Organization and Human Resources
The Organizational and Human Resources competency area includes knowledge, skills, and dispositions used in the management of institutional human capital, financial, and physical resources (ACPA & NASPA, 2015). This competency area recognizes that student affairs professionals bring personal strengths and grow as managers through challenging themselves to build new skills in the selection, supervision, motivation, and formal evaluation of staff; resolution of conflict; management of the politics of organizational discourse; and the effective application of strategies and techniques associated with financial resources, facilities management, fundraising, technology, crisis management, risk management, and sustainable resources (ACPA & NASPA, 2015).
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The organizational and human resources competency focuses on seven main areas of development. These areas include, assessment, advocacy, and networking, skill development, hiring and staffing, supervision, communication and conflict resolution, crisis and risk management, and technology (ACPA & NASPA, 2015). To be advanced in this competency, one must advocate for the advancement of others, implement strategies for motivating individuals and groups, participate in developing, implementing, and assessing the effectiveness of the campus crisis management program, and so much more (ACPA & NASPA, 2015).
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Within the organizational and human resources competency I would place myself within the foundational level moving towards the intermediate level. Specifically looking at skill development, I would assess myself more so intermediate than foundational. An intermediate level skill I have is that during my graduate assistantship I was tasked with preparing professional presentations. I presented to all our orientation leader staff about professionalism and social media. This allowed me to gain communication and presentation skills while developing ways to enhance my confidence in presenting.
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For the technology developmental area, I place myself at the foundational level. I have foundational skills in technology and use different programs that allow our office to run successfully. However, I feel as though there is a lot of room for advancement in this area. There are so many technology programs that higher education professionals use that I am not fully aware of. In my graduate assistantship, we use programs such as Microsoft Office, Google, Canva, Blackboard, and more. This allows us to communicate with our students, develop documents, create flyers and so much more.
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Lastly, under the supervision, communication, and conflict resolution development area, I would place myself within the foundation level as well. Since being a graduate assistant, I have been exposed to a supervisory role with a few students who are within the club I advise and those who complete office hours within my office. I have also been exposed to managing conflict and finding ways to resolve it effectively. In situations where I do not feel confident in dissolving conflict and finding a resolution, I am fortunate enough to work with professional staff that can help or point me in the direction of the appropriate resources. I have successfully resolved some conflicts but there are still so many more skills that I can learn to advance to the intermediate level. I believe these skills will increase as I continue my journey as a higher education professional.
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Since assessing myself mostly within the foundational level I have so much more room to grow and learn. I expect myself to grow further into this competency as I continue in a full-time capacity within the higher education field. I hope to gain more knowledge about all of the skill development areas listed above within the organizational and human resources competency. Areas I would like to expand in are supervision, communication, and conflict resolution, as I want to be able to help all students and staff I work with, developing morale, diffusing any conflicts, and finding the best supervising strategies.
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References:
American College Personnel Association and National Association of Student Personnel
Administrators. (2015, August). Professional competency areas for student affairs educators.
ARTIFCATS:
HEA 620: Budget Proposal. This proposal showcases the different aspects that would are entailed in renovating a Student Center. It has allowed me to learn not only the personnel side but also how to work towards institutional goals that benefit the entire campus community.
Above are two presentations I created and presented at my graduate assistantship for student development trainings. These presentations allowed me to gain communication and presentation skills in professional settings.