Competence Management and Corporate Performance in Austria

Since the first studies focusing on management development, nearly all authors state a positive relationsship between management competencies and corporate performance. Boyatzis (1982) states in his seminal book on competency and performance, that the competency clusters »Goal and Action Management«, »Leadership«, and »Human Resource Management« are the most important ones. Prahalad and Hamel (1990) distinguish between technological and management competencies and only the fit of both will lead to entrepreneurial success. In the following, the assessment center movement focused only on company-specific bundles of competencies to explain success and failure (Woodruffe 1993). After that Bartlett and Goshal (1997) tried to find typical clusters of management competencies for any hierarchical level and McCall (1998) focused on the relationship between competency and corporate strategy as crucial factor for success. More recent literature like Heyse and Erpenbeck (2004) or Mühlbacher (2007) offer multiple-job-models to emphasise the fact that competencies are strongly oriented towards the future. This enables a person or company to tackle upcoming challenges. But most of these models ? except Boyatzis (1982) ? do not offer any empirical evidence concerning the relationship between management development and corporate performance. Therefore this explorative study tries to give an answer to the following research question: »Which management competencies are influencing the turnover or profit of a company?« A quantitative study based on a questionnaire with a mix of closed and open question and statistical analysis will help to explore and compare the relation between organizational performance and current management competencies.ReferencesBartlett, C.A., Goshal, S., (1997): The Individualized Corporation, Harper Business, New York. | Boyatzis, R. E., (1982): The Competent Manager ? A Model for Effective Performance, Wiley, New York. | Heyse, V., Erpenbeck, J., (2004): Kompetenztraining. 64 Informations- und Trainingsprogramme, Schäffer Poeschel: Stuttgart. | McCall, M.W., (1998): High Flyers. Develloping the Next Generation of Leaders, Harvard Business School Press, Boston. | Mühlbacher, J., (2007): Kompetenzmanagement als Grundlage strategischer Wettbewerbsvorteile, Linde, Wien. | Prahalad, C.K., Hamel, G., (1990): The Core Competence of the Corporation, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 68, No. 3, pp. 79-91. | Woodruffe, C., (1993): What is Meant by a Competency?, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 29 - 36.