Charismatic Influence and Organizing Capability as Unique Managerial Self-efficacies for Effective Small Firm Performance in Developing Economy

In the past two decades, changes in the industrial environment of most developing countries and the increasing competition among firms has greatly influenced executives’ attitudes and behaviours in the effective management of their firms. There is evidence in the extant literature that the sustained superior performances of most firms is attributable to the unique capabilities used in managing their human resources, and which capabilities are rare, valuable, non-substitutable and imitable. This study therefore, explored the requisite self-efficacies that are exhibited by executives of small firms in Ghana in their day-to-day management of their businesses that leads to increase firm performance, since such self-efficacies are human-oriented capabilities that are rare, valuable, non-substitutable and imitable. This was necessitated by the observation that most executives of small firms in Ghana have not been able to achieve much for their firms, in terms of increasing their businesses productive efficiencies and effectiveness, because the requisite self-efficacies required of such executives for improved performances are unknown and unexplored. Guided by the self-efficacy theorization, data was collected from executives of seventy-two small firms in Ghana using a standardised questionnaire. Factor analysis was conducted to identify the plausible factors with the requisite weight to predict the executives’ self-efficacy, and the attribution of such factors. The factor analyses, with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin as well as Bartlett’s tests, were initiated to measure the factorability of the data, using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) as the analytic tool. Principal Component Analysis was then used as a data reduction technique using the Rotation Method (Varimax with Kaiser Normalization). Indicator predictiveness was interpreted using Schumacker and Lomax’s (2004) recommendation that estimated factor loading must be 0.7 or higher. Based on the analysis, it is found that the executives of small firms in Ghana exhibit self-efficacies which they manifest variously as charismatic influences and organizing capabilities. The executives showed high levels of organizing capabilities and charismatic influences on the work they manage as a result of their self-efficacies. It is also found that the self-efficacy indicators reflecting the executives’ exertion of charismatic influences on their employees correlated significantly with their self-efficacy indicators reflecting their capabilities to organize their firms’ activities. It is concluded that the executives’ use of their charismatic influence-oriented and organizing capability-oriented self-efficacies has a positive influence on their abilities to manage their small firms. It is also concluded that, the executives ability to handle the time demands and the paper work required of their managerial jobs, on the one hand, and their ability to maintain control of their personal daily schedule, and cope with the stress aspect of their managerial job, on the other, had a direct positive impact on their abilities to carry out the following functions. The findings in this study contribute to knowledge in the management of small firms. Specifically, for Ghana, this research provides a platform for the development of a database that will help inform policy-makers on the requisite self-efficacies to be required of small firms’ executives in the daily management of their businesses.