Relative importance of managerial skills for predicting effectiveness

Transformational leader attributes: interpersonal skills, engagement, and well-being

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of interpersonal skills (emotional and political skills) and work engagement on transformational leadership and leader well-being at work.

Design/methodology/approach

– Emotional control, emotional sensitivity, political skills, work engagement, transformational leadership behaviors, and job satisfaction were assessed in an empirical study of 278 employees. The relationships between emotional skills, political skills, work engagement, and transformational leadership were evaluated using participants in managerial positions (n=159). The combined influence of interpersonal skills and work engagement on job satisfaction was examined as a comparison between managers and non-managers (n=119).

Findings

– In addition to the positive effects of work engagement on outcome measures, results showed political skill is an important capability contributing to transformational leadership and leaders’ job satisfaction. Findings also showed the interaction of emotional skill, political skill, and work engagement contributed to job satisfaction among managers.

Practical implications

– Organizations must provide managers with opportunities to develop political skills or modify selection processes to identify candidates who possess political skills for management positions. Organizations will also benefit from implementing ways to engage managers in their work to facilitate transformational leader behaviors and promote their well-being. In addition, organizations can work to identify and develop managers’ emotional control and sensitivity skills specific to individual needs.

Originality/value

– Research investigating personal attributes that influence transformational leadership as an outcome is limited. This study contributes to the leadership literature and sheds light on the literature on the microfoundations of management competencies by examining managers’ skills and engagement on their leader behaviors and job satisfaction. Insights are discovered regarding the combination of emotional skills, political skills, and work engagement that indicate interpersonal skills and engagement have supplementary effects on transformational leader behaviors and leader well-being.

The relative importance of managerial competencies for predicting the perceived job performance of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment verification practitioners

Orientation: There is a need for the growing Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) verification industry to assess competencies and determine skills gaps for the management of the verification practitioners’ perceived job performance. Knowing which managerial competencies are important for different managerial functions is vital for developing and improving training and development programmes.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the managerial capabilities that are required of the B-BBEE verification practitioners, in order to improve their perceived job performance.Motivation for the study: The growing number of the B-BBEE verification practitioners calls for more focused training and development. Generating such a training and development programme demands empirical research into the relative importance of managerial competencies.Research approach, design and method: A quantitative design using the survey approach was adopted. A questionnaire was administered to a stratified sample of 87 B-BBEE verification practitioners. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 22.0) and Smart Partial Least Squares software.Main findings: The results of the correlation analysis revealed that there were strong and positive associations between technical skills, interpersonal skills, compliance to standards and ethics, managerial skills and perceived job performance. Results of the regression analysis showed that managerial skills, compliance to standards and ethics and interpersonal skills were statistically significant in predicting perceived job performance. However, technical skills were insignificant in predicting perceived job performance.Practical/managerial implications: The study has shown that the B-BBEE verification industry, insofar as the technical skills of the practitioners are concerned, does have suitably qualified staff with the requisite educational qualifications. At the same time, from the present study the industry can now determine the priority skills.Contribution: The study identified the needed skills as managerial skills, standards and ethics and interpersonal skills, in that order. The verification agencies will now be in a better position to know where they should focus their training and development.Keywords: Managerial competencies; Job performance; Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment

A competency-based performance appraisal for nurse leaders

Introduction: An employee performance appraisal is used internationally to improve employee performance, productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in nursing care. The purpose of the study was to assess the performance and efficiency of nurse leaders at all levels of leadership, identify deficient areas for each individual leader and propose improvements. Methods: Two surveys were conducted in 15 Slovenian public hospitals. The sample from the first survey included 1311 nurses who assessed the level of competencies of their immediate superiors. The sample from the second survey included 236 nurse leaders. Data envelopment analysis is used in this study to develop a model of practice outputs and inputs to help identify the most efficient nurse leaders. Results: Significant differences exist in the performance appraisal among the leaders in nursing. A total of 203 (86 %) nurse leaders are defined as inefficient and could improve their leadership performance. On average, inefficient leaders could improve their behaviour most in the areas of generic leadership competencies (by 51.7 %) and interprofessional relationships (by 47.7 %). Discussion and conclusion: The areas with the worst performance are generic leadership competencies and interprofessional relationships where also the most significant improvements are possible. Nurse leaders and hospital managers can use the analysis results to determine in which areas the leaders in their organisation should improve the levels of their competencies.

Developing leadership skills and resilience in turbulent times

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a leadership program in a way that captures leadership self-efficacy, political skills (PS) and resilience in the form of indicators of health and well-being that would have relevance for leadership roles in turbulent organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

– The design was quasi-experimental with pre- and post-measurement with unequal controls. Measurement was made through a mail survey before and after the leadership development program. n=107.

Findings

– Program participants differed from the control group in the post-measurement in that they reported higher levels on leadership self-efficacy and had better health compared to a year earlier.

Research limitations/implications

– Concepts like leadership self-efficacy, PS and measures of health and well-being can be used to operationalize and measure broad and contextually relevant outcomes of leadership development.

Practical implications

– Evaluation of leadership development can benefit from including these more psychologically relevant and generic outcomes.

Originality/value

– The study illustrates how psychologically based concepts can help to elucidate key outcomes of leadership development that can be critical for meeting the challenges in the turbulent and fluid work situation managers currently meet.