1. Article: THE RIGHT MAN IN THE RIGHT
PLACE.(Napoleon Bonaparte and the battle
for Toulon, France)
David Chandler tells how Napoleon's first battle with the British saved the vital port of Toulon --
and opened the door to a glittering military career.
The great naval arsenal and port of Toulon served and serves French interests in the Mediterranean
Sea in much the same way as Portsmouth is the main base for the Royal Navy guarding the English
Channel. With its two nigh land-locked anchorages, the greater and the smaller Roads, Toulon had
been an important fishing port and shipping sanctuary from before Roman times. A prosperous city
sprang up on the north-eastern littoral of La Petite Rade in the Middle Ages, and by 1790 its
mercantile and maritime population had grown to some 30,000 people.
Overlooked by mountains, the landward-facing city wall with its old towers had been supplemented
in the late seventeenth and early eigh-teenth centuries by an outer series of bastions, ravelins and
ditches designed by Marshal Vauban. The master-engineer of Louis XIV's reign had added the
entrenched encampment of Sainte Anne facing Mount Faron to the north -- capable of holding a full
field army. As a result, in 1707 the Allied army (35,000-strong) of Prince Eugene of Savoy, one of
the greatest commanders of the Marlburian period, augmented by an Anglo-Dutch fleet of fifty
warships and twenty transports under Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell, had attempted to take the
place -- defended by Marshal Tesse and 20,000 men -- in a series of major but ultimately vain
military operations. Toulon had survived its first modern major trial-of-arms.
Later in the eighteenth century a series of a dozen detached forts were constructed at key points and
on dominating heights overlooking the landward approaches to the city and its fortified naval
dockyard, situated in and around the Old and New Basins (or inner harbours). These were barely
completed when, in 1744, a chaotic sea battle was fought on February 22nd within sight of the
naval base. The outcome was indecisive; the French Admiral De Court losing one vessel, but
inflicting proportionately more damage on Admiral Matthew's stronger fleet. Toulon's defences had
thus been tested by both land and sea, had taken the strain and conceded nothing.
With the French Revolution of 1789, Toulon was soon once again plunged into the centre of naval,
military and political strife. For a brief period, indeed, the very survival of the Revolution itself
appeared to hang on the fate of the coastal city and naval arsenal. The local discontent that led on
August 18th, 1793, to the citizenry and naval authorities permitting Lord Hood's Anglo-Spanish
expeditionary force to take possession of the anchorages, shipping and city without a shot being
fired, has often been misconstrued.
Although a number of senior French naval officers emigrated alongside many of the nobility in late
1792 as the political scene throughout France became increasingly dominated by the Jacobins, it is
incorrect to state that the mass of the citizens and sailors of Toulon abruptly abandoned the tricolor
to become royalist rebels. In fact, the dramatic act of treachery against the Republic was wholly
caused by political infighting between republican factions throughout much of France. It …

2. Competency Assessment: A Human Resource Approach for a Globalizing Scenario
Ujvala Rajadhyaksha, Shailesh J Mehta School of Management
Human resources (HR) in any organization can be classified in to four categories using two simple yet effective
criteria � the ability to learn and the willingness to learn. Individuals who are high on both counts are the
�stars� of the workplace. They need to be encouraged and rewarded. Individuals who are low on both
dimensions often may need to be retrenched in the interests of maintaining or improving organizational
efficiency. The in-betweens are those who are high on the ability to learn but low on willingness to learn � who
need to be re-trained; and those who are high on the willingness to learn but low on the ability to learn � who
need to be redeployed. Many organizations however, are unable to effectively manage these four categories
of employees, often because they are unable to match employee with category reliably. As a result, even
those organizations that have the will to proactively manage their HR, ultimately are rendered powerless to
effect change in their employees. Indeed, such has been the story of many Indian firms, particularly those
entrenched in the traditional manufacturing sector.
Today however, globalization is compelling several Indian organizations to march to a new tune.
Increasing competitive pressure is bringing about a keener focus on profitability and productivity of
employees. The older employment relationship characterized by the existence of only one employer and
workplace, an indefinite work contract, full-time work and some degree of social and legal protection, is
being replaced by performance-driven employment terms. Alongside, job definitions are changing as well.
Based on the idea of competency assessment, the art of human resource management is shifting focus from
performance appraisal to performance management.
Competency Assessment Issues
Competencies are a combination of several entities � motives, traits, self-concepts, attitudes or values, skills
and abilities � all of which can differentiate superior performers from average performers. Since
competencies take a composite view of an employee�s ability to perform, they go beyond mere job
knowledge. This becomes particularly useful when the definition of jobs itself changes under external
competitive pressures. Consider the case of the automobile sector in India. In order to survive, Indian vehicle
manufacturers have had to up-grade products by replacing manually operated product features with
electronically controlled ones. An impact of this product change has been a change in job specifications. An
auto company today may need maintenance and service engineers who, in addition to being mechanical
engineers, also have an understanding of electronics and electrical engineering. In such situations, an audit of
competencies possessed by company executives helps the HR department to take decisions for re-
deployment and retraining of employees according to business needs.
Early research on competency assessment in the 70s, identified seven managerial competencies,
primarily based on interviews with managers in large and medium-sized organizations in a variety of sectors....