For organisations to achieve a competitive advantage over their competitors, they need to build on the skills and knowledge of their current employees (Gratton, 2000; Ito & Brotheridge, 2005). Organisations need to create a pool of skilled, competent technicians and supervisors who are able to deliver on required and projected products and services (Mahapatro, 2010). The identification of the competencies that are required for a technician and for a supervisor is of importance to any organisation. According to Woodruffe (2003), competencies are fundamental distinguishable characteristics that an individual uses to perform a specific job or output successfully.

A notable challenge that contemporary organisations face is the management function of transitioning a technician from a subject matter expert to a supervisor (Badawy, 1995; Barley, 1996; Hood, 1990). The challenge often is occasioned by the role differences; a technician largely uses hands-on experience and logical reasoning competencies, whilst a supervisor requires management, leading, planning, directing, and people skills (Hilgert & Leonard, 2008; Hodgetts, 2007; Mintzberg, 2009; Rue & Byars, 2004).

Unfortunately, most technicians lack the required management competencies that are required for a supervisory position. Therefore, the skills differences that exist between a technician and a supervisor are not being addressed in the workplace. In view of these findings, it seems important to identify, verify and make recommendations on the development of management competencies that are required when transitioning technicians to supervisory positions.

A sequential mixed method approach was used. The rationale for using both the quantitative and qualitative approaches was to ensure reliability and validity of research results (Bernardi, Kleim & Von der Lippe, 2007; Creswell & Plano, 2011). Jogulu and Pansiri (2011) argue that the use of qualitative and qualitative approaches is useful in ascertaining the epistemological coherence of data gathered. The researchers found that the topic was not well researched, there was limited data available on the subject, rich data was needed and therefore the sequential mixed method approach was appropriate.

The quantitative approach was applied first to identify the competencies required for a technician and a supervisor and the qualitative approach was applied later to validate the list of competencies, assign a degree of importance and recommend any further development or training interventions that are essential to successfully transition an employee from the level of a technician to the level of a supervisor.

The research approach was applied as depicted in the Figure 1.

Out of the 266 valid questionnaires analysed, the frequency responses received from the Eskom divisions are as follows: distribution division 40.2%, transmission division 36.8%, generation division 18.8% and corporate division 4.1%. The departmental spread was recorded as follows: maintenance 37.9%, engineering 28.4%, operating 20.8%, HR 3.8% and 9.1% did not indicate their department. The age profile of the participants ranged as follows: 45.9% 40–49 years, 28.2% 30–39 years, 16.9% 50–59 years and 9% 29 years and younger.

The gender profile of participants was predominately male at 68.9% with 31.1% female. The most prevalent of qualifications were National Diploma at 32.1% followed by National Certificates at 28.3%. A postgraduate diploma was held by 19.2% of participants and 7.5% held a bachelor's degree. The most frequent range of experience in the technical field was 6–10 years (35.8%), followed by 10–15 years (16.2%); range of experience at the supervisory level was 3–6 years (30.1%) and 0–3 years (28.2%).

According to the findings, the following competencies are deemed to be significant for all supervisors, especially those that were promoted from the position of technician. The mean scores are provided for each competency with standard deviation scores in brackets: leadership 3.39 (0.636), planning 3.34 (0.578), leading 3.39 (0.586), controlling 3.31 (0.627), organising 3.32 (0.639), administration 3.28 (0.615), budgeting 3.07 (0.684), safety knowledge 3.37 (0.631), HR systems and processes 3.26 (0.642), training and development 3.19 (0.623) and qualification and experience 2.94 (0.650).

The majority of the competencies that were listed on the technician and supervisory competencies charts obtained a degree of agreement score of between 4 and 5. Competencies of the supervisor were ranked as follows:

The focus group concluded that the competencies for the technician's position are aimed at improving the technical skills and knowledge, whilst the supervisory competencies are aimed at improving the management of individuals and teams and ensuring effective planning, organising, leading and controlling of the day-to-day operations.

In addition to the listed competencies of supervisors, the focus group participants added these competencies as highly necessary for junior management staff: conflict management, time management and managing meetings. For effective training and development interventions for technicians transitioning into supervisory positions, focus group participants recommended these skills be included: coaching, mentoring, talent management and networking skills.

The competencies identified for the technician position and the supervisor position as per the literature review were accepted by participants in the quantitative survey and further validated by participants in the qualitative focus groups. The work of a technician involves the day-to-day operation and maintenance of various types of equipment (Barley & Bechky, 1994). A technician is someone who has acquired specialised training and experience and who is skilled to utilise the technical instruments, techniques, equipment and procedures to solve technical problems (ECSA, 2003). Research participants agree that a technician uses a wide variety of systems, tools and equipment in analysing, scanning and investigating system networks and plant performance. Ideally, technicians should use their tools and equipment safely with minimal danger and damage to self, client and others.

A low rating of mathematics as a required competency for a technician indicates that many research participants are unsure of the importance of this competency for a technical position. Mathematics as a competency required for a supervisory position recorded a favourable frequency score of 62.9%. The technical specification documents emphasised the importance of mathematics for a technician position, as technicians are expected to understand how to read drawings, calculate required amounts of specifications for the repairing of machines and maintain project schedules. This is supported by ECSA (2003), which states that the knowledge and understanding of mathematics for a technician's position provides technicians with a skill to perform fault-finding, designs and routine checks adequately.

Mathematics seems to be a contested requirement, which could be due to perceptions about its difficulty and the potential barriers to entry into a supervisory position for technicians who do not have high levels of mathematical proficiency. The organisation should launch an investigation into the current and required level of mathematical proficiency for a technician and thereafter promote mathematical skills via training interventions as well as policy documents.

Supervisors have more demands placed on them than technicians, as they have to ensure that they oversee the work of their teams. The survey results reveal a common acceptance of the definition of the role of the supervisor, especially the responsibility for team, departmental and organisational performance. The focus groups agreed that supervisors are expected to ensure that their team performance contributes to organisational success.

The findings of the survey confirm that supervisors have to create a balance between getting work done and building relationships within their teams. This is in support of Boone and Kurtz’s (2011) argument that supervisors need to communicate clearly what is needed and establish a culture of customer-centricity, which has employee satisfaction at the centre of business performance. In addition, the results from the qualitative focus group sessions indicated that supervisors are expected to apply technical competencies, plan for the required resources for the execution of daily tasks, supervise their team and assess their team's performance.

Of the 11 supervisory competencies identified in this study, the leadership and leading competencies achieved the highest mean scores and were ranked as most important by focus group participants. Safety knowledge was highly significant with the second highest mean score and a focus group ranking of 5. Planning was the third placed competency identified as essential for supervisors, closely followed by interpersonal skills and organising ability. These findings reveal that the key competencies that are required for a supervisory position include planning, organising, directing, controlling and monitoring of daily activities of their teams.

These findings are in line with the literature where various authors have argued that there are four functions that are central to management or supervising of other employees: planning, organising, leading and controlling (De Beer & Rossouw, 2005; Hilgert & Leonard, 2008; Hood, 1990; Howard, 2003; Mintzberg, 2009; Rue & Byars, 2004; Seethamraju & Agrawal, 1999; Yulk, 2008). Four additional skills that are critical for a supervisor position are dealing with people, information-sharing, decision-making and problem-solving.

From the findings it is evident that transitioning from a technician to a supervisor involves recognising the required competencies essential for effectiveness at different performance levels (Charan et al., 2001). According to Aucoin (2002), for the technician to make the transition to a supervisor position, there are three critical skills required, namely technical, administrative and personnel or HR skills. Supervisors need to lead their teams and create a balance between getting the work done and building relationships. The focus groups agreed that leadership behaviour and interpersonal skills are critical for the supervisory position. Supervisors set a foundation for effective operations, workplace relationships and quality standards for all employees in the workplace.

The competency gaps between a technical position and a supervisory position were measured as a shift in competencies from a technical position to a supervisory position (Roberts & Biddle, 1994). This shift is referred to as a transition. The literature trends reveal that when technicians make a transition into a management position, they often experience challenges, especially when managing teams (Hood, 1990). For example, the transition from an engineer (which is a technical field) to a manager is a difficult experience (Howard, 2003). The difficult experience of making the shift from technician to supervisor is a challenge that organisations can handle effectively through the implementation of necessary development and coaching interventions.

Organisations need to acknowledge that a transition should not be seen as a single process of just promoting a technician to a supervisory position and expecting that the same success that was achieved at the technician level will be achieved at a supervisory level. The transition should be viewed as a process (Hill, 2003; Hood, 1990; Newstrom, 2007). The transition process should be a swift and efficient process that is carefully executed to avoid slip-ups, unnecessary stress, low morale and substandard performance. Moreover, it is critical that the technicians who make a career transition to a supervisory position have the required skills and competencies to properly manage their team activities (Hood, 1990). Where there is a gap in the skills required to make the shift, organisations should implement necessary training interventions.

Training and development were confirmed in both the quantitative and qualitative phase as significant requirements for the transition from a technician to a supervisor. Training and development should aim to provide the necessary skills and competencies for the required position. The triangulation of the results of this study reveal that, as identified in the literature review, the survey and focus group participants agree that the competencies for technicians and supervisors differ and that technicians should be groomed to acquire and master the additional competencies required by supervisors.

The main objective of this study was to establish the management competencies that are required for a technician to make the transition into a supervisory position. This study also provided a comprehensive view on the management competencies that are required for a technician to make a smooth transition to a supervisory position. The response rate and the interest in the content of this research confirm the importance of this subject within the studied organisation.

To achieve these in-depth research findings, this study applied a sequential mixed methods research approach. The quantitative phase utilised the survey questionnaire to identify and verify the competencies identified during the literature review. The results from the quantitative phase were used as input to the qualitative phase of this study. The qualitative phase utilised focus group discussions to validate the identified competencies, assign a degree of importance and identify additional competencies for technicians transitioning into supervisors.

Research participants recommended that training or development interventions are imperative to successfully transition employees from a technician to a supervisory position. The overall findings confirm that when technicians are promoted to a supervisory position, the additional competencies for supervisors are not considered and technicians are not provided with the essential training that is critical for the supervisory position.