Managing Organizational Competencies Competitive Advantage

Question: Discuss about the Managing Organizational Competencies for Competitive Advantage. Answer: Introduction Internal competencies or internal knowledge based resources give organizations a critical advantage over competitors. Yet organizations tend to generally remain ignorant of their importance in ensuring the success and growth of the business. While it is observed that many competencies are a result of necessity or exposure to a certain knowledge or process; proactively developing internal competencies would help organizations gain a considerable additional advantage over their competitors. The greatest advantage of ensuring the managements awareness of the internal competencies of a firm is that these would be developed and refined. Furthermore the gaps in competencies would be addressed and this would help enhance the competitive position of the organization (King, Fowler and Zeithaml, 2001). Reflection On Experiencing The Development Of Management Competencies Since finance is an essential part of all organizations, the competency being discussed is the strategic management of finances. This core competency is seen across organizations, yet some organizations continue to enjoy a better financial position as opposed their competitors as well as better job satisfaction among employees (Singh, 2013). The commonly seen reason for this is the tactical advantage afforded to some organizations as opposed to others operating in the same area of operations despite facing similar environmental and economic constraints. Thus, an organization that fosters the development of tactical competencies across departments is not adversely affected by the attrition of staff to other firms (Brando et al., 2012). Working as an intern in the financial department of a leading firm, I experienced the internal process in managing competencies in this department as the middle management groomed the subordinates, new recruits and interns in the various aspects of managing finances. My direct supervisor had been with the organization for over five years and dealt with the payables and receivables of the firm. Thus, I was introduced to the practical aspects of credit periods, payment follow-ups and reminder letters along with reconciliations of various debtor and creditor ledgers. I also was taught the correct approach to ask clients for clearing outstanding through phone calls and emails. Closed loop action was a mantra reiterated time and again as I worked on various factors that ensured the cash flows were not affected adversely. Conclusion The nuances of working in the finance department were very different form the theoretical knowledge I had gained as part of my formal education. I realized that while the formal training prepared me for work in finances and familiarized me with the various terminologies, the hands-on experience a I gained as part of my internship helped me realize that the actual working of the finance department was much more than making journal entries and posting ledgers or even preparing various budgets and analyzing them. The care with which individual clients and suppliers needed to be handled was an important part of my training where I learned from people who handled several complex situations on a daily basis. The finance department is counted among the core departments of any organization and the experience was an eye-opener into the workings of the fianc department and helped me understand that working life would involve multi tasking and multilevel thinking so as to ensure that all depart ments worked effortlessly (Prusak, 2016). References Brando, H., Borges-Andrade, J., Puente-Palacios, K. and Laros, J. (2012). Relationships between learning, context and competency: a multilevel study. BAR. Brazilian Administration Review, 9(1), pp.1-22. King, A., Fowler, S. and Zeithaml, C. (2001). Managing organizational competencies for competitive advantage: The middle-management edge. Academy of Management Executive, 15(2), pp.95-106. Prusak, R. (2016). The impact of employee competencies management as part of the human capital on the intellectual capital implementing process. Management, 20(1). Singh, P. (2013). Influence Of Leaders Intrapersonal Competencies On Employee Job Satisfaction. International Business Economics Research Journal (IBER), 12(10), p.1289.