Machine-Competence and Human Capital: A Critical Analysis of Competency-Based Management in the Neoliberal Era.

This essay critically examines competency-based management through the lens of human capital theory and Michel Foucault's concepts of discourse, governmentality, and biopolitics, situating these organizational practices within neoliberal rationalities. It argues that competency-based management functions not only as a developmental tool but as a technology of power that shapes workers into self-managing "competence-machines," responsible for continuously investing in and optimizing their knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) to meet performance demands. This process individualizes accountability for employability and marginalizes structural inequalities by framing unemployment and exclusion as personal incompetence. The essay highlights how these managerial practices naturalize social exclusion and self-exploitation, transforming leisure and education into obligations, and calls for ethical and political reflection on alternatives that prioritize care, solidarity, and collective well-being over market-driven performance metrics.