on personal characteristics, such as gender and cultural background. Thus, it is necessary to understand socio-cultural aspects when it comes to understanding and developing competencies for sustainability. Thus, this preliminary study aimed to provide a glimpse of understanding of gender and cultural differences in competencies for sustainability vary in regard to gender and ethnicity.
In this study, 74 participants (39 males and 35 females) completed the survey. The participants were undergraduate students (40.5%), graduate students (24.3%), students in a professional vocational program (2.7%), working professionals (31.1%), and no response (1.3%), living in Africa (45.9%), North America (12.2%), and Asia (31%). They were asked about items for eight key competencies for sustainability which were developed based on the definitions by UNESCO (2017). Two sample questions were: “I’m competent to recognize and understand interrelationships between all things (Systems Thinking),”and “I’m competent to deal with one’s feelings and desires (Self-awareness).” All items used a five-point Likert-style scale (extremely incompetent ~ extremely competent). With .70 as an acceptable criterion (Cortina, 1993), Cronbach’s alpha values for the eight key competency scales were verified. Next, a t-test and ANOVA tests were conducted to investigate if there were significant mean differences in eight key competencies by gender and residential culture, respectively.
The results of the t-test indicated that female participants (M = 3.81, SE = 0.11) had a higher self-awareness competency compared to male participants (M = 4.24, SE = 0.11), t (72) = -2.629 and p < .05, while showing no additional significant differences in the other competencies. Further, Cohen’s d value (d = .71) suggested a moderate to high practical significance. There is a statistically significant difference only for systems thinking between groups from Africa (M = 3.98, SE = 0.12), North America (M = 3.5, SE = 0.24), and Asia (M = 3.42, SE = 0.59) as demonstrated by ANOVA tests with F (2, 71) = 6.08, p < 0.01, with a large effect size (η 2 = .146). There was also a significant difference between groups regarding normative competency, F (2, 71) = 3.20, p < 0.05, however, it was an in-group difference rather than between groups. A Tukey post hoc test showed that the African group got statistically significantly higher scores in systems thinking than the Asian group (p < 0.01). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the North American group and the other groups.
In conclusion, this study identified the significant mean differences in the eight competencies for sustainability by gender and ethnicity with moderate and large effect sizes. Female participants had a higher self-awareness than male participants, and African participants had a higher systems-thinking competency than Asian participants. These differences contribute to a better understanding of balanced competencies for sustainability. Competencies for sustainability should be developed all together to resolve complex sustainability issues. The findings of this study shed light on workforce and human resource development for sustainability. Educators and HRD practitioners may consider the characteristics of participants and develop their programs to build balanced competencies for sustainability. Moreover, because competencies embrace human skills, knowledge, and abilities in a large spectrum of work-related areas and contribute to human performance (Schmidt & Kunzmann, 2007), it is important to identify and develop competencies for sustainability continuously to perform sustainability projects effectively. Lastly, this study has some limitations: a small data set and the simple instrument relying on self-reported evaluation based on the definitions of the competencies. A reliable measurement of competencies for sustainability should be developed. Thus, future research should include recruiting more participants and developing an instrument to measure competencies for sustainability.