Management development practices and management competencies among managers in commercial banks in Kenya

Abstract

In today's challenging and unsettling business environment, competent managers are needed more than ever at all levels in every organization. People want to work for organizations that are filled with competent and trustworthy leaders - and work as team members. Real leadership can arise from unexpected places. The objective of this study was to establish the relationship between the Management development Practices and Managerial competencies in the Commercial Banks in Kenya.

A survey design was used in this study. The population of this study comprised all the 43 licensed commercial banks in Kenya. The study required collection of primary data. This was done using questionnaires. The data collected was edited for accuracy, uniformity, consistency and completeness and arranged to enable coding and tabulation before keying them in for analysis. Descriptive statistics comprising the mean, standard deviation, absolute frequencies and relative frequencies (percentages) were used to analyze the data.

The study concludes that there is a relationship between the management development Practices and managerial competencies in the Commercial Banks in Kenya. The study concludes that banks that had managers with virtuous management development practices particularly at executive level, provided a key source of sustainable competitive advantage to the institution. In addition, managers competencies was associated with effective performance and their ability to respond to critical incidents.

The study recommends that for an effective relationship between the management development Practices and managerial competencies in the Commercial Banks in Kenya, managers ought to have competent management development skills. Management development provides an opportunity to Identify and develop people with respect to competencies required for job performance. In addition, managers in the organizations ought to have high competency. The advantage afforded by the more successful employee's competencies can usually be replicated throughout a business.