Professional Ethics: Competency

Introduction

The paper critically reflects on the competency concept in relevance and application to real estate and property management. Notably, property and real estate management is a considerably complex profession involving diverse bodies’ established regulations. For instance, in the UK, the regulation for property agents’ regulation prevails with its provisions governing the property managing and letting agents across the country. Such regulations gets set to ensure that all the professionals in the real estate industry follow the highlighted guidelines while promoting the professional ethics and integrity associated with the industry. For this profession, attainment of a set of personal traits, skills, knowledge, self, concept, and motivation as addressed by the iceberg model apparently contributes to performance, adhering to set regulations, maintaining integrity, and positive relations with other industries’ stakeholders. In this regard, assessing the competency of these professionals is ideal for fostering the attainment of the projected professionalism by informing on practice. To this effect, the industry’s competitiveness can be guaranteed by heightening the awareness of different competency requirements for the professionals in undertaking diverse real estate management practices. Hence, reflecting on the meaning and role of competency, the iceberg, and management competency models and competency in practice significantly demonstrates competency as a part of real estate professional ethics for benchmarking the skills and functions of the professionals at different levels of the industry.

Understanding the Sources and the Authors

It is essential to analyse key sources used as references while introducing some key authors. Assessing the quality and credibility of the sources is vital in ensuring the use of valid and reliable data and information regarding competency in the real estate and proper management industry. That gives the basis for using the most helpful literature with professional relevance while meeting the current professional standards.

Meaning and Role of Competency

Competency is a concept related to a person, which reflects behavior as a result of a competent performer. Furthermore, competence as a work phenomenon explains work areas where individuals maintain the necessary qualifications to perform optimally. According to Baharum et al. (2016), competency can be classified into five forms: foundation competencies, which contain the skills, behaviours, and knowledge that organizational teams share when meeting the set goals. On the other hand, execution competencies are apparently those distinct qualifications needed in undertaking definite work functions and serving at distinct levels. In organizational settings, competencies also exist from aspects of potential, where organisations focus at individual workers’ development to enhance proper execution, productivity and performance. Here, people also develop aspiration competences in form of the personal qualifications that one seeks to develop in the long run for the wellbeing and progress of the organization.

In real estate and property management profession, the knowledge of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) offers substantial aid in understanding of the competencies. Notably, it plays a fundamental role in spelling out the competencies’ classifications of real estate agency professionals to foster effective practice. According to RICS, (2018), competency is a combination of behaviours, abilities and skills that a specific task demands. Hence, the established competencies according to RICS are set to align real estate professionals to their specific selected fields. Similar to Baharum et al. (2016) notion of different competency classifications, RICS offers different classifications that are in alignment with the classifications. For instance, the development of technical competencies are established on line with the aspired and execution classifications in ensuring that professionals attain the hard definite skills required for their roles (RICS, 2018). On the other hand, RICS highlights the mandatory competencies which are equivalent to the foundation competencies advocated by Baharum et al. (2016). These competencies are regarded as the soft skills for business that portray an individual ability in working with other professionals, embracing integrity in practice and managing the intended workloads. Besides, competencies are paramount in shaping the real estate professionals’ abilities to conduct their roles and responsibilities in accordance to the highlighted professional guidelines of the industry. In the real estate profession, competency offers a profound professional ethics construct by facilitating the selection, recruitment and maintenance of appropriate people by matching their individual competence elements like traits, knowledge, skills, and experience, to the demands of the job descriptions. In this case, competency serves as the link between individual qualifications and the organizational performance outcomes. Hence, by utilising competency as an ethical practice of the real estate management profession, success can be attained by effective planning for succession, appropriately rewarding professionals and managing the workforce effectively. Hence, competency is an outstanding framework of professional ethics for success in performance in real estate management.

Iceberg Competency Model

Iceberg competency model effectively matches to the RICS competency framework by its proposal that competencies largely vary with tasks and roles to be performed. Nevertheless, the model offers additional elements of competencies as it classifies competencies into motivations, knowledge, self -concept, skills, knowledge and traits. Here, traits are considered as behaviours that arise from individual tendencies of confidence and tolerance to stress (Pan & Kung, 2019). Therefore, in real estate professionals, such competencies involve a set of personal strongholds that aid in the accomplishment of tasks and foster improvement at a personal level to more accomplishments. Additionally, the iceberg model describes self -concept as the personal attitudes and values towards certain events (Pan & Kung, 2019). Hence, the utilization of self-concept can be used by real estate professionals to determine the scope of practices that are ethically abiding, especially as obtained in the professional training guidelines. Furthermore, according to Pan & Kung (2019), knowledge contributes to the application of the methods and procedures acquired from professional skills and processes of developing interpersonal skills. The skills therefore are described by the model as being either hidden or observable, and including abilities like listening, inductive and deductive reasoning. Finally, motivations are the desires that need to get accomplished by individual professionals and can range from behavior practices to certain level of achievement in the industry. Hence, analysing the iceberg model offers a grasp of comprehensive competency scale in different professional levels.

Management Competency Model

Knowledge and skills development and attainment are explicit pillars of real estate professionals, while motivations, self-concept and traits are implicitly ingrained and can relatively get altered by factors like education, experience and counselling. However, maximization of competencies demand excess time and contribute to insufficient results. To this effect, focusing on the management competency model is recommended which are outstanding for application in the real estate management profession. According to Kansal & Singhal (2018), the management competency involves the construction of the trait approach, which focuses on the unusual traits of managers that are deemed to differ from ordinary professionals. Hence, real estate management professionals are challenged to develop traits that distinguishes them from other workers to attain success. Nevertheless, the complexity of identifying the unique personal traits and their relevance, and the model’s inclination to suppressing the traits of subordinate employees requires careful synthesis to foster the attainment of relevant traits for every real estate professional.

A functional element have also been critically examined in the determination of the competencies that are favourable to real estate management profession. For the management competency model, real estate managers should develop their abilities rather than rely on their inherent acquisition. Precisely, their management roles and responsibilities are supposed to be in fulfillment of the demands of the task at hand, but not through the demonstration of the potentials required by performances (Spencer & Spencer, 1993). In this regard, there exists a direct proportion of the management abilities needed with different and changing task positions and tasks. Hence, a competency domain is presented that includes leadership, administrative, technical, interpersonal and conceptual domains to the expected management ability. From this perspective, according to Zaheer et al. (2020), real estate managers should uphold and exercise diverse skills like communication, motivation, thinking, organization, administrative, leadership, and self-management skills for optimum performance and practice. On the other hand, success in management is viewed as emanating from the experiences and situations that a manager faced in the course of practice. In this regard, real estate managers and professionals should pay close attention to effective daily undertakings and embrace comprehensive thinking, understanding, analysis, and problem solving techniques to develop efficient management practices. Thus, management competencies are essential in the real estate profession, which should get cultivated by applying relevant individual-based traits, skills and knowledge to create acceptable experiences and performances within the profession, which act as the ultimate determinant of real estate professional practice.

Competency in Practice

While Real estate competency may work effectively in the industry, it is not appropriate for a proper manager or real estate professional to only focus on applying the abilities, skills, and knowledge to perform critical activities while ignoring other aspects. For instance, the understanding and application of real estate agency policies, regulations, and laws are critical in producing competent professionals to deal with the complex challenges and background of the industry (Pancak & Sirmans, 2020). To succeed at such aims, most real estate licensing exams must remain constant to improve the review of the fundamental law and authorities that prove essential in equipping real estate professionals with attitudes to meet the requirements of the markets, customers, and the industry over time. Baharum et al. (2016) find similar views that the proper management industry must embrace the use of competency framework to embrace knowledge from various backgrounds to deal with the ever-challenging situation of proper management. As per the idea of the complexity of real estate professionalism, it is evident that embracing change from various dimensions is vital in building the necessary resilience of property management. Baharum et al. (2016) and Pancak & Sirmans (2020) have a similar conclusion that investing effort and time in formulating innovative ideas and ways of succeeding in the real estate market is necessary for professionals to remain competitive in the industry over time. Such innovative ideas combine the concept of laws, culture, and education toward fostering effective real estate management and services. That gets supported by Baharum et al. (2016) by arguing that real estate and property management professionals must embrace teamwork from various backgrounds to foster the advancement of buildings while meeting the customers’ preferences. In that case, the competency framework is significantly valuable for improving the quality of services within the proper management industry.

Similarly, Jameson & Subrahmanyan’s (2021) study points out that constant upgrade of the real estate education and training program must prepare the professional to deal with the complexity of different cultures that could negatively influence their role. Integrating different cultural and professional competencies is vital in real estate professionals’ training to improve effective professional practice and competence. Identification and understanding of the critical cultural signal by the real estate professional is a requirement for making a competent employee or manager in the industry. However, the identification and comprehension of the different cultural signals in real estate is complex and requires time and effort to clearly outline how various cultures and beliefs affect the role of real estate or proper management professionals. In this case, the infusion of framework to aid in the infusion of a different culture is critical in advancing those in training skills, attitudes, and abilities. In the modern world, the integration of various cultures and belief is critical to advance one’s ability to remain relevant in the global industry. Pancak & Sirmans (2020) agrees with the findings that constant effort is necessary to continuously improve and upgrade the competency of professional in the rapidly changing world. Embracing new changes due to globalisation is critically helpful in advancing real estate and proper management professionals. In light of the complex nature of the property and real estate industry, professionals must constantly upgrade their understanding of laws, framework, tool, and changes from time to time to foster their competency in dealing with various challenges in achieving their goals and objectives.

Conclusion

Competency is ultimately crucial in the real estate management profession, as it spells out the qualifications of individual professionals that foster achievement. On the other hand, the development of competency have been largely advocated to help with the acquisition of management abilities and skills that align with the industry’s standards. To develop these competences, experiential abilities are largely needed to foster the attainment of thinking, decision making and problem solving abilities needed at management levels. Competency is also deemed a crucial element in the real estate and property management profession. To attain optimum competency and perform as a competent real estate professional, strategies to be followed have been recommended. For instance, the adherence to the regulatory and licensing standards in place is profound to sufficiently meet the needs of the clients and industry. Moreover, embracing change and innovation guarantees competency attainment and allows for constant relevance of a professional at the real estate market in offering effective services while maintaining professional resilience. Advanced and specialized training is also a requirement of attaining professional competency that requires knowledge and ability of dealing with sophisticated cultural aspects. Ultimately, competency is a remarkable concept in property and real estate management profession that can be developed and applied to promote proficiency and success of the industry. Hence, obtaining a favourable competency framework to foster attainment, development and maintenance of competency should be a significantly concern and strategy of enhancing performance and success of the real estate profession.

References

Baharum, Z., Hwa, T., & Salleh, S. (2016). Competency Framework for the Property Management Industry. Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal, 1(4), 3. https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v1i4.114

Jameson, K., & Subrahmanyan, L. (2021). Infusing Cultural Differences into Complex Real Estate Student Projects: An Exploratory Learning Experience. Journal Of Real Estate Practice And Education, 23(1), 38-51. https://doi.org/10.1080/15214842.2021.2007581

Kansal, J., & Singhal, S. (2018). Development of a competency model for enhancing the organisational effectiveness in a knowledge-based organisation. International Journal Of Indian Culture And Business Management, 16(3), 287. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijicbm.2018.090909

Pan, N., & Kung, R. (2019). Construction Of A Management Competency Scale For Site Managers Of Property Management Companies. International Journal Of Organisational Innovation, 11(3). Retrieved 23 March 2022.

Pancak, K., & Sirmans, C. (2020). Agency Content on Licensing Exams: Assessing Professional Competency. Journal Of Real Estate Practice And Education, 11(1), 15-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10835547.2008.12091638

RICS. (2018). Pathway guide: Commercial Real Estate. Retrieved 23 March 2022, from https://www.rics.org/globalassets/rics-website/media/qualify/pathway-guides/commercial-estate-pathway-guide-chartered-rics.pdf.

Spencer, L., & Spencer, S. (1993). Competence at Work: Models for Superior Performance (1st ed.). Wiley.

Zaheer, M., Ajayi, S., Zulu, S., Oyegoke, A., & Kazemi, H. (2020). Understanding the key competencies of market-ready building surveying graduates from employers’ perspectives. Journal Of Engineering, Design And Technology, 19(1), 291-314. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2020-0012