Robert Katz et al.
Sergio Caredda
Katz, R. L. (1974). Skills of an Effective Administrator. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/1974/09/skills-of-an-effective-administrator
Description:
The Skills Approach is a leader-centred perspective that focuses on the competencies necessary to become a leader. Rather than looking at characteristics that are innate and fixed, what is put in focus is one’s skills and the abilities can be learned and developed. The first author to illustrate this theory has been R. L. Katz. In a famous 1955 article appeared on Harvard Business Review (reprinted in 1974), he listed the skills needed to effectively “administer” an organization.
Effective leadership depends on the three basic administrative skills: technical(things), human(people), and conceptual(ideas). While all three skills are crucial components for leaders, the relative importance of each each skill varies based on management levels. As shown above, technical and human skills are more important at lower management levels, the three different skills are equally important for middle managers, and conceptual and human skills are most important at upper management levels.
A significant contribution to the Skills Theory has developed more recently, particularly by the contribution of Mumford and others (Mumford et al., 2000), as they revised a list of skills that can contribute to the development of Leadership. The authors identified a vast literature and concentrated on two broad competencies: Problem-Solving and Social Judgement.
Skills Model of Leadership, adapted from Mumford et ak., 2000. Source: (Northouse, 2019)
Many models present in the Competency Based Leadership Cluster derive from these original ideas.
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