A comparison of the leadership competencies of leaders in manufacturing, hospitals, and community banking industries in the state of Pennsylvania

This research study had two purposes. The first purpose was to identify the competencies most important for success as a leader in each of three industries---- hospitals, banking and manufacturing--- and to determine whether any leadership competencies are considered critical to success across multiple industries. The second purpose was to determine if there were differences in the perception of importance of specific competencies between the target group of leaders (those who have to possess the competency) and the management group in each industry. To fulfill these purposes, data collected by the Pennsylvania State University Management Development Programs and Services (MDP&S) faculty from its Leadership Competency Inventory (LCI) was used as secondary data to answer the research questions. The data were analyzed by employing descriptive statistics and inferential statistics including one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test using SPSS 19.0 as the analytical tool.;Lists of the perceived top ten competencies for the target group, for the management group, and for the combined group were generated for each industry. All three industries included seven of the same competencies in their top ten rankings. In regard to the extent of the difference in the scores assigned to the 32 leadership competencies across the three industries as determined by the results of the ANOVA and post-hoc analyses, only one competency ranked the same by the target group and the management group across all three industries. Finally, the results of the t-test that compared the target group leaders' perceptions of the importance of each competency with that of the management group leaders' perceptions of the importance of each competency across the three studied industries identified sixteen competencies that differed significantly in terms of their respective means.