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The main point of these analyses is to find out the skills and capabilities engineers should have in order to act successfully in the field of innovation.

The main approach is the identification of the profiles which are expected by the enterprises and companies from their engineers. The actual literature and scientific studies are screened in order to identify evidences for the characteristics of innovative engineers.

This study shows that professional, methodological, social, and personal competencies are important factors for innovation engineers in order to be successful in their professional life.

The final result of this analysis can be used as a guideline for universities and institutes of higher education to enrich their study courses in engineering with important elements of innovation engineering in order to fill the gap between the requested profiles of innovation engineers companies need and the profiles of university graduates.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the relationship between volunteer leadership competencies and stewardship action-taking experiences among Master Gardener (MG) and Master Watershed (MW) volunteers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected data from 1196 Penn State Extension MG and MW respondents. The mean summative score for the volunteer stewardship action-taking experience was 2.32 (SD = .79), and volunteer leadership competencies was 3.45 (SD = .60). The results of this study showed a significant moderate association between volunteer stewardship action-taking experiences and volunteer leader competencies (r = .34, p ≤ .001). Volunteer leadership competencies can explain approximately 11 % of the variation in volunteer stewardship action-taking experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new knowledge that our research brings can significantly contribute to the practice in leadership teaching and learning of Extension organizations’ volunteers. Future leadership trainings on the enhancement of the MG and MW volunteer leaders’ stewardship action-taking capacity can help contribute to the greater good in their communities in a more confident and efficient manner. Further research should focus on identifying other factors that can affect MG and MW stewardship action-taking experiences, including the impact of the demographics and motivation.

The purpose of this paper is to report data empirically linking competencies of individual leaders to business profitability and demonstrate that competencies are cross‐culturally valid.

Participants in the initial competency study were 15 business unit managers identified as high performing. Data were collected using Critical Incident Interviews that were systematically coded using thematic analysis to identify the presence of competencies. Competencies identified were then adapted into a behaviourally‐based questionnaire used in a follow‐up validation study. Participants in the validation study (n=70) were managers from North America and two European countries who were participants in a management development program. Boss ratings of competencies were then correlated with business unit profitability.

A set of competencies was identified as predictive of unit profit growth in managers in both North America and the European Union. Subsequent regression analysis showed that 17 per cent of the variance in business unit profitability could be accounted for by four competencies, specifically team leadership, developing others, achievement orientation, and impact and influence. Cross‐cultural validity was demonstrated to the degree that similar competencies predicted performance in both North America and the European Union as evidenced by the correlation between boss rating of subordinate competencies and profit growth.

The initial study using Critical Incident Interviews was conducted with a small sample size and did not employ a comparison group of average performers.

Initial competency research using empirical methods should be used to help focus competency models used for selection, feedback, training, and performance management.

The study is one of the few published studies that link competencies to business unit profitability. The paper demonstrates that competencies have a degree of cross‐cultural validity.

The process of global leadership development remains a challenging theoretical problem in the field of global leadership. To help address this issue, we develop a theoretically grounded process model of global leadership competency development that addresses the dynamics involved in the adoption and enhancement of intercultural competencies associated with global leadership. We do this by integrating theoretical constructs associated with competency development from the adult learning and development, cognitive-behavior therapy, global leadership development, leadership development, organizational development, and social learning theory literatures. The resulting model includes testable propositions – a critical feature that existing global leadership development process models currently lack. Our chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the model for future research and practice.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the linkages between negative life events (e.g., exposure to community violence and personal challenges) and antisocial behaviors. The participants are 170 African American male adolescents, who resided in urban communities in the United States. The results supported the hypothesis that exposure to community violence mediates the relation between African American male youth’s personal challenges and antisocial behaviors. Thus, the personal challenges that many African American males face may have direct linkages to antisocial behaviors. But, without examining the context in which African American adolescent males grow up, an incomplete story is chronicled.

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, to add to the empirical literature related to the validity and practical utility of emotional, social, and cognitive competencies in the workplace. Second, using data from two different European samples, to demonstrate the methods for validating competency models for applied use. Third, to discuss the impact of role demands and culture on the manifestation of competencies most predictive of performance.

The basic design used in both studies is to compare data from outstanding performers against data from typical or average performers in order to determine competencies which predict performance. The data presented here are based on operant assessment of competencies using critical incident interviews, which are then systematically coded using thematic analysis to yield behavioural evidence of specific competencies.

The results indicate that, while some competencies such as achievement orientation and team leadership are consistently linked to performance in both studies, the correlation of other specific competencies with performance varies among the samples. Moreover, the relative importance of specific competencies in terms of the amount of variance in performance explained also varies across the two samples.

The criterion measures available, i.e. client ratings of performance, did not provide the continuous objective performance data that are generally considered preferable so as to provide a clearer picture of the value added by superior performance. A further limitation was that there was no opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the various initiatives which were put in place to improve managers' competencies after their initial assessment.

This is one of the few articles that explore the validity of competencies within the European Union across different organizations using a common competency framework and methodology. Both studies were originally initiated as applied consulting projects and the findings of the research applied to human resource practices within each organization. Although competencies are ubiquitous in today's global workplace, the number of published studies with data to support the validity of competency‐modelling techniques has been limited. The current research adds to the growing literature in this area and adds to one's confidence in the ability of emotional, social and cognitive competencies to predict performance in a variety of settings and cultures.

The development of mass-customization capability (MCC) is crucial for a growing number of manufacturing firms nowadays and presents great challenges, especially in the area of operations management. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into which individual competencies (ICs) of an operations manager (OM) are important to the MCC of the manufacturing organization the OM works for.

A multiple-case study was designed, involving eight machinery manufacturers in one European country, to collect data on their MCC and on the ICs of their OMs. Empirical case data were triangulated with analytical conceptual arguments grounded in the existing literature.

The study provides empirical evidence of, and logical explanations for, the fact that OMs working in high-MCC manufacturing organizations use the ICs of negotiation, information seeking, efficiency orientation, analytical thinking and pattern recognition significantly more often than OMs employed by low-MCC organizations.

Future research could replicate this study in other industries and countries, as well as for other managerial roles.

The study provides indications for OM selection and training in companies that are pursuing a mass-customization strategy.

While the literature on technological and organization-level enablers of MCC has grown considerably, the understanding of its individual-level enablers is still limited and concerns mostly the workforce. This is the first study that relies not on practitioners’ opinions, but on data regarding manufacturers’ MCC and their managers’ ICs to shed light on which managerial competencies are important to a manufacturer’s MCC.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a set of competencies that characterizes effective public middle managers.

A total of 20 middle managers from several public agencies were interviewed in person using the behavioral event interview technique. In all, 80 stories were deductively coded based on the existing National Civil Service Agency’s managerial competency dictionary and inductively examined through a thematic analysis to discover new themes.

This study’s findings suggest that communication, organizing, information seeking, analytical thinking and planning competencies are common competencies, but essential for effective public middle managers. Conversely, achievement orientation, leadership, directiveness, persuasiveness and innovation are competencies that characterize effective public middle managers and distinguish them from average performers. In addition, some other new competencies inductively obtained using a thematic analysis are also important for effective public managers: adherence to laws and regulations, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and technical competencies (technology management, human resource management and financial management).

The research was undertaken using 20 samples divided into superior and average performers; thus, it is limited to developing competency levels to new competencies.

This study identifies the competencies necessary for effective middle managers within the public sector context. Conducting behavioral event interviews with two distinct groups provides empirically unique behavioral evidence of competencies that characterize effective public middle managers and enables to discover new competencies.

While the term “competency” is widely used, and widely criticized, we use it here, in agreement with Spencer and Spencer (1993) as an underlying characteristic of an individual (motive, trait, self-concept, knowledge, skill) that is causally related to superior performance in a job or situation. As Fig. 1 shows, we believe there are both universal leadership competencies and context-specific competencies that contribute to effective global leadership. David Campbell's chapter in this volume argues for nine universal competencies of global leadership, all nine needing to be present for an organization to be sustainable and an international leader to be effective. This fits with other experts who believe in universal competences. Morgan McCall and George Hollenbeck (2002) could not resist the urge to identify seven common competencies among the international executives in their research. For another example, Goldsmith, Greenberg, Robertson, and Hu-Chan (2003) concluded that there are 14 core competencies for future global leadership.