ORGANIZATIAONALCORECOMPETENCEANDCOMPETITIVEADVANTAGE(A STUDY OFGTBBANK, ENUGU METROPOLIS)

ABSTRACT This work is on Organizational Core Competence and Competitive Advantage, a Study of GTBBank, Enugu Metropolis. The broad objectives of the study are to examine the effect of core competence on competitive advantage variables in the GTB Bank, Enugu Metropolis, to test the effect of compelitive advantage on the organizational pe1formance of the GTB Bank, Enugu Metropolis. to investigate the effect of core competence on the organizational Pe,formance of the GTB Bank, Enugu !Yletropolis.The study was guided by three key objectives from which appropriate research questions and hypotheses were formulatedThe study adopted a descriptive surveydesign.Theresearch instrumentswerestructuredquestionnaire. Thepopulationof the study was 180,fromwhicha samplesizeof124wasdeterminedusing TaroYamane.Thesourcesof datawereprimaryandseconda,y.Primarydatawerecollectedthroughstructured questionnairewhileseconda,y data ·weregottenfromstatisticalbulletins,electronicjournals etc. Atotalof 124copiesof questionnaireweredistributedto respondent,outof which110copies werecorrectlyfilledand returnedValidityoftheinstrumentwascarried-outusingcontent validity,andthiswasdoneby3managementexperts.Chi-squarestatisticaltoolwas employedwasused to test the hypothesis.The findings of the work shows that deep knowledgeof core competencies gave their companies access in entering new markets with unique productdesign, higher product quality and greater product innovation resulting in significant product differentiation. This supported the c/ai,n that their core competencies guided their firms when growingeccentricityinturningoutimprovedservicedeliveryresultinginbroadeconomyof scale; this enabled each firm to create ne·w business areas when entering new market. The study concludedthat deepknowledgeof managerialcompetenciesandsocialabilityis therefore, stronglyneededintheselectedbankingindustriesfortheattainmentofahighlevelofservice delivery and capability often exceeding expectationwhilesupportinggroupsor teams training,coaching andsharing specialistknowledge to gain businessexpansion and maintain lowaverage costs. Effective human resources competencies inorganizations ismore importantnowthanever due tothe advent of information and communicationtechnology(JCT) rvhich shouldbestepup to monitor competitiveadvantage.Every organizationshouldengageintrainingin all aspectof organizationtodevelopthecompetency/capacityforproductionmanagementsoastoachieve competitive advantage.