Developing a Leadership Competency Model
This article by Husain al Ansari and Othman al Khadher highlight the leadership qualities required by librarians and people heading information centers in Kuwait. The study does not only rely on theoretical information but it identifies characteristics which are deemed necessary by actual leaders for attaining success in their tasks. The study has classified leadership competencies into six broad categories; managerial effectiveness, cognitive skills, social skills, motivational, personal, and occupational. These categories are widely applicable to other professions as well but since they have been analyzed in the context of librarians they may not be as important as they have proved through this study.
Increasingly trends are leaning towards better communication and social skills which allow managers to understand subordinates in order to keep motivational levels high. Therefore, these competencies are common to most managerial level jobs as they highlight the importance of human skills at all managerial levels. Ansari and Khadher do not aim towards providing any fixed set of competencies requires to be an effective leader rather they provide a basic framework that suggests that a combination of these competencies are prominent in successful leaders. Furthermore, no one leader possesses all of these characteristics but successful leaders are able to understand the situation and alter their behavior to the requirements of the situation. Sixteen of the twenty top competencies highlighted in this study are similar to the findings of Goleman’s model, which proves that leaders who rate high on emotional intelligence will rate as strong candidates of many of the competencies mentioned by Ansari and Khadher.
The study ranks high ethical and work standards and trustworthiness as the main characteristic of an effective leader. This suggests that people consider the values and beliefs of their leader. Adding on, people who are able to create a balance between intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships would be preferred as leaders by their subordinates as these leaders are going to be empathetic. Moreover, with the increasing competition there is a greater need for creativity at the workplace. Leaders must be able to demonstrate this creativity along with getting their subordinates to portray this as well. These traits are not only ranked high in the study conducted by Ansari and Khadher but they also ranked high in studies conducted by Hernon, Powell, and Young (2002) this further validates the point made by Ansari and Khadher.
On the other hand, certain traditional leadership traits such as delegation of authority, envisioning future trends and developing plans and anticipating future trends are not included in the top twenty competencies of the study. This is a major weakness of the study as it limits the applicability to other professions and careers. Many leaders working in other professions make extensive use of these competencies but it is possible that Kuwaiti librarians are still not accustomed with the concept of delegation and future planning because of which they did not assign these traits as important. Apart from this the study also suggests that Kuwaiti librarians may be unaware of modern managerial practices of strategic planning which points towards a lack of training at the managerial level which has led to a misinterpretation of the study. If librarians are given appropriate training then it would broaden their horizon and help them understand those leadership traits and benefits of these traits which have currently gone by unnoticed. This would help the research to be valid and applicable to other professional areas and also provide better insight into leadership traits of librarians. Furthermore, the competency model lacks scientific examination of the competencies proposed as requirements of job performance. It has been argued by researchers that competency modeling lacks the efficiency and accuracy of job analysis. Therefore, to make the study more reliable Ansari and Khadher should consider combining the two approaches which could provide more reliable data.
Librarians typically work in a stable environment with very few unforeseen events taking place which would require them to have contingency plans; whereas, leaders operating in other industries need to be more proactive and prepare for unforeseen events. Hence, it is important to take into consideration that reactions would be based on the situation at hand and leadership roles would be constantly altered. Therefore, the decision maker in Kuwait needs to take into account that not all competencies may be applicable to different professions and careers. Cross referencing the highlighted competencies with similar studies conducted in other professional arenas would help to make this research more reliable and fruitful.
References
Ansari, H. a., & Khadher, O. a. (2011). Developing a Leadership Competency Model for Library and Information Professionals in Kuwait. Libri, 61, 239-246.
Leadership Competencies  . (n.d.). Leadership Competencies. Retrieved December 14, 2013, from http://www.shrm.org/Research/Articles/Articles/Pages/LeadershipCompetencies.aspx
