Abstract:

The effectiveness of any business depends on the effectiveness of personnel. At the same time, middle managers occupy a special place in each organization. Besides, the level of competence development of middle managers determines not only their own performance but also the performance of their subordinates. Accordingly, each organization is interested in developing the middle managers’ competencies. At the same time, most often middle managers are employees who previously worked in the positions of performers in the corresponding functional areas.

This raises the question of the effective development of middle managers. There are 2 main approaches: through the acquisition of special education or experience. At the same time, experience does not always form the optimal structure of competencies, and education requires large financial costs and does not always reflect the specifics of the organization and workplace. In this regard, it is interesting to know which of the methods of forming managerial competencies is more effective.

We studied the impact of the availability of managerial education and work experience on the development of middle managers’ managerial competencies. We formed a sample of almost 900 middle managers representing various fields of activity from 7 regions of the Russian Federation.

The following types of education were used as indicators of its availability: the presence of higher education diploma, attendance of advanced training courses, participation in seminars and training, and presence of professional retraining in the field of management. Depending on the managerial experience, managers were divided into several groups: from the minimum (less than 1 year) to the maximum (more than 10 years).

All the competencies of middle managers were divided into 11 groups: complex multi-level problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, personnel management, cooperation with others, emotional intelligence, judgment and decision-making, customer focus, negotiation skills, cognitive flexibility, effective job search. The assessment of the development of competencies was carried out by the self-assessment method. The main hypothesis of the study was that managerial education and experience form different managerial competencies. Descriptive statistics and analysis of averages are used as methods of analysis.

As a result, the main hypothesis was partially confirmed. First, the absence of a statistically significant influence of managerial experience on the development of managerial competencies was revealed. Second, different educational programs have a different impact on managerial competencies formation. All other things being equal, the presence of higher management education contributes to the higher development of almost all managerial competencies compared to people who do not have such education.

At the same time, the completion of advanced training courses does not have a statistically significant impact on the formation of most competencies. Participation in training courses and seminars has a statistically significant positive effect on the development of creativity, cooperation with others, and emotional intelligence.

Thus, managerial competencies cannot be formed by work experience and require purposeful development in the learning process. At the same time, it is important to note that short-term programs for managerial competencies development are not sufficiently effective in the Russian labor market.

Keywords:

middle managers, managerial competencies, competence development, educational programs in the field of management.