The term managers represents the employees of business entities or professional managing workers who, in the name of the business or corporation owners, perform managing functions which, from the viewpoint of the business, they consider successful. Satisfaction or dissatisfaction of their employees as well as clients and all involved groups of the business entity depends on their behavior (Schelle et al., 2010). The notion of personality is understood as a certain unity (integrity) of the whole set of biological, mental and social qualities of a person. The term structure of a personality is understood as a set of abilities, temperament, interests, needs, nature and will. An important role is played by the extent to which heredity or innateness, individual internal factors and the influence of social environment participate in their formation.
When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3456

Birknerova, Z.

Zbihlejovd, L.

Electronic Sumy State University Institutional Repository

 SOCIAL COMPETENCES AND LEADERSHIP IN THE WORK OF MANAGERS PaedDr. Z. Birknerova, PhD., Mgr. L. Zbihlejovd  Department of Managerial Psychology, Faculty of Management University of Presov in Presov, Slovakia  Introduction. The term managers represents the employees of business entities or professional managing workers who, in the name of the business or corporation owners, perform managing functions which, from the viewpoint of the business, they consider successful. Satisfaction or dissatisfaction of their employees as well as clients and all involved groups of the business entity depends on their behavior (Schelle et al., 2010). The notion of personality is understood as a certain unity (integrity) of the whole set of biological, mental and social qualities of a person. The term structure of a personality is understood as a set of abilities, temperament, interests, needs, nature and will. An important role is played by the extent to which heredity or innateness, individual internal factors and the influence of social environment participate in their formation (Frankovsky, Stefko, Baumgartner, 2006). According to Suler (2002), the most important aspects of the control work of a manager are motivation, decision-making and leadership. Motivation is one of the most fundamental factors affecting the successfulness of life of a working person. The meaning of leadership is not to make the life of own followers harder but, contrarily, to give them direction and lead them in the way that would minimalize the excessive effort. The personality of a leader orientates their co-workers towards success, tries not to hinder the team and provides them with the room for their own judgements and that represents a great contribution to the life of an organization (Owen, 2006). Managerial competences may be defined as a set of such skills which enable improvement of managerial practice. Effective socially intelligent managers have a wide range of skills which support and complete each other and thus enable flexibility in managing and coping with various situations (Mesarosova 2006). Besides social intelligence, delegating tasks, coaching, and others, the key social competences are empathy, communication, conflict-solving and motivation. Research. The objective of this report is to point out the significance of applying social competences in leading employees in  order for a contemporary manager to be successful. The research is aimed to confirm this fact by detecting the degree of applying these competences by managers of various corporations and institutions in Slovakia and it should also detect the differences in applying social competences between men and women as well as managers with various degrees of education. Hypotheses. H1: We assume statistically significant correlations between the individual researched social competences (motivation, empathy, conflict-solving, communication). H2: We assume statistically significant gender differences in applying social competences in favor of women. Research sample. The research file consisted of 101 managers from various corporations and institutions in Slovakia. The file included 37 men and 64 women, 14 of them were 20-30 years old, 32 were 31-40 years old, 35 were 41-50 years old, and 20 of the participants were 51 and more years old. The first managerial level included 60 managers, the middle level consisted of 38 managers, and the top level involved 3 managers. Research method. In order to collect information and apply social competences by managers we used a questionnaire by means of which we were detecting opinions of managers on applying these competences. The questionnaire consists of 60 questions with the answer scale of 1 to 6 (1 - absolutely agree, 6 - absolutely disagree), which are thematically divided into three parts according to the individual competences (motivation, empathy and communication). We evaluated the statistical data by means of the SPSS program for statistics. Results. In this research we were detecting the degree of applying social competences in managing subordinates by managers. We tried to point out the significance of applying these competences in leading employees as well as their mutual correlations and gender differences of managers. Verification of H1: We studied the correlational connection between the individual social competences which we consider important for successful leading of employees. For the purposes of comparison we used correlation analysis, namely Pearson's Correlation Coefficient (Table 1).   Table 1  - Correlation of social competences of managers Social competences Motivation Empathy Communication Motivation  718** .675** Empathy 718**  .743** Communication .675** .743**  ** Correlation is significant on the level of significance of 0.01 (1%) Table 1 shows that a particularly great correlation exists among all three social competences. This is significant on the level of significance of p < 0.01 (1%) in all researched competences. Motivation positively correlates with empathy (r = .718) and communication (r = .615). Empathy positively correlates with communication (r = .743), which means that the individual selected social competences are very closely related to each other. These calculations serve as an evidence for the correctness of Hypothesis 1, which was confirmed. Verification of H2: A comparison of the differences in applying the selected social competences between men and women was carried out by means of the T-test (Table 2). Statistically significant difference on the level of significance up to 0.05 (5%) occurred in six questions from the area of empathy and conflict-solving in favor of women. This confirmed Hypothesis 2. Women are more sympathetic, they positively affect the feelings of others, are better in detecting the mood from non-verbal feelings, do not ignore the feelings of subordinates, in conflicts they search for more solutions to the problem, and they believe that conflicts are part of life and their solving makes us move forward. In perception of conflicts which take our lives to another level, the biggest difference in the average answers was detected among women, which means women take a more positive approach in solving conflicts. The biggest average value in the answers of women (5.42) and men (4.95) was equal in their ability to feel empathy for the subordinates, and the lowest value of women (4.63) and men (4.22) was detected again equally in the ability to positively affect their subordinates. On the basis of these results it can be stated that although all managers try to  sympathize with their subordinates, they are unable to positively influence their feelings.  Conclusion. The main objective of our research was to detect, study and evaluate the significance and extent of applying social competences by managers. In the first hypothesis, we assumed statistical correlations between the individual studied social competences and it was confirmed with a high correlational connection. In the second hypothesis we assumed significant statistical gender differences in applying social competences in favor of women, which was also confirmed, particularly in empathy and Table 2 - Significant statistical differences in applying social competences according to gender ____________________________________________  Question Gender N Mean Standard deviation Test criterion Sig. (2- tailed) 23. I have compassion for others. male 37 4.95 .848 -2.973 .004 female 64 5.42 .730 24. I positively influence the feelings of others. male 37 4.22 .672 -2.619 .010 female 64 4.63 .882 26. I can sense a mood from non-verbal feelings. male 37 4.43 1.015 -1.824 .041 female 64 4.81 1.006 36. I do not ignore the feelings of subordinates. male 37 4.43 1.042 -1.797 .045 female 64 4.80 .946 56. In conflict I search for more solutions. male 37 4.81 .811 -2.284 .025 female 64 5.22 .951 57. Conflicts are part of life and solving them pushes us forward. male 37 4.81 .995 -2.767 .007 female 64 5.34 .895  conflict-solving in favor of women. We may state that the results of this research confirmed our assumptions and the high average value of all answers in the questionnaire proves that managers give much importance to applying social competences in leading their employees. Our findings are also confirmed by various researches carried out in the given area of study (Frankovsky, Stefko, Baumgartner 2006; Droppa 2008; Vavrova 2009; Frankovsky, Kentos 2008; Hrbackova 2010; Lelkova, 2012 and others). Social skills help managers to be realistic or to modify their requirements from others who work with them. It is a method by means of which it is possible to effectively manage professional relationships. Managers must realize that it is impossible to maintain permanent success in relationships with subordinates, and they also should not expect to be liked by everyone. Fontana (1994) claims that social skills may be learned but it is a lifelong process. LIST OF LITERATURE DROPPA, M. 2008. Riadenie l’udskych zdrojov 1. Ruzomberok: KU v Ruzomberku, PF, 2008. 130 s. ISBN 978-80-8040-295-6. FONTANA, D. 1994. Social skills at work. I title. II series. Great Britain by BPC Wheatons Ltd. Exeter, 1994. 93 s. ISBN 1-85433-016-0. FRANKOVSKY, M., STEFKO, R., BAUMGARTNER, F. 2006. Behavioral-situational approach to examinig social intelligence. Studia Psychologica, 2006, 48, 3, 251-258 ISSN 00393320. FRANKOVSKY, M., KENTOS, M. 2008. Socialm konflikty. In Vyrost, J., Slamemk, I. Socialm psychologie. Praha: Grada Publishing, a.s., 2008, s. 303-318. ISBN 978-80-247-1428-8. HRBACKOVA, K. 2010. Exploring university students' self-regulated learning process. In Bekirogullari, Z. (Ed.) International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology Abstracts. Cyprus: ICEEPSY, 2010. ISBN 1986-3020. LELKOVA, A. 2012. Socialne kompetencie v pracovnom procese. In Socialne kompetencie manazera: teoreticke, metodologicke a prakticke koncepty. Presov: Bookman, s.r.o., 2012, s. 128-134. ISBN 978-80-89568-49-9. MESÄROSOVÄ, M. 2006. Vycvik socialnych a manazerskych sposobilosti. Kosice: UPJS, 2006. 200 s. ISBN 80-7097-622-5. OWEN, J. 2006. Jak se stat uspesnym hdrem: Leadership v praxi. Praha: Grada Publishing, 2006. 228 s. ISBN 80-247-1726-3. SCHELLE, K., JANOTOVÄ, H., SCHELLEOVA, I. 2010. Berufsethik. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag, 2010. 76 s. ISBN 978-3-640-66019-3. SULER, O. 2002. Zvladate sve manazerske role? Praha: Computer Press, 2002, 187 s. ISBN 80-7226-702-7. VAVROVA, S. 2009. Vyznam emocm intelligence pro rozvoj kompetenci socialniho pedagöga. In Socialm pedagogika ve stredni Europe, soucasny stav a perspektivy. Brno: IMS, 2009, s. 600-608. ISBN 978-80-87182-08-6.      Екзистенційні та комунікативні питання управління: матеріали Міжнародної науково-теоретичної конференції, м. Суми, 23-25 січня 2014 р. - Суми: Сумський державний університет, 2014. - Ч.2. - С. 3-7. 

Social competences and leadership in the work of managers

SocioEconomic Challenges Journal (Sumy State University)

 SOCIAL COMPETENCES AND LEADERSHIP IN THE WORK 
OF MANAGERS 
PaedDr. Z. Birknerova, PhD., Mgr. L. Zbihlejovd  
Department of Managerial Psychology, Faculty of Management 
University of Presov in Presov, Slovakia 
 
Introduction. The term managers represents the employees of 
business entities or professional managing workers who, in the name of 
the business or corporation owners, perform managing functions which, 
from the viewpoint of the business, they consider successful. 
Satisfaction or dissatisfaction of their employees as well as clients and 
all involved groups of the business entity depends on their behavior 
(Schelle et al., 2010). The notion of personality is understood as a 
certain unity (integrity) of the whole set of biological, mental and social 
qualities of a person. The term structure of a personality is understood 
as a set of abilities, temperament, interests, needs, nature and will. An 
important role is played by the extent to which heredity or innateness, 
individual internal factors and the influence of social environment 
participate in their formation (Frankovsky, Stefko, Baumgartner, 2006). 
According to Suler (2002), the most important aspects of the control 
work of a manager are motivation, decision-making and leadership. 
Motivation is one of the most fundamental factors affecting the 
successfulness of life of a working person. The meaning of leadership 
is not to make the life of own followers harder but, contrarily, to give 
them direction and lead them in the way that would minimalize the 
excessive effort. The personality of a leader orientates their co-workers 
towards success, tries not to hinder the team and provides them with the 
room for their own judgements and that represents a great contribution 
to the life of an organization (Owen, 2006). 
Managerial competences may be defined as a set of such skills 
which enable improvement of managerial practice. Effective socially 
intelligent managers have a wide range of skills which support and 
complete each other and thus enable flexibility in managing and coping 
with various situations (Mesarosova 2006). Besides social 
intelligence, delegating tasks, coaching, and others, the key social 
competences are empathy, communication, conflict-solving and 
motivation. 
Research. The objective of this report is to point out the 
significance of applying social competences in leading employees in 
 order for a contemporary manager to be successful. The research is 
aimed to confirm this fact by detecting the degree of applying these 
competences by managers of various corporations and institutions in 
Slovakia and it should also detect the differences in applying social 
competences between men and women as well as managers with 
various degrees of education. 
Hypotheses. 
H1: We assume statistically significant correlations between the 
individual researched social competences (motivation, empathy, 
conflict-solving, communication). 
H2: We assume statistically significant gender differences in 
applying social competences in favor of women. 
Research sample. The research file consisted of 101 managers from 
various corporations and institutions in Slovakia. The file included 37 
men and 64 women, 14 of them were 20-30 years old, 32 were 31-40 
years old, 35 were 41-50 years old, and 20 of the participants were 51 
and more years old. The first managerial level included 60 managers, 
the middle level consisted of 38 managers, and the top level involved 3 
managers. 
Research method. In order to collect information and apply social 
competences by managers we used a questionnaire by means of which 
we were detecting opinions of managers on applying these 
competences. The questionnaire consists of 60 questions with the 
answer scale of 1 to 6 (1 - absolutely agree, 6 - absolutely disagree), 
which are thematically divided into three parts according to the 
individual competences (motivation, empathy and communication). We 
evaluated the statistical data by means of the SPSS program for 
statistics. 
Results. In this research we were detecting the degree of applying 
social competences in managing subordinates by managers. We tried to 
point out the significance of applying these competences in leading 
employees as well as their mutual correlations and gender differences 
of managers. 
Verification of H1: We studied the correlational connection between 
the individual social competences which we consider important for 
successful leading of employees. For the purposes of comparison we 
used correlation analysis, namely Pearson's Correlation Coefficient 
(Table 1). 
 
 Table 1  - Correlation of social competences of managers 
Social competences Motivation Empathy Communication 
Motivation  718** .675** 
Empathy 718**  .743** 
Communication .675** .743**  
** Correlation is significant on the level of significance of 0.01 (1%) 
Table 1 shows that a particularly great correlation exists among all three 
social competences. This is significant on the level of significance of p < 
0.01 (1%) in all researched competences. Motivation positively 
correlates with empathy (r = .718) and communication (r = .615). 
Empathy positively correlates with communication (r = .743), which 
means that the individual selected social competences are very closely 
related to each other. These calculations serve as an evidence for the 
correctness of Hypothesis 1, which was confirmed. 
Verification of H2: A comparison of the differences in applying the 
selected social competences between men and women was carried out 
by means of the T-test (Table 2). 
Statistically significant difference on the level of significance up to 
0.05 (5%) occurred in six questions from the area of empathy and 
conflict-solving in favor of women. This confirmed Hypothesis 2. 
Women are more sympathetic, they positively affect the feelings of 
others, are better in detecting the mood from non-verbal feelings, do not 
ignore the feelings of subordinates, in conflicts they search for more 
solutions to the problem, and they believe that conflicts are part of life 
and their solving makes us move forward. In perception of conflicts 
which take our lives to another level, the biggest difference in the 
average answers was detected among women, which means women take 
a more positive approach in solving conflicts. 
The biggest average value in the answers of women (5.42) and men 
(4.95) was equal in their ability to feel empathy for the subordinates, 
and the lowest value of women (4.63) and men (4.22) was detected 
again equally in the ability to positively affect their subordinates. On the 
basis of these results it can be stated that although all managers try to 
 sympathize with their subordinates, they are unable to positively 
influence their feelings. 
 
Conclusion. The main objective of our research was to detect, 
study and evaluate the significance and extent of applying social 
competences by managers. In the first hypothesis, we assumed 
statistical correlations between the individual studied social 
competences and it was confirmed with a high correlational 
connection. In the second hypothesis we assumed significant 
statistical gender differences in applying social competences in favor 
of women, which was also confirmed, particularly in empathy and 
Table 2 - Significant statistical differences in applying social competences 
according to gender ____________________________________________  
Question Gender N Mean Standard 
deviation 
Test 
criterion 
Sig. 
(2- 
tailed) 
23. I have 
compassion for 
others. 
male 37 4.95 .848 
-2.973 .004 female 64 5.42 .730 
24. I positively 
influence the 
feelings of others. 
male 37 4.22 .672 
-2.619 .010 female 64 4.63 .882 
26. I can sense a 
mood from non-
verbal feelings. 
male 37 4.43 1.015 
-1.824 .041 female 64 4.81 1.006 
36. I do not 
ignore the 
feelings of 
subordinates. 
male 37 4.43 1.042 
-1.797 .045 female 64 4.80 .946 
56. In conflict I 
search for more 
solutions. 
male 37 4.81 .811 
-2.284 .025 female 64 5.22 .951 
57. Conflicts are 
part of life and 
solving them 
pushes us 
forward. 
male 37 4.81 .995 
-2.767 .007 female 64 5.34 .895 
 conflict-solving in favor of women. We may state that the results of 
this research confirmed our assumptions and the high average value of 
all answers in the questionnaire proves that managers 
give much importance to applying social competences in leading their 
employees. Our findings are also confirmed by various researches 
carried out in the given area of study (Frankovsky, Stefko, Baumgartner 
2006; Droppa 2008; Vavrova 2009; Frankovsky, Kentos 2008; 
Hrbackova 2010; Lelkova, 2012 and others). Social skills help 
managers to be realistic or to modify their requirements from others 
who work with them. It is a method by means of which it is possible to 
effectively manage professional relationships. Managers must realize 
that it is impossible to maintain permanent success in relationships with 
subordinates, and they also should not expect to be liked by everyone. 
Fontana (1994) claims that social skills may be learned but it is a 
lifelong process. 
LIST OF LITERATURE 
DROPPA, M. 2008. Riadenie l’udskych zdrojov 1. Ruzomberok: KU v Ruzomberku, PF, 2008. 
130 s. ISBN 978-80-8040-295-6. 
FONTANA, D. 1994. Social skills at work. I title. II series. Great Britain by BPC Wheatons 
Ltd. Exeter, 1994. 93 s. ISBN 1-85433-016-0. 
FRANKOVSKY, M., STEFKO, R., BAUMGARTNER, F. 2006. Behavioral-situational 
approach to examinig social intelligence. Studia Psychologica, 2006, 48, 3, 251-258 ISSN 00393320. 
FRANKOVSKY, M., KENTOS, M. 2008. Socialm konflikty. In Vyrost, J., Slamemk, I. 
Socialm psychologie. Praha: Grada Publishing, a.s., 2008, s. 303-318. ISBN 978-80-247-1428-8. 
HRBACKOVA, K. 2010. Exploring university students' self-regulated learning process. In 
Bekirogullari, Z. (Ed.) International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology 
Abstracts. Cyprus: ICEEPSY, 2010. ISBN 1986-3020. 
LELKOVA, A. 2012. Socialne kompetencie v pracovnom procese. In Socialne kompetencie 
manazera: teoreticke, metodologicke a prakticke koncepty. Presov: Bookman, s.r.o., 2012, s. 128-
134. ISBN 978-80-89568-49-9. 
MESÄROSOVÄ, M. 2006. Vycvik socialnych a manazerskych sposobilosti. Kosice: UPJS, 
2006. 200 s. ISBN 80-7097-622-5. 
OWEN, J. 2006. Jak se stat uspesnym hdrem: Leadership v praxi. Praha: Grada Publishing, 
2006. 228 s. ISBN 80-247-1726-3. 
SCHELLE, K., JANOTOVÄ, H., SCHELLEOVA, I. 2010. Berufsethik. Norderstedt: GRIN 
Verlag, 2010. 76 s. ISBN 978-3-640-66019-3. 
SULER, O. 2002. Zvladate sve manazerske role? Praha: Computer Press, 2002, 187 s. ISBN 80-
7226-702-7. 
VAVROVA, S. 2009. Vyznam emocm intelligence pro rozvoj kompetenci socialniho pedagöga. 
In Socialm pedagogika ve stredni Europe, soucasny stav a perspektivy. Brno: IMS, 2009, s. 600-608. 
ISBN 978-80-87182-08-6. 
 
 
 
  Екзистенційні та комунікативні питання управління: матеріали 
Міжнародної науково-теоретичної конференції, м. Суми, 23-25 січня 
2014 р. - Суми: Сумський державний університет, 2014. - Ч.2. - С. 3-7. 


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Social competences and leadership in the work of managers

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