Tolochek, Vladimir A.

Background. Historically changing ideas about the social success of a person, its specificity for representatives of different social groups, the expansion of the number of criteria for describing this phenomenon are becoming a permanently relevant scientific and scientific-practical problem. Associated with it is the phenomenon of «resources», in the explanation of which there are many open questions.

Object of the study is to study the spatial characteristics of the conditions of the social micro- and mesoenvironment as potential resources for the social success of subjects.

Methods. Historical-theoretical analysis, empirical research (author's method — questionnaire «Dynamics of professional life style»), methods of parametric statistics.

Results. An analysis of the survey data of 482 men and women aged 30–50 years (132 civil servants, 129 engineers and heads of departments of industrial enterprises, 221 managers) showed that higher assessments of the subjective significance of environmental conditions as “professional factors” , updated as resources, and the largest number of intercorrelations (with r ≥ 0.300) took place in the sample of civil servants; smaller ones — engineers and heads of departments of industrial enterprises and in a sample of managers.

Conclusion. Different conditions of the social environment are not equally significant for all people (persons of different sex, age, working in different fields of activity, having different experience, etc.) in their positive and negative impact on various manifestations of a person's success. Differences in environmental conditions, reflected as the specificity of the correlation pleiades for each group, indicate a non-separate effect on the success of the subject. Both individual conditions and their combinations represent relatively stable, integral and closed spaces. The conditions of the parental family, one's family, formed by a person's activity in the spheres of his interpersonal relations, in their subjective perception and subjective significance for different people, act as different, isolated spaces.

Background. The study of the application of the competence-based approach in the professional training of specialists in the management sphere remains an urgent issue for many researchers, psychologists, educators and teachers. We began our consideration of this problem in a first approximation in a material published in the previous issue of the journal (Tolochek, 2020). The main issue is to identify the limitations of the competence-based approach as factors of its development and the conditions under which its implementation will be more constructive and effective. It is stated that, in line with the competence-based approach, there remains unresolved issues about the number and content of the qualities of subjects that affect the effectiveness of their activities; on the competencies of subjects performing different labor functions, working in organizations; about the place of competences in the structure of professionalism, about their role in career success.

Design: expert surveys, a differentiated and level analysis of frequency matrices of assessments (choices) of competencies by experts.  

Results. The cycle of studies of competencies and the specifics of their assessment included 69 managers differing in gender, age, seniority, managerial experience, positions in different companies. It was shown that out of 29 competencies, 19 were identified in at least 40% of experts; 8 were identified in at least 66% of experts. Competencies assessed as in demand are associated with individual features, with the evolution of managers as subjects and the characteristics of their activities.

Conclusions: 1. Only part of the competencies from the initial list of competencies described by foreign specialists were identified as relevant for managers by experts (employees of Russian companies). Among the competences, there is a “core” of basic, key qualities, and several “belts” (“shells”, “levels”) - less significant (universal) competencies associated with the effective activity of a manager in different areas. 2. Assessments of competencies relevant (important, significant and / or preferred) for managers differ depending on the individual characteristics of experts (gender, age, experience, position, career success, managerial potential) and the length of the list of assessed qualities. 3. Lists of competencies in the range of 15-20 qualities can be considered optimal for solving both scientific and applied problems. The basic list of 29 competencies can be considered “sufficient and redundant”; list of up to 19-20 competencies - “sufficient and necessary”; a list of 8-10 "nuclear" competencies - "essential basic".

Relevance. Historically formed scientific traditions, approaches, concepts (including those called the “competency-based approach” – the K-approach) are formed in certain social conditions to solve certain social problems, beyond them they discover their limitations. Identification of the possibilities and limitations of the K-approach contributes to both its development and the refinement of the conditions under which its implementation will be more constructive and effective. 

Methods: historical and theoretical analysis. 

Results. “Open questions” of the problem are highlighted: inconsistencies in the judgments of specialists in listing the qualities that determine the success of the subject; the number of competencies “necessary and sufficient”; non-realization of holistic, integrated approach; the place of competencies in the structure of professionalism, their role in career success and professional longevity of people; the issue of “universal” / “specific competencies”; the question about the place of the phenomenon of “competence” and the K-approach in the system of psychological knowledge; the question about the validity of the methods and the measure of the predictive value of the estimates. 

Conclusions. The interpretation of competencies and the K-approach proposed by specialists are unsatisfactory and poorly coordinated with each other. The K-approach and the established earlier approach of professionally important qualities (PVC-approach) are historically transient scientific concepts (falling into the scale of “small theories”). Both approaches have their own limitations as well as opportunities for development and integration with others. The PVC approach is characterized by an initial extremely broad statement of tasks; the K-approach – by the pragmatism of the original goals and objectives, empiricism in assessing the qualities of the subject. It is possible and necessary to search and find areas of their mutual complementarity, taking into account their ultimate goals and conditions of formation. Ignoring the merits and limitations of any scientific approach is not the best solution. The transition to an open discussion of all complex issues is in demand. 

Relevance.The effects of self-organization of subjects and groups in their joint activities are not well understood. The purpose of the work is to analyze and systematize the facts of manifestations of self-organization in the professional activity of people in a limited social space and historical time (in organizations, in a profession, in professional specialization, etc.).

Objectives. 1) A description of the facts of self-organization as a phenomenon of “psychological niches” in the models of the labor activity of subjects in similar and in different areas. 2) Identification of the determinants of the effects of self-organization of human activity.

Method. Analysis and synthesis of diagnostic data by the method of 16 PF R.B. Cattell, more than 700 professionals (drivers, private security guards, heads of departments of large industrial enterprises) obtained in the author’s studies (1994–2017), and more than 400 civil servants in the diagnostic data in 1995 and 2000, by the method of 16 PF.

Results. It is shown that the personal characteristics of the subjects are associated with their professionally important qualities, typical psycho-physiological states, value orientations, and meanings of work. Self-organization in the professional activity of individual subjects and groups as a phenomenon of “psychological niches” is a manifestation: not of a single, but of a particular and typical; the multi-level relationship of social, psychological and biological adaptation mechanisms of interacting people in a dynamic social environment; “Multipolarity” of high activity areas of subjects, time consistency of periods of their interactions; effects that are more evident not in the productivity of people’s work, but in satisfaction with it, etc.

Conclusion. Finding ways to manage the processes of group self-organization of labor subjects, enhancing the positive effects generated by human interactions, and stopping (weakening, correcting) negative ones can contribute to the development of new resources for increasing the productivity of individual and collective labor.

Objectives of the study: to analyze the social, psychological and biological determinants of the activity and success of athletes; Describe the phenomenon of "psychological niches" on the model of sport. The article analyzes the results of a survey of more than 150 people - high-ranking sportsmen, freestyle wrestlers, classical and judo; Polls of coaches of the highest category (12 people); Materials of literary sources. The study showed that in the sport of higher achievements (SHA), the effects of joint activity of the subjects are systematically manifested, the consequence of which is the selection and fixing of athletes with certain individual psychological features (physique, typological properties of the nervous system, functional asymmetry, personal characteristics, styles of activity) in Certain types and specializations. In different sports and specializations, stable proportions of representatives of different types (physique, nervous system properties, functional asymmetry, personal characteristics, and styles) are preserved, as well as the success characteristic of each type in tournaments and different "ranges" of their success. Formed among athletes different types of activity styles are focused on the actualization of different stable segments of "activity spaces". These effects, determined by the interaction of social, psychological and biological conditions, are called "psychological niches", the characteristic features of which are: ordering in space and time of interactions of subjects; A limited set of mutually complementary types of adaptation of subjects in a dynamic environment; Manifestations are not single, but special, typical; Adaptation of subjects to a part of environmental conditions, as a sufficient and necessary condition for their success; Propensity to master subjects by typical operational complexes (systems, "blocks" of actions); Orientation on typical features of partners and environmental conditions; Success with interactions with typical partners (rivals), etc.

Purpose of the study: to highlight the conditions social environment, identified (understood) the representatives of different social groups as resources success subject throughout his professional career. Results of the survey are analyzed in the article 147 respondents (managers, accountants, entrepreneurs) aged 31-47 years, m=39.2 research questionnaire dynamics of professional formation of the subject. The survey was conducted in 2010-2013 years in situations of paid forms of vocational training. The Division of the sample into groups (male/female managers/professionals) and use compare and multiple regression analysis revealed allocated specific social groups in the structure and dynamics of mainstreaming the environment as resources. The study revealed that the respondents holding senior positions (executives) range of non-subjective resources is quite wide and variable. Consistent actual different environments as a professional development resource for professional actors (from 20 to 65 years) carries a high level of professionalism, its dynamic growth and long preservation with social success generally. From less realized respondents’ range of non-subjective conditions as resources relatively narrow; they are characterized by a reliance on parent resources.

Tasks of the study: 1) Analysis of dynamics of subjects’ professional making (SPM) as evolutions in the aspects of professional development, professional destructions and professional burning out. 2) Isolation of intra-subject resources and extra-subject, combined with the dynamics SPM. Hypotheses: 1) Professional destructions and professional burning out are more expressed in teachers, than in other representatives of socionomic professions (educators). 2) Scarcities in the updating of intra- and extra-subject resources come out as the determinants of destructions and burning out. 3) Destructive processes in subjects grow from 35—45 years. 4) The initial phases of destructions and burning out are reflected adequately. Sample: 1) the teacher of secondary schools — 51 women at the age from 28 to 65 years (M=46.2; SD=8.6), with the length of employment from 7 to 42 years (M=23.9; SD=9.1); 2) the educators of children’s pre-school establishments — 34 women at the age from 26 to 65 years (M=46.4; SD=10.4), with the length of employment from 2 to 43 years (M=24.1; SD=10.3). Method is quasi-measurement. Basic conclusions: The dynamics SPM of teachers can be characterized as non-optimal; the using of resources — limited, fragmentary, partial; the dynamics SPM of educators — optimum; the use of resources, their mismatch with PSS are combined the increase of destructive processes from 35—45 years and with strengthening on the boundary of 55 years; with molding of professional outsider, or type of specialists, who support professionalism with the price of psychophysiological overvoltage. Teachers are more subjected to professional destructions and professional burning out, than educators. The first stages of burning out and destructions are reflected adequately by them.

The preconditions of Individual Style of Activity (ISA) problem formation as well as it’s history of study in psychology of this country are examined. Essential characteristics of ISA conception (suggested by E.A. Klimov) and the peculiarities of different approaches to the study of the phenomenon in 1950—2000 are emphasized. Promising directions for future research are determined.