Determinants of managerial role competency utilization of IT project managers

Abstract

Organizations have widely implemented Competency based HR systems in the last decade. Competency profiling, gap analysis, competency based assessment and compensation/selection based on competencies has all gained international recognition. In the competency related literature a great deal of attention has been focused on the definition of competencies, easement of competencies, implementation of competency based HR systems and benefits of competency based systems. Studies have indicated that low or under-utilization/non-utilization of competencies lead to negative attitudinal outcomes. However, no significant attention has been paid to the empirical study of the determinants of competency utilization in an organizational context. This research was designed to address this gap and look at the factors that are likely determinants of managerial role competency utilization in organizational work situations. The broad objective of the research was to find out the relationship between the likely determinant factors and managerial role competency utilization. Study of literature indicated four major categories of factors that can potentially affect competency utilization viz., organizational, HR systems and process related, person related, and factors related to the environment. The role chosen for the study was that of a project manager in the IT industry. Forty six managerial competencies were identified from literature and using a survey of executives from the IT industry a set of seven competencies were identified as critical for the role of the IT project manager. Twenty two variables in the above mentioned four categories were identified and used in the study to investigate their relationship with managerial role competency utilization. The dependent variable and the hypothesized determinants were measured using self-administered questionnaires and the data was collected from 323 project managers from various IT companies. Step-wise regression was used to identify the critical variables in each category. Factor analysis of the independent variables yielded four factors viz., one “intrinsic factor”, one “extrinsic-exogenous” factor and two “extrinsic-endogenous” factors. The research findings showed that the “intrinsic factor” was most important in explaining the variation of the dependent variable. The data analysis also suggested that utilization of competencies is dependent on the interaction between the “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” factors. The study is significant in the context of competency based research since it is movement from a descriptive to an exploratory empirical work on the utilization of competencies. The findings suggest that suggest that though the “intrinsic factor” is the most important in explaining the variance in competency utilization, managers cannot undermine the leverage effect of the “extrinsic factors”, both exogenous and endogenous. A greater understanding of utilization itself is also helpful for those implementing competency based HR and OD systems. This study can serve as a starting point for further exploration of the relationships involved and refining the measures and for providing a better explanation of competency utilization.