Organizational Competencies and the Enterprise’s Effectiveness

Contemporary companies are facing a necessity of their continuous adaptation to new challenges posed by the environment. In order to provide the company with suitable effectiveness, it is necessary to initiate systematically coherent actions related to achieving a permanent competitive advantage. A significant role in acquiring and maintaining such an advantage is played by the company’s internal resources based on knowledge, defined as corporate competences. The paper presents the results of empirical studies performed in order to determine the activities leading to identifying and reducing competence gap in Polish enterprises. The analyses were carried out in 56 companies with the use of a specially designed questionnaire of a categorized interview. While analyzing the obtained results, special attention was paid to the method of interpreting the idea of company’s effectiveness, the effect of interpreting effectiveness on company’s performance, actions undertaken in order to reduce competence gap and their influence on company’s effectiveness. Finally, recommendations for managers are presented, suggesting the directions for corporate changes leading to better identification and reduction of competence gap, taking into account improved effectiveness of companies’ functioning. The paper was prepared as part of the research project of the National Center for Science - Project No. NN 115419840 "Competencies and the organizational culture of innovative enterprises in an international perspective".