Managerial competencies: nature and the two major approaches

Meaning of managerial competencies

A competency is a combination of knowledge, skills, behaviours and attitudes that enables a person to perform a job effectively. Managerial competencies are those combinations that a person needs to be effective as a manager, across different jobs and organisations, in planning, organising, leading and controlling. They go beyond technical know-how to include the ability to work with people, think strategically and manage oneself.

Nature of managerial competencies

1. Combination of elements. Each competency blends knowledge (what one knows), skills (what one can do) and behaviour and attitudes (how one acts).
2. Linked to performance. A competency is identified because it distinguishes effective from less effective managers; it is observable in behaviour and can be assessed.
3. Can be learned and developed. Competencies are built through education, experience, coaching, feedback and reflection; they are not only inborn traits.
4. Tied to the role and its setting. Which competencies matter, and how much, depends on the job and the organisation: a plant manager and a brand manager need different mixes, and the same manager needs new ones after a move. They are judged by what a person actually does and achieves, and they can be built through training and experience.
5. Vary by level. Robert Katz's three-skill view holds that technical competencies matter more at lower levels, human competencies at all levels, and conceptual (strategic) competencies most at the top. The same three skills, technical, human and conceptual, are what a leader uses to influence others.
6. Dynamic. The competencies needed change with technology and environment: digital literacy and cross-cultural awareness have grown in importance.
7. Interdependent. Competencies support one another; communication, for instance, underlies teamwork and leadership.

Key managerial competencies

A widely used set, the six competencies described by Hellriegel, Jackson and Slocum, includes: communication; planning and administration; teamwork; strategic action (understanding the industry and the organisation's direction); global awareness (cultural sensitivity and knowledge of world markets); and self-management (integrity, balance, self-awareness and continuous learning).

The two major approaches to managerial competencies

1. The behavioural or attribute (input) approach: associated with the United States and with researchers such as David McClelland and Richard Boyatzis. Competencies are the underlying characteristics of a person: motives, traits, self-image, knowledge and skills: that cause superior performance. The approach studies outstanding managers to find what distinguishes them, and uses these characteristics in selection and development. It focuses on what the manager brings to the job.
2. The functional or standards (output) approach: associated with the United Kingdom and with national occupational standards for management. Competence is the ability to perform the activities of a job to a prescribed standard. Jobs are analysed into functions and units of performance, each with criteria for judging whether it has been done well, and managers are assessed on evidence of performance at work. It focuses on what the manager achieves.

Many organisations now blend the two: they define the outputs required of a role and the personal behaviours that produce them.

Example. A bank selecting branch managers uses the input approach to test for drive, empathy and analytical thinking, and the output approach to judge, after a year, whether each manager met standards for customer service, loan quality and staff development.

Conclusion

Managerial competencies are learnable, performance-linked combinations of knowledge, skill and behaviour. The input and output approaches look at them from two sides, the person and the performance, and together give a fuller basis for selecting, training and appraising managers.