Leadership competencies in making industry 4.0 effective: The case of polish heat and power industry

Leadership competencies are of crucial importance in every organisation as to a large extent they determine its success. This is especially evident in the time of Industry 4.0. Given this fact, the aim of our paper is to examine the relationship between leadership competencies and 4.0 leadership effectiveness. The heat and power plants industry was chosen as the subject of our research. The fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA) was used as the research method. It enabled us not only to analyse particular variables, competences, and typical statistical relations between them, but we also revealed the patterns of causal relationships between particular variables. The key finding of our research was the juxtaposition of leadership competencies that are indispensable for 4.0 leaders in the CHP plants. We also found out that managerial competencies were not sufficient, and they should be supported by intellectual or socio‐emotional ones.