Fabrizio Gerli

The effects of management education on careers and compensation

Purpose – This study aims to explore how the amount and the nature of learning accrued during an MBA – measured in terms of competency development – impact on career advancement and compensation.Design/methodology/approach – Applying nonparametric statistical analysis on data from behavioral event interviews and survey questionnaires to a sample of 44 Italian MBA graduates, the study investigates: the type and extent of competency development during the MBA programme and the relationship between this competency development and post‐MBA career and compensation.Findings – The findings support the hypothesis that the degree of competency development during the MBA programme enhances career advancement, and that some competencies, like planning, result orientation, networking, organizational awareness, system thinking and use of technology, do so particularly, which is consistent with literature on career competencies. No relationship is found, instead, between competency development during the MBA and compen...

Competent Production Supervisors

While the manufacturing sector is vanishing in most European and North American regions, northeast Italian firms have successfully contrasted global competition thanks to superior manufacturing capabilities grounded, among other things, on peoples competencies. Applying nonparametric statistical analysis on data from 212 behavioral event and 44 repertory grid interviews, the research presented in this note investigates the nature of these competencies for production supervisors in northeast Italian firms. We identify four threshold and nine distinctive competencies and offer insights on the relationship between these competencies and northeast Italian firms manufacturing capability. We also suggest how to use competency tools to design skill development policies in industrial clusters and implement effective human resource management practices in small and medium-sized enterprises.

Boundaryless career and career success: the impact of emotional and social competencies.

Even though, over the last two decades, the boundaryless career concept has stimulated a wide theoretical debate, scholars have recently claimed that research on the competencies that are necessary for managing a cross-boundary career is still incomplete. Similarly, the literature on emotional and social competencies has demonstrated how they predict work performance across industries and jobs but has neglected their influence in explaining the individuals mobility across boundaries and their impact on career success. This study aims to fill these gaps by examining the effects of emotional and social competencies on boundaryless career and on objective career success. By analyzing a sample of 142 managers over a period of 8 years, we found evidence that emotional competencies positively influence the propensity of an individual to undertake physical career mobility and that career advancements are related to the possession of social competencies and depend on the adoption of boundaryless career paths. This study also provides a contribution in terms of the evaluation of the emotional and social competencies demonstrated by an individual and of the operationalization of the measurement of boundaryless career paths, considering three facets of the physical mobility construct (organizational, industrial, and geographical boundaries).

Fostering performance through leaders’ behavioral competencies: An Italian multi-level mixed-method study

This paper aims to identify which top leaders’ behavioral emotional intelligence (EI)-competencies affect firm performance when considering the overall organization orientation toward efficiency, human resources and adaptability to the external environment as an interface (i.e. a filter) between the individual leader and firm outcomes.,The research was conducted on a sample of Italian top leaders. The authors used a cross-level analysis that distinguishes individual characteristics, mid-level performance determinants and organizational results. The authors used a variety of methods of assessment: behavioral event interviews for top leaders’ EI-competencies; subject matter experts’ evaluations for organizational orientation; a non-parametric statistical analysis for distinctive competencies; objective financial data for firm financial performance. To identify which competencies impact on financial performance, factor and regression analysis was used.,In firms oriented toward efficiency, human resources and adaptability to the external environment, top leaders’ people management EI-competencies are the most frequent distinctive abilities. These distinctive competencies can be further distinguished into task, relationship and change-oriented behaviors, although only the first two appear to be related to firm performance.,To foster firm performance, top leaders should leverage certain EI-related competencies, especially those that are task and relationship oriented. Leaders should not only see the organization as an extension of themselves but also be aware that the organization might obstacle their individual impact.,This original empirical study uses different data sources and methodologies, it assesses a multi-level model and is conducted in Italy. No previous empirical study has considered the organization as a filter – and not an enhancer – between the top leader and firm performance.

Students' Entrepreneurial Intentions: The Role of Prior Learning Experiences and Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Competencies†

Despite literature acknowledges that emotional, social, and cognitive (ESC) competencies favor entrepreneurial success, research has scantly investigated if they influence entrepreneurial intentions. Moreover, studies use work and extracurricular activities as proxies for competency possession without investigating their impact on competency development. To address this void, we analyze the direct and mediating effects of ESC competencies on self‐employment intentions. Results from a sample of university students demonstrate that higher levels of ESC competencies predict entrepreneurial intent, and only international and cultural experiences indirectly favor self‐employment intentions. This study offers insight to the debate on competency development in entrepreneurial education.

Modeling management behaviors in lean production environments

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and empirically validate a repertoire of management behaviors associated with the adoption of lean systems, showing how a subset of such behaviors differentiates more advanced lean systems in a specific setting. Design/methodology/approach The study applies regression analysis and non-parametric hypothesis testing to an original data set coming from field research of 26 cases of adoption of lean operations practices. Findings The study: identifies in the lean literature a repertoire of management behaviors that support lean implementations and complement the adoption of lean practices; provides a way to operationalize them; validates this repertoire of behaviors; and shows that a subset of these behaviors is associated with more advanced lean implementations, suggesting the necessity to adopt a situational approach to lean leadership. Research limitations/implications The findings have boundary conditions, defined by the national, industrial, and size context in which the study was conducted. Practical implications The study provides practical guidance for lean system implementation suggesting a repertoire of management behaviors within which firms can identify and validate specific, appropriate subsets of behaviors aligned with the company strategy, culture, size, environment, bundle of lean operation practices adopted, and maturity stage of lean adoption. Originality/value This is the first study to provide quantitative, non-anecdotal evidence of the relationship between specific management behaviors and the successful implementation of lean operations practices. It offers a novel method to operationalize and measure lean management behaviors.

Developing Leadership Identity and Emotional Competencies in Higher Education: Methodological Insights and Empirical Evidence from the Italian Context

Abstract Research has extensively underlined the positive impact of emotional, social and cognitive competencies on leadership effectiveness. Despite the fact that literature acknowledges that these competencies can be learned from different experiences over a person’s lifetime, research has mainly focused on leadership development in adulthood. Through the case study of the Ca’ Foscari Competency Centre, this chapter advances the understanding on how higher education can favour leadership development at the early stage, in terms of identity formation and self-regulation, through the implementation of the intentional change theory, considering that this learning process varies according to different developmental trajectories.

Metaphors for Innovation: How Entrepreneurs Narrate Different Types of Innovation

While the connection between entrepreneurship and innovation is acknowledged in literature, limited effort has been devoted to the understanding of how entrepreneurs linguistically represent their endeavour in generating and implementing different types of innovation. This paper addresses this void by bringing metaphor analysis into the field of innovation and entrepreneurship. We argue that the sensemaking and sensegiving role of figurative language is important in describing the complexity and ambiguity that characterize the innovation process. This paper provides insights about how episodes of innovation are linguistically elaborated and transmitted through ex post narration. Adopting semi-structured interviews, we found that entrepreneurs highly rely on metaphors to explain events of innovation. Moreover, each type of innovation (product, marketing, process, organizational, and strategic) is simplified differently through the use of metaphorical language in an attempt to differentiate innovations and ...

Behavioural competencies and organizational performance in Italian performing arts: An exploratory study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the behavioural competencies of directors and managers working for cultural organizations and their relationship with organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts an ESC competency modelling process and the technique of the Behavioural Event Interview as the primary source of data collection. In particular, the authors interviewed 14 directors and managers of six performing arts organizations operating in Emilia-Romagna, a region located in Northern Italy. Findings Findings show that directors and managers of cultural organizations are characterized by a specific set of social and emotional (e.g. persuasion and empathy), whereas cognitive competencies, such as quantitative analysis, are less frequent. Findings highlight also that a balanced portfolio of behavioural competencies emerges as importantly correlated with high organizational performance. Practical implications Findings offer relevant managerial implications for the design and implementation of a coherent set of human resource management practices, which allow cultural organizations to reach above-average performance. Originality/value This study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between managerial competencies and the performance of cultural organizations, taking into account specific kinds of competencies – namely, behavioural competencies – which have been neglected by the previous literature.

The Complex Determinants of Financial Results in a Lean Transformation Process: The Case of Italian SMEs

This study, by analyzing a sample composed of some of the best Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are engaged in a lean effort, adopts a multi-method approach to investigate the complex relationship between the level of implementation of lean systems, the adoption of a set of “high involvement” management behaviors and a sustained financial performance, controlling for such variables as the duration of the “lean journey” and the size of the firm. Through fuzzy-set analysis, this study focuses on the process of financial value creation within a firm due to the lean transformation and on the multifaceted relation among its determinants. Our results corroborate the perspective of lean environments as complex and integrated sociotechnical systems, confirming that the configurational approach is the most appropriate to analyze them. From this study emerges that the best performing lean companies, according to the adopted financial criteria, are those that wholly embrace the lean philosophy, follow its principles and apply its tools for years. The role of the “high involvement” management behaviors appears to be essential, since they create an environment where the lean techniques and tools can be more effective.