An Empirical Study of the Contribution of Managerial Competencies in Innovative Performance: Experience from Malaysia

Managerial competencies are the needed skills, knowledge and attributes to perform managerial tasks effectively and efficiently with readiness and dexterity. This paper identifies managerial competencies and the outcomes measured as innovative performance demonstrated by academic librarians. By using a literature review, purposive sampling, multiple case studies and interviews we discovered that the antecedents of managerial competencies include leadership, information technology (IT) and Islamic work ethics (IWE) competencies. These antecedents influence academic librarians' innovative performance which was evaluated based on generativity or idea generation, championing and formative investigation. This study explores managerial competencies and innovative performance in Malaysian research universities. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]