Explaining the Competency Criteria for Senior Managers and Their Impact on Company Performance
Keywords:
Competency, company performance, senior managersAbstract
The study aims to identify and explain the competency criteria of senior managers and examine their impact on the performance of companies operating in Iraqi industries. This applied research adopted a mixed-method (qualitative–quantitative) sequential exploratory design. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews with 14 academic experts were conducted, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis via MAXQDA software. Reliability of coding was confirmed using Cohen’s Kappa coefficient, and the extracted themes were validated through the fuzzy Delphi technique. In the quantitative phase, 400 questionnaires were distributed among company managers, with 392 valid responses analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) using Smart PLS. The thematic analysis identified three main dimensions of senior managers’ competencies: (1) professional and financial competencies, (2) managerial and leadership competencies, and (3) digital and technological competencies. The quantitative results demonstrated a significant positive relationship between managerial competencies and company performance, with a path coefficient of 0.444 and a t-value of 33.155. Model validation indices (R² and Q²) indicated a strong explanatory and predictive power of the proposed model. Senior managers’ competencies play a vital role in improving organizational performance. Enhancing professional and financial expertise, transformational leadership, and digital literacy contributes to greater efficiency, innovation, and competitive advantage. Therefore, organizations should invest in competency-based management systems and leadership development programs to achieve sustained performance improvement.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Ahmed Abbas Rashak (Author); Alireza Hassan Maleki (Corresponding author); Ameer Saheb Shaker, Mohsen Dastgir (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
