Abstract:

Managerial competencies are viewed as essential qualities to enhance performance effectiveness for leaders. Responding to this, the current study aims to examine managerial competencies scales in Malaysian academic settings. These scales include generic and role-specific competencies that had been developed and used in one of the previous studies conducted in Australia in 2008 and in another recent study in Australia and New Zealand in 2012. The scales were administered through an online platform among 585 academic leaders from 9 randomly selected public and private universities and 90 completed surveys were received. The collected data was analyzed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Velicer’s Minimum Average Partial (MAP) test. This analysis revealed that two constructs including Being Performance Driven (BPD) and Understanding Operations and Risks (UOR) built generic competencies. In addition, Benchmarking Standards and Practices (BSP) was the only sub-scale to construct role-specific competencies. Theoretical and practical implications as well as recommendations have also been provided.

Keywords:

Competency, Performance, Principal Component Analysis, Velicer’s MAP test, Malaysian higher education