Managers’ Competence: Rhetoric, Reality and Research

This article draws attention to our rudimentary knowledge of managers’ competence, against the background of the rhetoric currently being employed, for example, in the Management Charter Initiative. Its aim is to unravel some of the existing confusions about the meaning of “competence”, by identifying and briefly examining some of the epistemological, philosophical and methodological issues which require attention before we proceed further in this field of study.