Effects of Managerial Competencies on Performance of Selected Manufacturing Firms in South-East Nigeria

Abstract

In today's dynamic workplace and globalized economy, however, the ability to achieve and maintain high performance and productivity is a major challenge facing organizations and managers. This is why this study focused on effects of of managerial competencies on organizational performance of the selected manufacturing firms in South East, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to: assess the effect of communication competency on employee productivity; ascertain how self-management competency affects employee career development; assess how planning competency affect customers’ satisfaction; ascertain the effect of teamwork competency on organisational effectiveness; and ascertain the effect of strategic action on organizational competitiveness. The study adopted the survey design. A sample size of 810 was used because a census method was adopted. The study was conducted in ten (10) selected manufacturing firms in Southeast, Nigeria: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States. Primary and Secondary data were used. Primary data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire and oral interview while secondary data were collected from books, journals and internet. The validation of the questionnaire was undertaken by five experts, three from the department of management, University of Nigeria, and two from the industry.The outcome was subjected to reliability test using spearman rank order correlation co-efficient which yielded a correlation co-efficient of 0.83 indicating a high degree of items consistency. Out of 810 copies of the questionnaire distributed, 546 copies representing (69%) were returned while 264 copies representing (31.3%) were not returned. The five hypotheses formulated for the study were tested with ordinal logistic regression statistical tool using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, version 20.0). The findings revealed that communication competency positively affected employee productivity (ß = 59.965, p = 0.11 < 0.05); self-management competency positively affected employee career development (ß = 86.111, p = 0.14 < 0.05); planning competency positively affected customers’ satisfaction (ß = 99.507, p = 0.00 < 0.05), teamwork competency had a positive effect on organizational effectiveness (ß = 77.507, p = 0.01 < 0.05); and strategic action competences positively affected organizational competitiveness (ß = 85.507, p = 0.00 < 0.05) in the selected manufacturing firms in South East, Nigeria. The study thus concludes that managerial competencies have a positive effect on organizational performance. The study recommended that the senior management of organisations should take deliberate steps to improve managerial competencies especially communication competency in order to remain relevant in the dynamic business environment and its attendant challenges since communication is integral to goal achievement in organizations.