Author(s):
1. Katarzyna Szczepańska-Woszczyna, Poland

Abstract:
The role of a manager in the modern organization has changed significantly over the last dozen or more years. In the light of changing expectations and an employee model, currently a manager plays a variety of roles: a leader, facilitator, animator, coach, mentor or trainer, and his task is to: coordinate, diagnose and bring out human potential, moderate, stimulate, create, initiate, and to motivate. Management becomes an art, and a manager - a coach, animator, trainer (Oleksyn 2000). Work space is for managers an important learning environment; they are, on the one hand, created by this environment, on the other hand, they shape it. Therefore, it depends on their competence and "innovative intelligence" (Mroziewicz 2008, p. 97) whether the team they manage and work environment are innovative or not. People find it difficult to accept organisational change and innovations unless such implementations are accompanied by the appropriate approaches, processes and procedures (Kożusznik 2002; Penc 1999). Many researchers highlight a significant role of culture and organizational climate, conducive to innovation and adaptation to changes. (Sułkowski 2002; Mesjasz 2006; Isaksen, Lauer 2002). Innovative climate is strongly related to competences of managers. Creative and innovative competences (Cenin, 1998; Szopiński 2004) mean the ability to learn new values and patterns of action continuously, as well as new ways of acquiring and transferring knowledge (Morawski, 2004, p.118). The researchers E. Steiner and R. Weber (1993) attribute the dominant role to creative skills of managers, including, among others, the ability to generate large numbers of ideas in a short time, the continuous search for new solutions, originality - creating innovative connections and ideas, the ability to choose an optimal solution, perseverance in overcoming difficulties, motivation as a problem and a challenge, vigour and efficiency, consistency, regularity, courage, tolerance and respect for different views, avoiding taking a stance too early, openness to criticism, relativistic view of reality, and independence of judgments. According to Fransen (2013) innovation does not depend on the type or depth of interactions in local innovation systems, or on the governance of global value chains, but on the ability of a company to absorb and use the almost endless amount of knowledge available. Absorptive capacity of the sector increases primarily due to the entrance of medium-sized firms/companies with highly educated managers and entrepreneurs. This study aims it understand what factors influence the innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly whether and what relationships exist between the competence of managers and company’s innovation. The paper presents the findings of the research conducted in small and medium-sized enterprises in the province of Silesia in Poland.

Key words:
managerial competences, innovation, SME, creativity,

Date of abstract submission:
22.01.2014.

Conference:
REDETE 2014 - Researching Economic Development and Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies