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2020 | Book

Behavioral Competencies of Digital Professionals

Understanding the Role of Emotional Intelligence

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About this book

‘I encounter many data scientists and analysts whose sole focus is solving analytical problems and developing accurate models. They all need to read this excellent book and adopt its recommendations!’.

— Thomas H. Davenport, Distinguished Professor, Babson College, Research Fellow, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy

‘This book provides a compelling, credible and sound narrative to de-code complexity by developing a set of competencies (action, social, awareness, cognitive, exploration and organizational) supported by emotional intelligence. A must read for Leaders and HR practitioners, for the intellectual curious eager to understand that Human Beings will have to remain central to Human Development’.

—Paolo Gallo, Former CHRO at World Economic Forum, World Bank and European Bank

Shedding new light on the human side of big data through the lenses of emotional and social intelligence competencies, this book advances the understanding of the requirements of the different professions that deal with big data. It also illustrates the empirical evidence collected through the application of the competency-based methodology to a sample of data scientists and data analysts, the two most in-demand big data jobs in the labor market. The book provides recommendations for the higher education system to offer better designed curricula for entry-level big data professions. It also offers managerial insights in describing how organizations and specifically HR practitioners can benefit from the competency-based approach to overcome the skill shortage that characterizes the demand for big data professional roles and to increase the effectiveness of the selection and recruiting processes.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. The Organizational Challenges of Big Data
Abstract
How can big data be leveraged to create value and what are the main barriers that prevent companies from benefiting from the full potential of data and analytics? This chapter describes the phenomenon of big data and how its use through data science is dramatically changing the basis of competition. The chapter also delves into the main organizational challenges faced by companies in extracting value from data, namely the promotion of a data-driven culture, the design of the internal and external structures, and the acquisition of the technical and behavioral skills required by big data professional roles. The aim and the structure of the book are illustrated. Shedding light on the human side of big data through the lense of emotional intelligence, the book aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the behavioral competencies that big data profiles require in order to achieve a higher performance.
Sara Bonesso, Elena Bruni, Fabrizio Gerli
Chapter 2. How Big Data Creates New Job Opportunities: Skill Profiles of Emerging Professional Roles
Abstract
Big data jobs will increase in importance over the next years. However, at the international level, the labor market for these professionals is characterized by a critical skill shortage. What are the big data specialist profiles that are most sought in the market? What are their main differences in terms of tasks and skill requirements? This chapter provides a snapshot of the most in-demand big data jobs, contributing to clarify their boundaries. It also delves into the main characteristics of the specific professional profiles that have received increasing attention in recent years, namely data scientists and data/business analysts. The review of the contributions provided by experts and scholars operating in the data science and analytics domain clarifies the main differences between these roles on the technical side. However, despite the increasing importance of soft skills, the behavioral competency profile of big data jobs is still ill defined.
Sara Bonesso, Elena Bruni, Fabrizio Gerli
Chapter 3. Emotional and Social Intelligence Competencies in the Digital Era
Abstract
It is widely acknowledged that emotional intelligence is a crucial component in organizations. It has been proved that leaders and employees who are emotionally intelligent are more efficient, creative, and make better decisions. Although decades of studies in different settings have analyzed emotional intelligence in a variety of roles, there is still a limited application concerning new job profiles such as data professionals. In a world which is rapidly changing because of technological and digital innovation, it is timely to analyze not only the technical skills of these new emerging job profiles but also their behavioral competencies. This chapter aims to first delineate the main characteristics of emotional intelligence. Second, it provides an in-depth clarification of the developed competency framework used to detect the behavioral competencies of big data professionals. Finally, it offers insights about how soft skills are considered to be as crucial as technical skills by the labor market despite the difference between machine and human skills that seem to draw attention to technological and data driven competencies.
Sara Bonesso, Elena Bruni, Fabrizio Gerli
Chapter 4. When Hard Skills Are Not Enough: Behavioral Competencies of Data Scientists and Data Analysts
Abstract
This chapter contributes to the current debate on how to overcome the skill shortage that characterizes the demand of big data professions in the labor market. If the technical competencies expected for these responsibilities have been defined, their behavioral skills are still under-explored. The chapter addresses this void through an exploratory study providing empirical evidence collected through the Behavioral Event Interview (BEI) technique. Drawing on an Italian sample of data scientists and data analysts, the study provides a description of the competency portfolio manifested by the two professional roles. The results show that both data scientists and data analysts manifest a wide repertoire of behavioral competencies that are needed to attain successful performance and to face the challenges of the digital transformation.
Sara Bonesso, Elena Bruni, Fabrizio Gerli
Chapter 5. Managing Big Data Professionals through a Competency-Based Approach
Abstract
Behavioral competencies are more complex and more difficult to assess and to develop than technical skills. On one hand, companies still struggle to accurately assess behavioral competencies of big data professionals during the recruiting process. On the other hand, higher education institutions are still not adequately equipping students enrolled in data science and analytics degree programs with the soft skills requested by employers. The chapter provides methodological recommendations to design courses for competency development based on the Intentional Change Theory. Also, it offers insights for human resource management specialists to revise the way they search and assess behavioral competencies of big data profiles to improve the effectiveness of the hiring process.
Sara Bonesso, Elena Bruni, Fabrizio Gerli
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Behavioral Competencies of Digital Professionals
Authors
Prof. Sara Bonesso
Dr. Elena Bruni
Prof. Fabrizio Gerli
Copyright Year
2020
Electronic ISBN
978-3-030-33578-6
Print ISBN
978-3-030-33577-9
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33578-6