Assoc. Prof. Dr.

Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

COMPETENCIES FOR NEW ERA LIBRARIANS AND

INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS

By

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Christopher Soo-Guan Khoo

Division of Information Studies
School of Communication & Information
Nanyang Technological University
31 Nanyang Link
Singapore 637718

ABSTRACT
Librarians and information professionals face a challenging and at the same time exciting
future. Their work environment is becoming increasingly complex—with constant change
in the organizational, technological and information environment. In their professional
work, they have to keep up with new technologies and systems, new forms of information,
information media and information sources, and new tasks and roles. They have to
navigate the complex social, political and cultural environments of their parent
institution, which is often in the turmoil of restructuring. They also have to constantly
justify themselves and their services, and demonstrate their value to the parent
organization. This paper reviews the competencies—skills, knowledge and attitudes—
needed by librarians and information processionals to survive and flourish in the new era.
Information on needed competencies was obtained from the following sources: newspaper
advertisements, a review of the literature, and feedback from librarians as well as alumni
of the M.Sc. Information Studies program at the Nanyang Technological University. A
literature search in LISA located more than 200 papers in the past five years discussing
LIS competencies. Almost every competency is listed as needed by information
professionals. This paper attempts to make sense out of this confusion, and suggests
concrete steps that professionals, library associations and library schools need to take for
the profession to flourish in the new era.

INTRODUCTION

Much has been written on the topic of competencies needed by librarians and information
professionals in the new millennium. A literature search in the Library and Information
Science Abstracts (LISA) database located more than 200 papers in the past 5 years
discussing LIS competencies. Almost every competency and skill is listed as needed by
information professionals! The number of papers on the topic suggests that it is an important
issue for the library and information profession, and that the profession has arrived at a
watershed in its history when the nature of the profession could change dramatically
depending on how professionals respond to challenges in the environment.
 The competencies question is a complex one with several related issues. Though many
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

competencies are listed in the literature, not all are needed by every information professional.
The questions that face each librarian and information professional are:
• Which competencies do I need, and which competencies are useful to me in my
current and future job?
• Which of the needed competencies do I lack?
• Which competencies am I capable of acquiring, which are easy to acquire, and which
do I want to acquire?
• How do I acquire these competencies?
The answers to these questions depend to a large extent on the talents, aptitude, personality
and interests of the individual professional. If it is true that librarians tend to be introverted in
personality, have an arts and social science background, and prefer a quiet work life, then this
will bias the profession towards certain types of competencies, and affect the way librarians
fulfill their responsibilities and respond to the environment.
The competencies question has to be grappled with by the information profession as a
whole, by library associations as well as by library schools. In particular, library schools face
the following questions:
• What competencies should be imparted to its students for entry-level positions?
• What teaching method is effective for different types of competencies?
• Does the school have sufficient expertise and resources to teach these competencies?
• What roles can a library school play to help practicing professionals acquire new
competencies?
The competencies question is important to the profession because of the increasingly
difficult and challenging environment faced by information professionals. Ashcroft (2004)
and Osa (2003) characterized the work environment of information professionals in the 21st
century as one of fast-paced and constant change. They noted that the rapid introduction of
new technologies imply that information professionals have to be flexible in adapting and
adopting new skills and strategies for handling them. The work environment of information
professionals often has the following characteristics:
• Competition: information professionals face competition from several quarters that
threaten their jobs. Competition comes from other types of professionals, e.g. IT
professionals and business graduates, who compete for the same jobs. Competition
also comes from outside vendors to which the information service may be outsourced.
Information professionals also face competition from new technologies and
information products that may displace them.
• Changing and turbulent environment of the parent organization, which may be under
severe competitive pressures and be in a state of continuous restructuring.
• Uncertain status of the information service, which is viewed as a cost centre whose
value to the parent organization is constantly questioned and has to be continually
defended.
• Rapidly changing technology and continuous introduction of new products, which
make it necessary for information professionals keep abreast of these developments
and assess how the technologies and products can be incorporated and exploited in
their service.
This paper reviews the competencies needed by information processionals in the new era.
Following Griffiths & King (1985), competencies are taken to comprise knowledge, skills and
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

attitudes related to effective behaviors and work performance. Knowledge refers to having
information about, knowing or understanding something, skill is the ability to apply
knowledge effectively, and attitude refers to the individual’s mental or emotional approach to
something. One can distinguish between professional competencies related to the library and
information science field, and personal competencies which are generic skills, attitudes and
values (Competencies for special librarians of the 21st century, 1998). Information on needed
competencies was obtained from the following sources: a review of the literature, analysis of
newspaper position announcements, and feedback from librarians as well as alumni and
students of the M.Sc. Information Studies program at the Nanyang Technological University.
The paper then discusses what steps professionals, library associations and library schools
need to take to equip professionals with these competencies and help them to flourish in the
new era.

COMPETENCIES FOR THE LIBRARY AND INFORMATION PROFESSION

A literature search was carried out in the Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA)
database for articles published from 2000 to 2004 discussing competencies needed by
information professionals. The competencies mentioned in 64 of the abstracts retrieved were
analyzed, and are summarized in Appendix 1.
Library directors in Singapore were asked by email for their opinion regarding important
competencies needed by librarians in the next five to ten years. Five library directors
responded, and their responses are summarized in Table 1. It is interesting that the
competencies mentioned by the library directors were largely similar to those highlighted in
the literature. The library profession in this part of the world appears to be facing the same
challenges as the profession in Europe and North America.
Competencies needed by library and information professionals can be divided into:
• traditional librarianship skills, including cataloguing, acquisitions, reference and
information search skills
• value-adding skills, including research skills and skills in synthesizing and packaging
information to support clients’ work and decision-making
• IT skills
• transferable and soft skills that are generic and cut across disciplines, especially skills
in communication, management, leadership, teaching and training, and teamwork, as
well as the ability to empathize with users and understand their information needs
• appropriate attitudes, values and personal traits, especially those of user orientation
and service orientation, flexibility and willingness to handle a wide range of tasks,
adaptability and ability to handle change, continual learning, and an entrepreneurial
attitude
• domain knowledge (subject knowledge) that are specific to the type of information
service or organization they are working in.
Traditional skills are still in demand, but they have to be expanded to handle new digital
formats and the online (especially Internet) environment. For example, cataloging now
includes use of new metadata schemes and cataloguing of digital and Internet resources.
Catalogers also now use electronic and online tools. They can also branch out into the new
area of developing taxonomies for organization enterprise portals and intranets, and
eventually into ontology construction and application. Similarly, acquisition and reference
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

librarians have to handle digital resources and online environments, and use online and
electronic tools in their work.
There is also a need for information professionals to do more “value-adding” work.
Instead of just identifying the source of information and providing documents, they will
increasingly be evaluating, filtering, extracting, analyzing, summarizing, synthesizing and
packaging information into a form that is ready for immediate use by their clients for
decision-making and other purposes. In this way, information professionals will move from
information work to knowledge work, and will have direct impact on their user’s work and on
the effectiveness and competitiveness of their parent organization. In a Web survey of 75
information professionals, Musher (2001) found that one third of the respondents believed
that more value-adding is required in their work, including specialized research and
packaging. One respondent in the study noted that clients are looking more for knowledge and
less for information.
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

Table 1. Important competencies for librarians, cited by five library directors

in Singapore

* competencies in italics were cited by at least three library directors

Traditional LIS skills extended to the handling of digital and online resources, including
acquisition, cataloguing and organization of resources, metadata schemes,
reference/information services, information packaging, circulation, preservation, online
reference service, information search skills, copyright and intellectual property laws, user
behavior, user needs, information sources, packaging of information, management of
digital and hybrid libraries, evaluation of information and information sources, knowledge
of information flows in society

Information management, including information audit, knowledge management

IT skills, including Internet, Web and XML technologies, RFID, federated search
engines, programming and scripting, Windows operating system, productivity tools (e.g.
word processing, spreadsheet, database, planning tools, etc)

Transferable/generic skills applied to the library environment, including communication,

public speaking, writing, public relations, interpersonal/group skills, networking, research
skills, interviewing and listening skills, conducting focus groups, analytical skills,
teamwork, multi-tasking, time management

Teaching, training and coaching, including skills for providing user education and
training in an E-learning environment, developing e-learning and computer-based learning
materials, facilitating collaborative learning

Management and leadership, including planning, financial management, budgeting,

project management, negotiation and persuasion, supervisory skills, performance
management/evaluation, administrative skills, human resource, outsourcing, quality
management, ability to motivate subordinates, lead groups effectively, strategic planning

Entrepreneurship, including business analysis and market research, marketing, fee-based

information service, networking skills across job functions and levels

Attitudes and professional values, including user-orientation, service-orientation, belief

in the pursuit of knowledge, love of learning, ability to read and respond to novel
situations, intellectual curiosity, interaction with members of the profession, ability to
articulate the roles of libraries and librarians

Other skills/knowledge: operation of call centers, publishing, Internet publishing

 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

Information professionals in public and private organizations will increasingly be called

upon to participate in or lead knowledge management projects and initiatives in their
organization. Knowledge management, which deals with management of both tacit and
explicit organizational knowledge and leveraging knowledge assets to enhance the
organization’s competitiveness and effectiveness, presents opportunities for information
professionals to play pivotal roles in their organization and become chief knowledge officers.
Information professionals also need to be semi-IT professionals. They have to keep
abreast of developments in technology and new information products to assess them for use in
their libraries and to exploit them to improve their services. They also need sufficient IT
knowledge to supervise IT projects in their library and to draw up specifications for these
projects. It is also desirable for information professionals to be able to set up simple database
and Web applications for their own use as well as for use by their clients. The IT department
and IT support staff are often too busy with major IT projects to develop small applications
for the library or information service. Information professionals are increasingly playing the
role of teachers and IT trainers, providing workshops and short courses on the use of new
technologies and new information products, and on Internet and technology-oriented topics
(Ashcroft, 2004; Braun, 2002; Musher 2001).
It is clear from the literature and from responses from library directors in Singapore that
employers are increasingly emphasizing transferable and soft skills, especially
communication, management, leadership, training and teamwork skills. Information
professionals have to be effective in oral, written and electronic communication with users,
colleagues and supervisors/managers. They have to be effective in promoting and marketing
their services, as well as promoting the value of their service to the parent organization. They
also need good interpersonal and networking skills to interact with their users and collaborate
effectively with their colleagues. There is also a growing realization that libraries and
information services play important social, cultural and community functions. Thus, social
and community building skills are useful for information professionals—both for building a
community of colleagues (community of practice or special interest group) and communities
of users. Cronin (1983) noted that management of information had become very much a social
activity.
Employers are also emphasizing appropriate attitudes and personal traits that are needed
by information professionals to be effective in the new era. Information professionals have to
be user-oriented, service-oriented, adaptable and flexible, quick to pick up new skills, and
have an entrepreneurial or enterprising spirit. Goulding, Bromham, Hannabuss & Cramer
(1999) noted that numerous studies in the U.S. and U.K. since the early 1980s had found that
library and information employers placed a high premium on personal skills and traits such as
enthusiasm, initiative, interpersonal skills, commercial awareness, extroverted personality,
independence, entrepreneural flair, teamwork, ability to work under pressure, service
orientation and flexibility. They surveyed chief librarians in the U.K., asking them to select
10 personal qualities they considered most essential for entry-level positions. With 439
responses, the 10 most often selected personal qualities were (in decreasing order of
frequency): ability to accept pressure, flexibility in responding to change, ability to deal with
a range of users, written communication, inquisitiveness and love of learning, reflective,
dedicated, detective-like, leadership, and innovativeness. They concluded that the ideal entry-
level information professional would have the following personality attributes: proactive,
assertive, outgoing, patient, trustworthy, analytical, positive and self-motivated.
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

Subject knowledge and knowledge of the industry they are working in is important for
more senior information professionals. Such a professional should have industry awareness
and be knowledgeable of industry trends, as well as the trends and political undercurrents in
the parent organization. This helps them to understand their client’s needs, interact and
network with their clients more easily, and tailor and promote their services to their clients
more effectively. In general, subject knowledge, good attitudes and personal traits help
information professionals to leverage on their professional and generic skills to better
advantage.
Of course, different competencies are relatively more important for different types of
information jobs and environments. Chaudhry & Lee (2001) carried out a survey of public
librarians in Singapore, who were given a list of 50 competencies and asked to rate their
importance for excellent performance in their current job. Top-rated competencies were (in
decreasing order of importance): knowledge of the library’s policies, procedures and
services, teamwork, customer service, staff supervision and training, motivating staff,
professionalism, knowledge of mission/roles of the public library, information needs of
users, leading the team, problem-solving, working independently, achieving results, and
time management. Traditional skills related to information searching, reference work and
collection development, and IT skills seem to be less important to public librarians in
Singapore.
To find out what information skills are needed in non-library related jobs, we analyzed
job announcements in the recruitment pages of the Straits Times newspaper (Singapore) for
eight Saturdays in November and December 2004, to identify jobs that included some
information handling component in the job scope or responsibilities. Out of approximately
2,300 jobs requiring at least a Bachelor’s degree:
• 74 (3%) were IT-related positions
• 340 (15%) were non-IT-related positions that include some information handling
responsibilities comprising at least 25% of the job.
• 23 (1%) were non-IT-related positions that include information handling responsibilities
comprising at least 75% of the job.
The types of information handling skills listed in these job announcements are given in
Table 2. Information skills in high demand are related to: business intelligence, competitive
intelligence, environment scanning, information audit, information management,
information organization, information searching, information security, information sources
evaluation, information systems management, information vendor management, intellectual
capital management, knowledge management, system evaluation, and user needs analysis.
In another study, graduates of the M.Sc. Information Studies program at the Nanyang
Technological University were asked which of the courses in the program were useful or
relevant to their work, and which were not. Table 3 lists the courses most often found
relevant or non-relevant. Traditional librarianship skills—knowledge of information sources
and searching, collection development, information storage and retrieval, information
society and information organization—are clearly still relevant. However, some of these also
appear in the list of less useful courses, indicating either that these skills are not useful to
some information jobs or that some graduates of the program are not working as information
professionals. The results are compatible with those obtained in a survey by Buttlar & Du
Mont (1996) of the alumni of an M.L.S. program in the U.S., in which 736 alumni rated a
list of 55 competencies. The six competencies most often rated as essential were knowledge
of sources, collection management, reference interview, written communication, critical
thinking and interpersonal skills.
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

Table 2. Types of information handling responsibilities listed in 340 (15%) of job

announcements in eight Saturdays of the Straits Times (Singapore) newspaper

% of job Information handling skill No. of positions

scope
>75% Information Management 13
>75% User Needs Analysis 7
>75% Information Organization 5
>75% Knowledge Management 5
>75% Environment Scanning 4
>75% Business Intelligence 3
>75% Competitive Intelligence 2
>75% Information Preservation 2
>75% Information Searching 2
>75% Information Vendor Management 2
>75% Intellectual Capital Management 2
>75% Collection Development 1
>75% Data Mining 1
>75% Information Retrieval 1
>75% Information Security 1
>75% Information Sources Evaluation 1
>75% System Design 1
50 to 75% User Needs Analysis 82
50 to 75% Information Management 77
50 to 75% Business Intelligence 52
50 to 75% Environment Scanning 41
50 to 75% Information Systems Management 28
50 to 75% System Design 28
50 to 75% Competitive Intelligence 25
50 to 75% Information Searching 24
50 to 75% Knowledge Management 17
50 to 75% Information Audit 15
50 to 75% Information Security 12
50 to 75% Information Organization 11
50 to 75% Information Vendor Management 9
50 to 75% Competitive Intelligence 8
50 to 75% Information Sources Evaluation 6
50 to 75% Intellectual Capital Management 5
50 to 75% System Evaluation 5
50 to 75% Information Retrieval 2
50 to 75% Data Mining 1
50 to 75% Information Preservation 1
25 to 50% User Needs Analysis 50
25 to 50% Information Management 43
25 to 50% System Design 29
25 to 50% Information Systems Management 21
25 to 50% Business Intelligence 12
25 to 50% System Evaluation 12
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

25 to 50% Knowledge Management 11

25 to 50% Environment Scanning 9
25 to 50% Information Security 9
25 to 50% Information vendor management 7
25 to 50% Information Audit 5
25 to 50% Information Searching 5
25 to 50% Competitive Intelligence 3
25 to 50% Information Sources Evaluation 3
25 to 50% Intellectual Capital Management 3
25 to 50% Competitive Intelligence 1
25 to 50% Data Mining 1
25 to 50% Information Organization 1

Table 3. Courses most often found relevant and not relevant by graduates of the
Information Studies program at NTU

Results of a 2002 survey of graduates of the M.Sc. Information Studies program at

Nanyang Technological University, with 219 respondents

Graduates were asked the questions:

• What IS courses in your opinion were comparatively more relevant/useful in
performing your job responsibilities?
• What IS courses, in your opinion, were comparatively less relevant/useful in
performing your job responsibilities?

Courses most often considered useful/relevant

Information Sources & Searching
Collection Development
Information Storage & Retrieval
The Information Society
Information Organization
Knowledge Management
Internet & Web Technologies
Business Information Sources & Services
Cataloguing & Classification
Database Management Systems

Courses most often considered less useful or relevant (with at least 10 respondents)
Information Sources & Searching
The Information Society
Cataloguing & Classification
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

DISCUSSION

It appears that to be an effective library and information professional, one has to be a

superman or superwoman—a multi-talented expert-of-all-trades, with high IQ and EQ. A
person with such attributes probably wouldn’t have chosen to be a librarian! Fortunately,
one does not need all these competencies to be an effective information professional—just
some competencies from each category: some traditional librarianship skills, some value-
adding skills, some level of familiarity with IT, some generic and soft skills, some of the
attitudes and traits, and some domain knowledge. Information professionals need to be
broad-based and know a little of everything, but they also need to be an expert in a small
number of areas.
Also, different competencies are more important for different types of information jobs
and in different environments. Information professionals working in corporate organizations
and corporate libraries will probably need more value-adding skills, entrepreneurial skills
and domain knowledge. Professionals working in academic libraries probably require more
traditional skills. Public librarians may need more social and community building skills.
As the work environment can change rapidly, information professionals need to assess
periodically which new skills they need to acquire and which current skills need to be
strengthened. However, because of the individual’s education background, aptitude and
personality, it may be difficult for him or her to acquire certain types of competencies.
Furthermore, continuing education opportunities may not be available. It is therefore
important for information professionals to network with other professionals, be active in the
profession and the library association, and form special interest groups and communities of
practice which can be drawn upon for advice and help.
Library schools have to impart a wide range of competencies to its students. However,
each library school will not have the resources and expertise to cover all types of
competencies adequately. Therefore, library schools also need to network with other library
schools. Each library school should develop in-depth expertise in a small number of areas.
Collaboration among library schools, sharing of teaching materials, and student and staff
exchange programs in the region can be employed to make a wider range of competencies
available to more students. Library associations can partner with library schools to make
short courses and continuing education available to information professionals.
Library schools also need to re-consider their curriculum and teaching methods. Some
generic skills, e.g. interpersonal skills, entrepreneurial skills and leadership, and professional
attitudes and personal traits are difficult to impart to students via traditional lecture-based
courses and exam-oriented learning. Group learning, project work, open-ended learning,
internships, seminar courses, e-learning, etc., may be more effective. Roggema van Heusden
(2004) reported a trend in LIS education in the Netherlands towards “competence-oriented
learning” which focuses not on acquiring factual knowledge but on problem solving,
responding to changing professional situations, teamwork and life-long learning. Students
are provided with a learning environment where they “can actualize acquired knowledge
through personal skills and experience.” (p. 98). Huber (1995) advocated the use of
problem-based learning where students are presented with problem situations and are
required to identify and analyze the problem as well as the knowledge needed to address the
problem, and to acquire and apply the knowledge to the problem. However, these teaching
methods need careful planning and execution. Substantial effort is probably needed to guide
and mentor the students. Faculty will need time and experience to develop expertise in using
these teaching methods.
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

Finally, more information and knowledge sharing is needed in the information

profession! Professionals need to share success stories of which competencies were found to
be useful in their type of work or environment, as well as stories of failures and problems
they have faced. The library associations can help to organize conferences, continuing
education programs, special interest groups, listservs, forums (both real and virtual) and
informal sharing sessions to help professionals acquire needed competencies as well as
obtain advice and assistance from fellow professionals to be effective information
professionals in the new era.

REFERENCES

Ashcroft, L. (2004). Developing competencies, critical analysis and personal transferable

skills in future information professionals. Library Review, 53(2), 82-88.
Braun, L.W. (2002). New roles: A librarian by any name. Library Journal, 127(2), 46-49.
Buttlar, L., & Du Mont, R. (1996). Library and information science competencies revisited.
Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 37(1), 44-62.
Chaudhry, A.S., & Lee, S.Y. (2001). Identification of competencies for professional staff of
public libraries. Public Library Quarterly, 20(1), 17-43.
Competencies for special librarians of the 21st century: Library and information studies
programs survey: Final report. (1998). Washington, CD: Special Libraries Association.
Cronin, B. (1983). The transition years: New initiatives in the education of professional
information workers. London: Aslib.
Goulding, A., Bromham, B., Hannabuss, S., & Cramer, D. (1999). Supply and demand: The
workforce needs of library and information services and personal qualities of new
professionals. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 31(4), 212-223.
Griffiths, J., & King, D.W. (1985). New directions in library and information science
education. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Huber, J.T. (1995) Library and information studies education for the 21st century
practitioner. Journal of Library Administration, 20(3/4), 119-130.
Musher, R. (2001). The changing role of the information professional. Online, 25(5), 62-64.
Osa, J.O. (2003). Managing the 21st century reference department: competencies. Reference
Librarian, 81, 35-50.
Roggema van Heusden, M. (2004). The challenge of developing a competence-oriented
curriculum: an integrative framework. Source Library Review; 53(2), 98-103.
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

Appendix. Competencies mentioned in 64 abstracts retrieved from LISA 2000-2004

* number in brackets indicates the number of abstracts mentioning the competency

Traditional LIS skills, extended to the electronic environment

• collection development and acquisitions
• conservation and preservation, digital preservation
• dealing with remote access users
• distance librarianship
• evidence-based librarianship--evidence locator, resource providers, literature filterers,
critical appraisers, educators, disseminators, project leader, literature searcher, document
supplier, data extractor, data synthesizer, report writer.
• information organization (cataloguing and classification) (2), knowledge of cataloguing
tools/resources, markup languages (2), metadata (2)
• information retrieval
• information searching and reference service, information sources (2), electronic sources,
search strategies, analysis, interpretation, synthesis and presentation of information (3),
integration of sources, business information, evaluation of information and Web sites (2)
• Internet knowledge/awareness
• understanding users / knowledge of users, reference interview skills
• information literacy training (4)

Information management
• competitive intelligence (3), interpreting data for management, market trends
• e-learning systems manager
• gathering external information,
• knowledge management (4)
• managing intellectual capital
• record keeping and record management

Domain/subject knowledge
• awareness of broader context in the organization
• awareness of current affairs
• business/sector awareness,
• domain knowledge (for special libraries)
• general knowledge
• industry specific knowledge

IT-related skills
• computer literacy (2)
• database management, document management, content management, indexing and
database technologies
• imaging technologies (2), OCR (2)
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

• user interface design (2)

• network technology
• office software
• programming (2)
• up-to-date IT skills (4), continuous monitoring of emerging technologies (2), strategies
for new technologies
• Web-based skills, Web technology

Communication skills
• create welcoming spaces
• customer management, customer service
• dealing with a range of users
• interaction between technical & public service professionals
• interpersonal skills (5)
• negotiation
• oral and written communication
• persuasiveness
• presentation (2)
• public and inter-personal communication
• public relations
• teamwork (5)
• verbal and non-verbal cues/communication (2)

Social/community skills
• animating an information culture
• collaboration
• community building
• establishing professional, collegial relationships with colleagues
• knowing the community and helping it to grow
• mediator of culture
• networking (4)

Transferable/generic skills
• analytical skills
• creativity
• languages
• organization
• problem solving (2)
• statistics
• teaching and training skills (7)

Management and leadership (4)

• administration
• change management
• create new roles by assessing changes in the environment and ways to reposition
themselves
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chritopher Soo-Guan Khoo

• decision making
• developing presence in the community
• environment scanning
• fiscally responsibility
• keeping the organization and services lean
• project management (4)
• staff management(2), people management
• strategic planning, strategic thinking
• systems thinking
• task analysis, needs assessment

Entrepreneurship
• fee-paying service
• market research and analysis (2)
• marketing (7)
• promotion
• research and consultancy

Attitudes and personal traits

• ability to accept pressure
• adaptable, respond rapidly to changing situations, affective and metacognitive skills to
prepare for change, flexibility and willingness to fit the changing needs of the
organization
• approachability
• assertiveness
• good attitude to work
• emotional intelligence
• enquiring mind
• enthusiasm
• independence
• innovativeness
• lifelong learning, acquiring new knowledge and skills continuously
• motivation
• nurture a satisfying personal life,
• professional attitude
• self-confidence, good self image
• sense of humor.
• style of working
• user orientation (2), customer focus
• ability to work within different cultures