THE SUCCESSFUL TRANSFER OF U.S. TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES TO THE THIRD WORLD: CORE COMPETENCIES FOR INDUSTRY MANAGERS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (UNITED STATES)

What is the core of international human resource development (HRD) competencies the telecommunications industry can use to evaluate candidates for third world technology transfer assignments? How are the competencies best learned? A recent study addressed these questions. Data collection centered on opinion from industry experts, and the Delphi technique was used.; The profile of experts reflected an average of 25 years in the telecommunications industry and 10 years in international HRD. This included an average of 3.5 years spent abroad. The experts were chiefly managers, vice presidents, and presidents or chief executive officers. The remainder were retired executives, specialists, or consultants.; Competencies were analyzed to discover the highest median levels of importance and the highest degrees of consensus among the experts. The purpose was to identify the core international HRD competencies. The 64 competencies which met the criteria were prioritized at the highest importance and consensus levels. Competencies found in the categories personal and communication skills were found the most important. Competencies in the technical knowledge of telecommunications and knowledge of the U.S. categories were the least important.; The best learning media were found for nearly 50 percent of the core competencies. The preferred order of learning is corporate training (55%), experience (32%), higher education (10%), and self study (3%).; Immediate use of the core competencies can be as follows: as (1) a framework to initiate a new or verify an existing international HRD manager selection process/evaluate consultants; (2) a basis to develop job performance criteria; (3) a checklist for assessing ongoing/planned corporate/graduate programs in international HRD (to include predeparture training); and (4) a starting point for continued research.