Core Concepts: Role
By Gregory Ronczewski, Director of Product Design at Ibbaka. See his skill profile.
Definition of a Role
1 a: (1) a character assigned or assumed
(2) a socially expected behaviour pattern usually determined by an individual's status in a particular society
b: a part played by an actor or singer
2 a function or part performed especially in a particular operation or process
Indeed, a top-rated job site defines a role as: "positions that have certain sets of responsibilities," and further explains that "business roles allow owners and stakeholders to designate specific titles and duties to employees. Setting up business roles allows employers to delegate important tasks to professionals who are qualified to perform these jobs."
At Ibbaka Role is a central concept. One of the key functions of our platform is to measure role coverage for a goal or capability. See Skills Gaps and Role Coverage.
There are several different flavours of role.
Role as part of a job: A job can be thought of as a bundle of roles
Role on a team: More and more work is team based, and many of us play roles on a variety of teams
Ad-Hoc Role: Some roles are not part of our formal job and are not on a team. You often hear a person say ‘I am doing this off the side of my desk, these are ad-hoc roles.
Community Role: We play important roles beyond our formal employment, in our families and in our communities. Skills we develop in these roles can be important to our work, just as skills from work can be applied beyond work.
Roles are an important element of many of the competency models on the Ibbaka Platform.
A more personal take
For me, a Role or Rola in Polish is connected to my childhood and teenage years. My dad was an actor, and most of the time, he was either rehearsing his current Role or discussing opportunities. My mom often helped him, reading from the script. It got to the point that we all knew bits from different plays, leading to bizarre conversations understood only by family members.
Ryszard Ronczewski as Carlos von Brown in a neo-noir thriller, Sufferrosa. The image is from unit9.com
In English, a synonym for a Role in the context of acting is "Part," which I think perfectly captures what this is all about. Being an actor is a job, while a Role covers a specific part or character in the play. In a business context, we may have a project manager who needs to fill several roles - Project Planning, Leading the Project, Evaluating Performance, to name just a few. Next, we can break down each Role into even smaller units - tasks or responsibilities. Diving even deeper, one will discover individual skills allowing a person in a specific role to fulfill assigned duties. While it is nice to have an exciting job or a business title written on a business card, it is more important to have a well defined Role. There is a direct link between how well a Role is defined and a team's success. Simply put, people need to know what is expected of them and how they need to behave to work effectively together. When everyone knows what they are doing, getting things done efficiently and with higher quality is much simpler.
We are working on adding a library of typical roles to the platform. Individuals, teams, or companies can use them as a starting point for job descriptions, team building and workforce development. Also, given the importance of the remote and decentralized workforce, organizing roles clearly and transparently improves the hiring process and empowers staff. Like in the bicycle shifting mechanism, it is not about the individual gears but the shifter working together with every gear contributing to an exhilarating riding experience. So, join Ibbaka Talent and start working on a set of your dream roles.
More posts on Role Coverage and Skill Gap Analysis
How should your organization measure role coverage and skill gaps?
Why Role Coverage and Skill Gap Analysis is Mission Critical
Core Concepts: Role (this post)
How is your organization collecting and using data about skill gaps?
How to Understand Skill Coverage for Key Roles in Your Organization - Ibbaka Demo
Core Concepts: Skill Management and Competency Modelling
Role (this post)
Competency Framework and Competency Model
Coming soon …
Skill Assessment
Core Concepts: Pricing and Customer Value Management
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Value Metric
Value Driver
Economic Value Driver
Emotional Value Driver
Community Value Driver
Value Model
Pricing Model
Connecting Value and Pricing Models
Pricing Design
Package Design
Price Elasticity of Demand
Cross Price Elasticity
Interactions of Cross Price Elasticity and Price Elasticity of Demand
Value Based Market Segmentation
Value Path
Lifetime Value of a Customer (LTV)
Value to Customer (V2C)
Value Ratio
Economic Value Estimation (EVE)
Willingness to Pay (WTP)
Pocket Price Waterfall
Customer Value Journey
Customer Value Management
