ABSTRACT
The Foreign Service Act of 1980, which governs the organization and management of the Foreign Service of the United States, requires the Department of State (State) and other foreign affairs agencies to establish precepts for selection boards to use in the evaluation and promotion of members of the Foreign Service. State, the federal agency with the largest number of Foreign Service employees, defines those precepts as skills in six broad categories with detailed subcategories (see Table 11.1 at end of this chapter). These standards, commonly known as “core precepts” or “core competencies,” include leadership skills, managerial skills, interpersonal skills, communication and foreign language skills, intellectual skills, and substantive knowledge. The precepts are important because they illustrate the competencies State requires in its Foreign Service employees and because they form the basis for their individual assessment in annual performance reviews. Management and labor, represented by the American Foreign Service Association, regularly discuss the precepts to ensure that descriptions are current; however, the six basic categories have remained constant for over twenty-five years. State incorporates the core precepts in counseling, evaluation, and training, and employees, who must confront them every year in their evaluation reports, are familiar with their substance. This system, which involves considerable time and effort from all concerned, provides the department and its Foreign Service with a competitive, merit-based personnel system of long standing. It also provides an interesting example of what the leading U.S. foreign affairs agency regards as the competencies for global leadership in the modern world.
