The Competency Development Needs for Rural Community Development Manager: Focusing on Korea Rural Community Corporation

The purpose of this study is to identify the competency development needs for rural community development manager of Korea Rural Community Corporation(KRC), a representative domestic rural development project implementation organization. In order to achieve the research objectives, we developed the draft competency model for rural community development manager with the competencies suggested in the preceding research on the competency of the planners and competencies derived from the interview with rural community development senior manager of KRC and job description of the KRC. This draft competency model was reorganized through the review of 10 internal experts. Subsequently, with 454 response data collected through a questionnaire survey targeting the rural community development managers of KRC and the priority of competency development were derived by using the Borich Needs Assessment Model and The Locus for Focus model. The key findings of this study are as follows. First, the competency of the person in charge of regional development was composed of 3 competency groups, including interpersonal skill competency group, work performance competency group, and regional development competency group, and 21 competencies belonging to each competency group. Second, as a result of determining the needs for competency development by synthesizing the Borich Needs Assessment Model and The Locus for Focus model, a total of five competencies: understanding laws/policies/regulations, coordination, networking with local stakeholders, networking with residents, and project planning were the top priority for development, so the development of these competencies were found to be the most urgent, and two competencies: developing residents’ competency and networking with useful human resources were the second-priority competencies for development, so the urgency of development was relatively high. Based on the research results, suggestions for future practice and research were presented.