Managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness in corporate ...

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Managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness in corporate organizations in Nigeria

858

N. Gladson Nwokah

Received 10 September 2006 Revised 25 April 2007 Accepted 30 May 2007

Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management Sciences, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and

Augustine I. Ahiauzu Department of Management, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, and International Center for Management Research and Training (CIMRAT), Port Harcourt, Nigeria Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of managerial competencies on the marketing effectiveness of the organization. While many empirical works have centered on marketing effectiveness, the generalizability of its relationship to managerial competencies in the Nigerian context has been under-researched. Design/methodology/approach – A 27-item survey questionnaire was developed and 84 corporate organizations in Nigeria were selected from the 2005 edition of the Nigerian stock exchange gazette as a sample of this study. A hand-delivered survey was conducted from key informants in the organizations. Returned instruments were analyzed using non-parametric correlation through the use of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 10. Findings – The results of the study reported in this paper validated the earlier instruments and find a strong association between managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness of corporate organizations in the Nigerian context. The main finding of this study is that managerial competencies lead to marketing effectiveness in corporate organizations in Nigeria. Research limitations/implications – The implications of the results of this study are clear for scholars and managers. For managers this paper has implications on the investigation of the link between managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness of corporate organizations in Nigeria. In the first place, this paper provides a direct test of the applicability of a western paradigm to the Nigerian economic system, which is different from the other culture. Originality/value – This paper significantly refines the body of knowledge concerning the impact of managerial competency on marketing effectiveness in the Nigerian context. This paper will no doubt contribute to the body of existing literature on managerial competency and marketing effectiveness. Keywords Management skills, Marketing strategy, Management effectiveness, Nigeria Paper type Research paper

Journal of Management Development Vol. 27 No. 8, 2008 pp. 858-878 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0262-1711 DOI 10.1108/02621710810895677

Introduction Consequent on myriad changes, which have beclouded the operations of modern business organizations in recent times, including the fundamental and core changes in the nature of work and work organization, the dynamic nature of the competitive environment, and the need to ensure a convergence of stakeholders’ interest in the way the organizations are run, a need for new approaches in human resource management has arisen. One of these new and emerging themes is “competency”. The terms

“competence” and “competency” became increasingly fashionable in the late 1980s and in the 1990s to express what target of assessment and development initiatives should be, especially relevant to management (Cheng et al., 2003, p. 527). For a number of years, the term “competency” has been a catch phrase in organizational literature. Some treat competencies of the corporate as an entity, while others treat competencies of employees (Abraham et al., 2001, p. 842). When the competencies possessed by successful managers are discussed, the term “managerial competencies” is frequently used. Recognition that managers should have competence in their relevant functional area, particularly in relation to developing and improving their decisions and performance tasks has been well documented (Gilmore, 1998, p. 74). Given that management competencies are concerned with peoples’ behavior, identifying and developing the competencies of marketing managers in relation to their decision-making roles, activities and specific responsibilities will be of utmost importance in the quest for continually effective marketing performance. The focus of the competency concept is mainly to help organizations cope with the changing environment and the need to integrate an organization’s human resource strategy and its corporate strategy (Barber and Tietye, 2004, p. 597). Because of the dynamic nature of marketing as a result of changes in business environment particularly in less developed nations like Nigeria, the need to study managerial competencies and its associated relationship to marketing effectiveness appears imperative. That is our main area of interest in this paper. The next section of the paper examines the origin and development of the competency concept, the major fundamental elements and issues that embody the concept. The concept of competency In the early 1970s in the USA, there was a general belief among management scholars and practitioners, that it was possible to identify and isolate the work behavior very consistently exhibited by excellent performing managers and workers (Ahiauzu, 2006, p. 7). It was also believed that such identified behaviors could be transmitted throughout an organization’s workforce through well-planned and effectively administered training and coaching interventions. It is likely that these beliefs might have been prompted and energized by the results of McClelland’s (1971) study. His study strongly suggested that there were behavioral variables that successfully predicted job performance. He called these variables “competencies”. Within the same period, the American Management Association (AMA) sponsored a research with the main objective of finding out what made managers competent. It was intended that the results of the study would be used to design a program where managers could learn these competencies and become high performers on the job. Richard Boyatzis was appointed to head the research. In 1982, Boyatzis published his book entitled: The Competent Manager: A Model for Effective Performance, which was based on the results of the AMA-sponsored research. On the first page of his book, Boyatzis (1982) emphatically declared that: “it is the competence of managers that determines, in large part the return that organizations realize from their human capital, or human resources”. There does not seem to be any doubt that the conceptual formulations underlying Boyatzis study were influenced by the results of the earlier studies of McClelland, on related themes. Boyatzis (1982)

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therefore, adapting Klemp’s (1980) definition of “competence”, defined “competency” as: “an underlying characteristic of an individual which is causally related to effective or superior performance in a job”. According to the author, this could be a “motive, trait, and skill, aspect of one’s self-image or social role, or a body of knowledge which he or she uses”. Such an “underlying characteristic”, has been identified and elaborated upon by Spencer et al. (1990) as cited in Harley (1995, p. 28) to include: . . . motives, traits, self-concepts, attitudes or values, content knowledge or cognitive or behavioral skills – any individual characteristic that can be measured or counted reliably and that can be shown to differentiate significantly between superior and average performers or between effective and ineffective performers.

In his 1982 study, Boyatzis identified and grouped managerial competencies into two categories: (1) consummate competencies – which include efficiency orientation, productivity, concern with impact, diagnostic use of concepts, conceptualization, self-confidence, use of oral presentations, managing group process, use of socialized power, and perceptual objectivity; and (2) threshold competencies – which include logical thought, accurate self-assessment, positive regard, developing others, spontaneity, use of unilateral power, self-control, stamina and adaptability, and specialized knowledge. Because the Boyatzis’ approach or the “input” approach to management competency (Tate, 1995), was driven by the need to make organizations more effective through selecting, developing and rewarding the right people, it largely concentrated on identifying the behavioral characteristics of superior performers. But the alternative to the Boyatzis or US approach to competency is the British approach. The United Kingdom Government Employment Department has defined “competence” as focusing mainly on the outcomes expected from a job when it is adequately performed (Ahiauzu, 2006). This approach is captured very succinctly by Day’s (1989) definition of competence as “the ability to put skills and knowledge into action”. The British approach therefore, suggests not only skills and knowledge, but also the range of qualities of personal effectiveness required to get a job done very efficiently (Ashworth and Sexton, 1990). Adopting this approach, Barber and Tietye (2004, p. 96) have defined competency as: the specification of knowledge and skill, and the application of that knowledge and skill to the standard of performance required.

In this approach, the quality and standard of performance is used to define competence. By setting standards, a base level of performance is defined that becomes a benchmark of quality for individual to achieve (Woodburn, 2004). It would appear that North American scholars are inclined to using the term “competency”, whereas the British scholars prefer the term “competence”. To avoid the academic definitional confusion likely to arise from this use of different terms, we subscribe to Woodruffe’s (1993) suggestion that “competence” should be used to refer to areas of work in which the person is competent, while “competency” should be used to refer to the dimensions of behavior underlying the competent performance.

Nevertheless, our preferred term for the purposes of this paper is “competency”. We accept Armstrong’s (2000) view that “competence” or “competency” is all about: what you need to know; what you need to do; and how you need to do it. What should be noted therefore, is that there are two main meanings of the term “competency”. One refers to the outputs, results or competency performance per se, while the other refers to the inputs or underlying behavioral attributes required of a person, that will enable him or her achieve competent performance. In addition to the fundamental “input” and “output” approaches discussed above which are based on the works of North American and British scholars, a survey of definitions of competency management in extant international literature (Van Sluijs and Kluytmans, 1996; Nordhaug and Gronhaug, 1994; Vereecken, 2000; Ban, 1998), suggests that the meaning of competencies and competency management may depend on such factors as: . “scope” – that is whether at individual or organizational levels; . “aim” – as to whether one is considering improvement of performance, or gaining market power; . “human resource management” – that is having to do with the design of selection instruments, development; and . “structure of the human resource organization” – as to whether it should be centralized or decentralized. Reasoning along the lines of these factors, it could be seen that both the “input” and the “output” approaches have always focused on the individual manager or worker characteristics. In their critical analysis of the UK and US approaches to competences, Cheng et al. (2003) have pointed out that the UK’s approach to the competence perspective is chiefly concerned with providing accreditation of experience (i.e. has an individual completed a defined activity?) and is not able to evaluate expertise (i.e. how did the individual complete a defined activity?). Citing King (1992) they argue that an effective demonstration of a managerial skill does not necessarily demonstrate that the manager has the necessary expertise to judge when and if the use of that competence is appropriate in another situation. Citing Burgouyne (1993) they believe that the UK perspective is highly centralized in determining the push for skill in job performance rather than understanding and fixing the output standards that regulate education and training. Cheng et al. (2003, p. 528) believe that one of the problems raised by the UK approach is the word “competence” itself. Some one who is described as “competent” according to them can be thought to be merely “getting by” thereby creating the potential for delusions of adequacy. They argue that the word has to be qualified with affixes and adjectives such as “incompetent”, “barely competent” or “highly competent”. In their analysis of the US approach to competency, Cheng et al. (2003) believe that the US approach does not suffer from the problems induced by UK’s adherence to micro competences. They believe that the most common criticism is that it cannot be assured in all organizations that behaviors exhibited by today’s superior performance will be equally effective in the future. Citing Briscoe and Hall (1999), the authors suggest that those planning for management’s needs and development should focus on


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the future and it is vital that a list of competences be flexible and able to reflect changes in the organization’s future direction. The US model focuses on individual managers’ characteristics and their links to the context of performance (Cheng et al., 2003). Stuart and Lindsay (1997) point out that the US approach fails to adequately define managerial competences in terms of the organization, its culture, its market place and its business environment. In order to find a way forward from these confusions of UK and US approaches Cheng et al. (2003, p. 534) suggested the combination of both US and UK models. Their argument is that the most appropriate way forward of examining the UK and US models would be to combine elements of both models. Adopting Elkin (1990) the authors believe that human resource management practitioners and professions face a dilemma. On the one hand, the underlying macro-competencies approach seems removed from the everyday reality of most jobs and the need to demonstrate immediate benefits from training and development. However, adopting a competence (micro-competencies) approach has to face the task of training in all of the hundreds of identified job elements. The UK model is mainly focused on performance requirements of job positions, rather than the jobholders themselves and the extent of the resulting job analysis could lead organizations to training paralysis. Those “competences” are expressed in terms of job purpose and the standards of performance expected to be achieved. Whereas the US model of competencies is input oriented, the UK model of competences is focused on outputs (where the underlying characteristics of the employee are assumed to exist if the output standards are met). Each model clearly has its own strengths, but these should not be regarded as being mutually exclusive. Also, as Stuart and Lindsay (1997) suggest, the two models are complementary, each model is incomplete and therefore a comprehensive framework for understanding and working with managerial competence is needed. Elkin (1990) suggests that, in general, the further up the occupational hierarchy in an organization one goes, the more important the underlying macro-competencies (USA approach) and the less important the micro-competencies (UK approach). Different competencies will be important during the different phases of someone’s time in a job. Elkin (1990, p. 24) developed a model that articulated the changing focus of competence development as an individual gains experience in a job and progresses to another job role. Elkin proposes that “Once the core of micro-competencies has been achieved and maintained, individuals may aspire to further growth”. This is achieved by the person acquiring additional macro-competencies. Any model that integrates the UK and US approaches has a useful role in the turbulent competitive marketplace and both approaches have a contribution to make to the future development of human resource management activities (Cheng et al., 2003). However, they do need to be used carefully to focus on key competence/competencies (both specific job tasks and underlying characteristics. The identification of, and focus on, key competencies may need to take into account the type and level of job, the individual’s tenure of jobs, the current needs of the organization and needs of the individual. Let us now briefly examine the construct of marketing effectiveness. The concept of marketing effectiveness The Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia (Wikipedia, 2006) defines marketing effectiveness as the function of improving how marketers go to market with the goal of optimizing their

marketing spend to achieve even better results for both the short- and long-term objectives. There are four basic dimensions of marketing effectiveness (Nwokah, 2006, p. 25). These are: (1) Corporate. Each company operates within certain bounds. These are determined by their size, their budget and their ability to make organizational change. Within these bounds marketers operate along the five factors described later in this paper. (2) Competitive. Each company in a category operates within a similar framework as described later in this paper. In an ideal world, marketers would have perfect information on how they act as well as how their competitors act. In reality, in many categories have reasonably good information through sources. In many industries, competitive marketing information is hard to come by. (3) Customers. Understanding and taking advantage of how customers make purchasing decisions can help marketers improve their marketing effectiveness. Groups of consumers act in similar ways leading to the need to segment them. Based on these segments, they make choices based on how they value the attributes of a product and the brand, in return for price paid for the product. Consumers build brand value through information. Information is received through many sources, such as, advertising, word-of-mouth and in the (distribution) channel often characterized with the purchase funnel. (4) Exogenous factors. There are many factors outside of our immediate control that can impact the effectiveness of our marketing activities. These can include the weather, interest rates, government regulations and many others. Understanding the impact these factors can have on our consumers can help us to design programs that can take advantage of these factors or mitigate the risk of these factors if they take place in the middle or our marketing campaigns. There are five factors driving the level of marketing effectiveness that marketers can achieve (Nwokah, 2006, p. 26): (1) Marketing strategy. Improving marketing effectiveness can be achieved by employing a superior marketing strategy. By positioning the product or brand correctly, the product/brand will be more successful in the market than competitors’ products/brands. Even with the best strategy, marketers must execute their programs properly to achieve extraordinary results. (2) Marketing creative. Even without a change in strategy, better creative can improve results. The introduction of new creative concept in an organization can increase growth rate. (3) Marketing execution. By improving how marketers go to market, they can achieve significantly greater results without changing their strategy or their creative execution. At the marketing mix level, marketers can improve their execution by making small changes in any or all of the 4 Ps (product, price, place and promotion) without making changes to the strategic position or the creative execution marketers can improve their effectiveness and deliver increased revenue. At the program level marketers can improve their effectiveness by managing and executing each of their marketing campaigns better. Whether it is improving direct mail through a better call-to-action or


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whether its editing a web site content to improve its organic search results, marketers can improve their marketing effectiveness for each type of program. (4) Marketing infrastructure. Improving the business of marketing can lead to significant gains for the company. Management of agencies, budgeting, motivation and coordination of marketing activities can lead to improved competitiveness and improved results. (5) Exogenous factors. Generally, out of the control of marketers, external or exogenous factors also influence how marketers can improve their results. Taking advantage of seasonality, interests or the regulatory environment can help marketers improve their marketing effectiveness. The concept of marketing effectiveness has been extensively discussed because of its strong association with many valuable organizational outcomes such as stable long-term growth, enhanced customer satisfaction, a competitive advantage and a strong marketing orientation (Webster, 1995, p. 6). Although, respective researches have conducted empirical investigations involving the concept of marketing effectiveness, a few conceptual measures of the construct exist. Appiah-Adu et al. (2001, p. 20) citing Kotler (1977, 1997) operationalized marketing effectiveness as an amalgam of five components, notably: customer philosophy, integrated marketing organization, adequate marketing information, strategic orientation, and operational efficiency. Appiah-Adu et al. (2001) further argued that, first it is imperative to identify the importance of studying the market, recognizing the numerous opportunities, selecting the most appropriate segments of the market to operate in and endeavoring to offer superior value to meet the selected customer’s needs and wants. The firm, they argue must be suitably staffed to enable it to perform marketing analysis, planning and implementation. Sequentially, marketing effectiveness calls for management to have sufficient information for the purpose of planning and effective resource allocation to varying markets, products and territories. Marketing effectiveness is also contingent upon the adeptness of managers to deliver profitable strategies from its philosophy, organization and information resources. Ultimately, marketing effectiveness depends upon managerial competencies. Effective marketing calls for managers to have adequate information for planning and allocating resources properly to different markets, products, territories, and marketing tools, (Webster, 1995, p. 6) Marketing effectiveness depends also on whether management can design a profitable strategy, and this in itself is a management competence. Brooksbank and Taylor (2002, p. 456) note that marketing effectiveness is not synonymous with profitability. The premise is that levels of return on investment, sales and others depend on marketing effectiveness. Therefore our purpose in this paper as stated earlier is to examine the relationship between managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness. In doing this specific attention will be focused on the relationship between the two concepts of managerial competencies identified in the literature (consummate and threshold competencies) and the associated metrics for marketing effectiveness (consumer-philosophy, integrated marketing efforts, marketing information, strategic orientation and operational efficiency. Figure 1 illustrates the operational conceptual framework. This is proposed based on the review of the relevant literature of the two constructs. It is developed based on Boyatzis’s (1982) conceptualization of managerial competencies and Kotler’s (1977, 1997)


Figure 1. Operational conceptual framework

conceptualization of marketing effectiveness. Boyatzis (1982) has conceptualized and grouped managerial competencies into two: consummate and threshold. Kotler (1997) has also conceptualized and grouped marketing effectiveness into five constructs: consumer-philosophy, integrated marketing efforts, marketing information, strategic orientation and operational efficiency. The hypothesized relationship between Boyatzis’ (1982) two managerial competency groups and Kotler’s (1977, 1997) five marketing effectiveness constructs are shown in Figure 1. Hypothesis Based on the foregoing and the operational conceptual framework, we hypothesized thus: HA1.

Consummate competencies influence customer-philosophy.

HA2.

Consummate competencies influence integrated marketing efforts.

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HA3.

Consummate competencies influence marketing information.

HA4.

Consummate competencies influence strategic orientation.

HA5.

Consummate competencies influence operational efficiency.

HA6.

Threshold competencies influence customer-philosophy.

HA7.

Threshold competencies influence integrated marketing efforts.

HA8.

Threshold competencies influence marketing information.

HA9.

Threshold competences influence strategic orientation.

HA10. Threshold competencies influence operational efficiency The next section describes the empirical study, which includes the methods of data collection and operationalization of variables. The section shows that data were collected from primary and secondary sources. Primary data were collected through the use of questionnaire from key informants. The results of the analysis of data are also presented. The empirical study Research methodology Two extreme points of view can be identified in the research methodology namely: quantitative and qualitative (Burell and Morgan, 1978). Those who take the first approach argue that there is a similarity between social and natural phenomena and similar methods can be used to study both phenomena. They favor the positivistic quantitative methodology in social science research. Burell and Morgan (1978, p. 7) argue that positivist epistemology is in essence based on the traditional approaches which dominate the natural sciences. They argue that positivists may differ in terms of detailed approach. Some would claim, for example, that hypothesized regularities can be verified by an adequate experimental research program. Others would maintain that hypotheses can only be falsified and never demonstrated to be true. Burell and Morgan concluded that both verificationists and fasificationists would accept that the growth of knowledge is essentially a cumulative process in which new insights are added to the existing stock of knowledge and false hypothesis eliminated. Whitley (1996) indicated that this quantitative research approach is characterized by operational definitions, objectivity, hypothesis testing, causality and reliability. Those who take the second approach believe that social and natural phenomena are different. According to them, a positivistic quantitative approach is inappropriate for studying social phenomena (Phenomenology). Burell and Morgan (1978, p. 241), Schurtz (1967) and Sartre (1976) have argued that phenomenology is never an investigation of external or internal facts. On the contrary, it silences experience provisionally, leaves the question of objective reality or of real content aside in order to turn its attention solely and simply on the reality in consciousness, in the objects insofar as they are intended by and in consciousness. Whitley (1996) views this world from the actives review point that suggests close involvement between the researcher and respondent. They favor a humanistic, subjective or qualitative approach. Because of the nature of this study, we adopted mainly the quantitative paradigm.

Sample selection A sample frame was compiled from the 2005 edition of Nigerian Stock Exchange Gazette. A total of 84 corporate organizations were systematically selected from the 360 corporate organizations listed in the Stock Exchange. The choice of the sample is rationalized as follows. Those listed organizations are indicative of the most progressive organizations in Nigeria, and have their headquarters in Lagos. The choice of Nigerian Stock Exchange is based on the fact that companies listed therein are publicly quoted companies with re-challenging responsibility and performance to their corporate stakeholders, including shareholders and customers. To obtain reliable information for this study, the key informant approach was used. Therefore, two key informants in each of the corporate organizations among the sample size constituted the respondents. Construction of research instruments The research instruments were designed using measures from the extant literature. Two sets of instruments were designed to test the two constructs. A 12-item five-point Likert scale anchored by “1” strongly disagree to “5” strongly agree was developed to measure managerial competencies. Six items were constructed to measure consummate competency and six items were also constructed to measure threshold competencies. To measure marketing effectiveness, the Kotler (1997) scale was used. A 23-item questionnaire had earlier been proposed by Kotler and used by Appiah-Adu et al. (2001) to operationalize marketing effectiveness. Eight items were eliminated from the questionnaire during the factor analysis as will be discussed later in this paper. However a 15-item questionnaire was finally used to operationalise marketing effectiveness. Three items deal with each of the elements of marketing effectiveness. To be sure that key informants answer the questions, respondents were asked to state their status in the organization. Validity of research instrument and measurement scales The validity of an instrument refers to the extent to which it measures what it was intended to measure. The validity of the scales utilized in this study was assessed for content and construct (convergent) validity. A measure can be said to possess content validity if there is general agreement among the subject and researchers that constituent items cover all aspects of the variables being measured (Nwokah and Maclayton, 2006). Content validity was enhanced via the conventional process for measure development. The managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness scales were tested for construct (convergent) validity. A measure can be said to have construct validity if it measures the theoretical construct or trait that it was designed to measure. The correlation among the component of managerial competencies and the correlation among the components of the marketing effectiveness may provide evidence of convergent validity to the extent that they are high, that is they are converging on a common underlying construct. Data collection and analysis A survey questionnaire was developed for this study to measure the study constructs. Given the nature of this study as regards data generation requirements, it was considered that responses should be elicited from sources knowledgeable in the organization’s human resources and marketing activities so as to limit measurement error (Bowman and Ambrosini, 1997). In this regard, the head of human resources and


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head of marketing in each sample organization were treated as the key informants. A personal/hand delivery survey with the help of three research assistants was used to administer research instrument following the principles of the total design method with pre-notification correspondence. With the key informants approach data were collected from a human resources manager on issues relating to managerial competencies, and a marketing manager on issues relating to marketing effectiveness. Therefore two questionnaires were distributed to a company making a total of 168 copies of questionnaire distributed. It was assumed that such managers have the best vantage point to provide the most accurate responses. Respondents were assured anonymity of their responses and also were promised a copy of the research as an incentive for responding to the research instrument. A total of 158 copies of the questionnaire were returned, out of which 16 were not useful on the basis that the respondents declared no wish to take part in the study for various reasons. To analyze our data, SPSS for windows version 10.0 was used. A total of 142 copies of useable questionnaire were returned and used in the study. Raw data were put into the spreadsheet of the SPSS and were later transformed to obtain the sum of the values of managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness. A multiple regression was carried out to obtain our r 2 value, standard deviation and the sum of managerial competencies was regressed to the sum the square of marketing effectiveness to the r 2 values. The analysis, however, reveals that there is a relationship between managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness (as shown in Table I). Research results and findings Scale construction Managerial competencies. The descriptive findings of the managerial competences are reported in Table II. It can be observed that the mean scores range from 3.12 to 3.81 with a reasonable dispersion about this measure of central tendency. It was found that the Cronbach alpha coefficient for consummate competencies is 0.7322 and a threshold

Managerial competence Consummate competencies

Threshold competencies Table I. Multiple regressions of managerial competency and marketing effectiveness

Marketing effectiveness Customer philosophy Integration and control of the major marketing functions Gathering adequate marketing information Existence of strategic orientation Operational efficiency Customer philosophy Integration and control of the major marketing functions Gathering adequate marketing information Existence of strategic orientation Operational efficiency

Source: SPSS 10.0 output

Spearman correlation

Significance

0.623 0.655

0.904 0.904

0.654

0.771

0.566 0.688 0.661 0.612

0.777 0.825 0.908 0.908

0.625

0.586

0.612 0.622

0.862 0.820

Multiple R 2 values 0.691

0.688

S/no.

Managerial competence

A

Consummate competencies Coefficient alpha for scale 0.7322 Work practices are governed by an orientation towards efficiency Management lays emphasis on increased staff productivity Workers’ actions are judged by the level of impact such actions have on the system Workers are encouraged to develop self-confidence in the performance of their assignments Management constantly seeks to develop workers’ oral presentation abilities Workers are encouraged to use social skills in the performance of their jobs Threshold competencies Coefficient alpha for scale 0.7212 Organizational members are systematic in their work processes Organizational members express positive regard towards clients and customers There is distinct succession planning program in the organization Workers are trained to give spontaneous response to urgent and unanticipated work needs Organizational member easily adapt to changing work situations Organizational members apply specialized knowledge in handling complex work situations

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. B 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Mean

St dev.

Item-total scale correlation

3.12

1.03

0.4615

3.45

1.11

0.4868

3.66

1.21

0.4833

3.00

0.98

0.4545

3.50

0.99

0.4852

3.80

1.05

0.5004

3.11

0.97

0.4562

3.81

1.06

0.5005

3.52

0.97

0.4925

3.55

0.99

0.4771

3.62

0.93

0.4887

3.70

0.96

0.4781

Source: SPSS output version 10.0

competency is 0.7212. Also item total scale correlation analyses calculated all variables to be positive and highly statistically significant in their relationship with managerial competencies index. Exploratory factor analysis A preliminary EFA was performed in items from the marketing effectiveness scale to ensure that the dimensions intended to reflect each of the different effectiveness contexts loaded on common factors. A principal factor method with a varimax rotation was applied to the scale. Based on eigen values greater than one, an evaluation of the scree plot, and minimum factor loadings of 0.6, the analysis indicated a five-factor solution for marketing effectiveness scale (Moore and Fairhurst, 2003, p. 392). Five cross-loaded items were eliminated from the full 23-items scale. This preliminary factor model was subsequently used in the confirmatory factor analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to evaluate measurement of the exogenous variables (i.e. marketing effectiveness). During the confirmatory factor


Table II. Managerial competencies measures: scale statistics

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modeling process several iterations were performed. Three items were eliminated from the scale, due to excessive inter-correlation between factors and kurtosis. The final confirmatory model indicated very good fit with a non-significant chi-square of 40.278 (p , 0:30, 36 df). Indices of both absolute and relative fit also presented support for the measurement model (CP ¼ 0:7842, IM ¼ 0:7564, MI ¼ 0:7252, SO ¼ 0:7312, OE ¼ 0:7223). The root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) associated with the confirmatory model produced an acceptable value of 0.03, well below the maximum acceptable value of 0.07 (Byrne, 2001). The scales used to capture dimensions of organization’s marketing effectiveness are displayed in Table III. It indicates that there are five factors to measure marketing effectiveness. Principal components analysis was used to assess the underlying relationship of each dimension within marketing effectiveness. Table III illustrates that in all cases; a single factor was extracted, suggesting the homogeneity within each factor. The dimension most emphasized by organizations in their overall marketing effectiveness appears to be customer philosophy. Reliability of research instrument and measurement scales After the survey had been completed the reliability of the scales was further examined by computing their coefficient alpha (Cronbach alpha). All scales were found to exceed a minimum threshold of 0.7 as used in previous studies (Seeman and O’Hara, 2006; Nwokah and Maclayton, 2006). Convergent validity is also suggested when the individual variable scores are combined into a single scale to give a Cronbach alpha of 0.7982. The actual results of the scale reliability analysis are reported in Tables IV and V. Regression analysis Managerial competency and customer philosophy Table I shows the multiple regression results of the managerial competency dimensions on perceived marketing effectiveness. The findings in Table I indicate a significant and positive association between consummate competencies and customer philosophy, a significant and positive association between threshold competencies and customer philosophy. These results provide strong support for HA1 and HA6. Managerial competency and integrated marketing efforts The findings in Table I indicate a significant and positive association between managerial competency and integrated marketing efforts, and a significant and positive association between threshold competencies and integrated marketing efforts. These results again provide support for HA2 and HA7. Managerial competency and information gathering The findings in Table I indicate a significant and positive association between consummate competencies and adequate information gathering; a significant and positive association between threshold competencies and adequate information gathering these results provide strong support for HA3 and HA8.

Scale items S/no.

Marketing effectiveness

A 1.

Customer philosophy Management recognizes the importance of designing the company to serve the needs and wants of chosen markets Management develops different offerings and marketing plans for different segments of the market Management takes a whole marketing system view (suppliers, channels, competitors, customer, and environment) in planning its business Integration and control of the major marketing functions There is high-level marketing integration and control of the major marketing functions Marketing management work well with management in research, manufacturing, purchase, physical distribution, and finance New product development process in our company is well organized Gathering adequate marketing information We regularly conduct marketing research to study customers, buying influences, channels and competitors Management usually have full knowledge of the sales potential and profitability of different market segments, customers territories, products, channels and other sizes Effort is expanded to measure the cost-effectiveness of different marketing expenditures Existence of strategic orientation Management develops an annual marketing plan and a careful long-range plan that is updated annually The quality of current marketing strategy is clear, innovative, data-based and well-reasoned Management formally identifies the most important contingencies and develops contingency plans Operational efficiency Marketing thinking at the top are communicated and implemented down the line Management is doing an effective job with the marketing resources? Management show a good capacity to react quickly and effectively to on-the-spot development

2. 3. B 4. 5. 6. C 7. 8.

9. D 10. 11. 12. E 13. 14. 15.

Factor loading

Item to total correlation

Crombach

Managerial competencies in Nigeria

0.7842 0.992

0.8498

0.994

0.8477

0.973

0.8039

871

0.7564 0.993

0.8498

0.993

0.8482

0.944

0.7982 0.7252

0.994

0.8498

0.948

0.8479

0.914

0.7982 0.7312

0.976

0.8498

0.972

0.8459

0.995

0.7907 0.7223

0.979

0.8498

0.993

0.8429

0.995

0.8152


Managerial competency and strategic orientation The findings in Table I indicate a significant and positive association between managerial competency and strategic orientation, and a significant and positive association between threshold competencies and strategic orientation. These results again provide support for HA4 and HA9.

Table III. Principal component analysis of marketing effectiveness

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Scale items S/no.

Managerial competence

A

Consummate competencies Coefficient alpha for scale 0.7322 Work practices are governed by an orientation towards efficiency Management lays emphasis on increased staff productivity Workers’ actions are judged by the level of impact such actions have on the system Workers are encouraged to develop self-confidence in the performance of their assignments Management constantly seeks to develop workers’ oral presentation abilities Workers are encouraged to use social skills in the performance of their jobs. Threshold competencies Coefficient alpha for scale 0.7212 Organizational members are systematic in their work processes Organizational members express positive regard towards clients and customers There is distinct succession planning program in the organization Workers are trained to give spontaneous response to urgent and unanticipated work needs Organizational member easily adapt to changing work situations Organizational members apply specialized knowledge in handling complex work situations

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. B 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Table IV. Scale reliability of managerial competence elements

12.


Scale alpha if item deleted

0.4187

0.7953

0.4854

0.7717

0.4740

0.7797

0.4545

0.7761

0.3965

0.77436

0.3965

0.77436

0.4126

0.7471

0.4121

0.7412

0.4552

0.7554

0.3900

0.7036

0.4690

0.7814

0.4935

0.7724


Managerial competency and operational efficiency The findings in Table I indicate a significant and positive association between managerial competency and operational efficiency, and a significant and positive association between threshold competencies and operational efficiency. These results again provide support for HA5 and HA10. In the following section of this paper, each of the findings is discussed and conclusions are made based on the findings Discussion Table I demonstrates clearly, that where managerial competency is deemed to be effectively taking place in this exploratory study, there is evidence to suggest that it is contributing to overall marketing effectiveness of corporate organizations. Moreover, the underpinning hypotheses, as stated earlier are clearly substantiated by the results of this study. In general, there is a strong relationship between the managerial competencies of a corporate organizations and its marketing effectiveness. Each managerial competencies component contributes to the marketing effectiveness

Scale items S/no.

Marketing effectiveness

A

Customer philosophy Coefficient alpha for scale 0.7842 Management recognizes the importance of designing the company to serve the needs and wants of chosen markets. Management develops different offerings and marketing plans for different segments of the market Management takes a whole marketing system view (suppliers, channels, competitors, customer, and environment) in planning its business. Integration and control of the major marketing functions Coefficient alpha for scale 0.7564 There is high-level marketing integration and control of the major marketing functions Marketing management work well with management in research, manufacturing, purchase, physical distribution, and finance New product development process in our company is well organized Gathering adequate marketing information Coefficient alpha for scale 0.7252 We regularly conduct marketing research to study customers, buying influences, channels and competitors Management usually have full knowledge of the sales potential and profitability of different market segments, customers territories, products, channels and other sizes Effort is expanded to measure the cost-effectiveness of different marketing expenditures Existence of strategic orientation Coefficient alpha for scale 0.7312 Management develops an annual marketing plan and a careful long-range plan that is updated annually The quality of current marketing strategy is clear, innovative, data-based and well-reasoned Management formally identifies the most important contingencies and develops contingency plans Operational efficiency Coefficient alpha for scale 0.7223 Marketing thinking at the top are communicated and implemented down the line Management is doing an effective job with the marketing resources? Management show a good capacity to react quickly and effectively to on-the-spot development

16. 17. 18. B 19. 20. 21. C 22. 23.

24. D 25. 26. 27. E 28. 29. 30.



Scale alpha if item deleted


0.4965

0.77536

0.4965

0.77436

0.4138

0.7468

0.4187

0.7953

0.4854

0.7717

0.4740

0.7797

0.3965

0.77436

0.3965

0.77436

0.4138

0.7468

0.4187

0.7953

0.4854

0.7717

0.4740

0.7797

0.3965

0.77436

0.3965

0.77436

0.4138

0.7468

Table V. Scale reliability of marketing effectiveness elements

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measure examined, although their relative influences vary according to the specific marketing effectiveness dimension. As can be seen from Table I, the most significant predictor of the managerial competency-based marketing effectiveness measure is information gathering. Furthermore, from the findings, there are implications regarding possible linkages amongst the five marketing effectiveness dimensions utilized. These tentative results lend credence to the propositions advanced by both scholars and practitioners that there is a relationship between managerial competencies and organizational performance (Ahiauzu, 2006). Customer philosophy is conceived as the key component underlying the relationship between one of the five effectiveness measures in this exploratory paper and this is obvious in the marketing effectiveness dimensions for all the results. In essence this paper reinforces the need for corporate organizations in Nigeria to emphasis the nurturing of a sound managerial competency if they are to benefit fully from increased marketing effectiveness rates. The implications of the results of this study are clear for scholars and managers. For managers this paper has implications on the investigation of the link between managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness of corporate organizations in Nigeria. In the first place, this paper provides a direct test of the applicability of a western paradigm to Nigerian economic system different from other culture. The marketing effectiveness rating scales (Kotler, 1977, 1997) were developed in the context of the Western cultural setting. Even though the continued internationalization of business operations has led to the conjecture that marketing theories and models might well be transportable across national and cultural borders (Sin et al., 2001), the direct application of these models to subjects from another culture without any validation might create a “category fallacy”. Moreover, an uncritical emulation and extrapolation of the experiences of USA marketing practices to a country with different cultures and economic environments might lead to inefficient and ineffective performances of organizations in those countries. Our findings increase our confidence in the cross-cultural applicability of Kotler’s scale and model in studying marketing effectiveness. Of course, this research must be replicated in other diverse market environments and overtime to increase the generalizability of the theory. For managers, this paper helps to assess the effectiveness of managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness in the transitional economy of Nigeria. The inconsistent growth of the Nigeria economy has caught worldwide attention in recent years. Understanding more about business strategies in Nigeria can be enormously helpful for foreign organizations interested in collaborating and/or competing against Nigerian enterprises. This paper represents the first of a series of studies investigating managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness in the context of corporate organizations in Nigeria. Given the theoretical and managerial significance of this research, it will not be the last study of its type. Conclusions and recommendations The survey results suggest that a valid instrument for measuring the managerial competencies and marketing effectiveness of corporate organizations in Nigeria can be developed. Managerial competency seems to consist of two dimensions and be measured using 12 questionnaire items. Consummate competency includes: work

practices which are governed by an orientation towards efficiency; management laying emphasis on increased staff productivity; judging workers’ actions by the level of impact such actions have on the system; management constantly seeking to develop workers’ oral presentation abilities; and workers being encouraged to use social skills in the performance of their jobs. Threshold competency includes: organizational members that are systematic in their work processes; organizational members expressing positive regard towards clients and customers; there is distinct succession planning program in the organization; workers are trained to give a spontaneous response to urgent and unanticipated work needs; organizational member easily adapt to changing work situations; and organizational members apply specialized knowledge in handling complex work situations. Marketing effectiveness appears to consist of five dimensions and be measured using 15 questionnaire items which demonstrate content, criterion and construct validity. A customer philosophy includes management recognition of the importance of designing the company to serve the needs and wants of chosen markets, management development of different offerings and marketing plans for different segments of the market and management decision to take a whole marketing system view (suppliers, channels, competitors, customer, environment) in planning its business. An integration and control of the major marketing functions include a high-level of marketing integration and control of the major marketing functions, marketing management working well with management in research, manufacturing, purchase, physical distribution, and finance; and Management usually having full knowledge of the sales potential and profitability of different market segments, customers territories, products, channels and other sizes. Adequate marketing information include regularly conducting marketing research to study customers, buying influences, channels and competitors; management having full knowledge of the sales potential and profitability of different market segments, customers territories, products, channels and other sizes; effort is expanded to measure the cost-effectiveness of different marketing expenditures. Strategic orientation consists of management developing an annual marketing plan and a careful long-range plan that is updated annually; the quality of current marketing strategy is clear, innovative, data-based and well-reasoned; management formally identifies the most important contingencies and develops contingency plans. Operational efficiency include marketing thinking at the top are communicated and implemented down the line; management doing an effective job with the marketing resources; management showing a good capacity to react quickly and effectively to on-the-spot development. This paper has sought to contribute further to knowledge concerning managerial competency and marketing effectiveness by applying the established marketing effectiveness model to corporate organizations in Nigeria under somewhat unique circumstances. However, in furtherance to the realization of set objectives, we make the following recommendations: . Nigerian government should ensure a stable economy and make economic policies that will enhance existing business development in the country. . Management must consistently motivate its sales team so that it will analyze the customer’s needs, seek to satisfy them, and try to adapt the products to these needs, react to competitors’ actions and responses.


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Management should also work in collaboration with other workers in the company and share information about customers and competitors with these workers. Research efforts in the future may wish to consider certain themes and issues that have emerged from this paper. In line with this, attention could be devoted to examine the relationship of these constructs in other cultural environments.

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Vereecken, H. (2000), “Functies en competenties complementair”, Human Resources Magazine, pp. 32-3. Webster, C. (1995), “Marketing culture and marketing effectiveness in service firms”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 6-21. Whitley, B. (1996), Principles of Research in Behavioral Science, Mayfield Publishing, Mountain View, CA. Wikipedia (2006), The Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia, available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ marketing. Woodburn, D. (2004), “Engaging marketing in performance measurement”, Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 63-72. Woodruffe, C. (1993), “What is meant by a competency”, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 29-36. Further reading Dess, G.G. and Robinson, R. (1984), “Measuring organizational performance in the absence of objective measures: the case of the privately-held firms and conglomerate business unit”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 265-73. Webster, F.E. Jr (1988), “The rediscovery of the marketing concept”, Business Horizons, Vol. 31, May-June, pp. 29-39. About the authors N. Gladson Nwokah holds a PhD in Marketing from Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He is at present working as a lecturer in the Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management Sciences, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria. He has published in Measuring Business Excellence and has had his papers accepted for publication in European Journal of Marketing, and Corporate Governance: the international journal of business in society. N.Gladson Nwokah is the corresponding author and can be contacted at [email protected] Augustine I. Ahiauzu is Professor of Organizational Behavior and Industrial Relations, Department of Management, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria and Chairman at the International Center for Management Research and Training (CIMRAT), Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

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