Managers and Leaders in Need of Entrepreneurial Competences

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this article is to provide insight into how managers fit their roles and what tasks they perform. It addresses leaders and action they undertake. In particular, the study aims to focus on competences which comprise specific skills and experience, knowledge, and cognitive abilities to understand, analyse, or reason. Research Design & Methods: Qualitative research was done. Individual method within an ethnographic study includes an anthropological interview. In total, 16 participant in large companies were interviewed. Interviewees were managers and leaders on different organisational levels. The study used the principles of the grounded theory approach for analysing data and is based on the results of longitudinal research. Findings: The results revealed that managers usually follow imposed goals while leaders are expected to create their own directions of organisational development. Although respect and authority might be an integral part of managers’ job, as opposed to leaders, they are not indispensable. It is concluded that leaders need to deal with issues which are strategic for a company and much more important than it is in the case of managers who usually concentrate on finding solutions for everyday problems. Implications & Recommendations: The findings point to how competencies influence an organisational role. Even if they are interrelated, there is no need to demonstrate all of them to become a leader. Contribution & Value Added: This article offers a conceptualisation of how the theory corresponds with practice and points out that immaterial, immeasurable factors matter.