A Leadership Development Model to Improve Organizational Competitiveness‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Firm competitive behavior and the sustained effort to remain effective and competitive are very important attributes of successful organizations. As Offstein and Gnyawali (2004) have pointed out, few researchers have carefully and exclusively examined human factors as antecedents to firm competitive behavior. Some researchers such as Hambrick et al. (1996) have examined the human dimension in some ways, however, there are few such studies. Yet, we can be reasonably confident that the human capital (that is, individual knowledge, skills, attitudes, predispositions) of an organization can contribute a great deal to the improvement of the organization's competitive intensity and success as the human capital may have extensive knowledge of the organization's competitive environment and, as well, may be prepared to engage in a variety of complex and strategic actions.