When hard skills are not enough: Emotional, social and cognitive competencies that successful data scientists and analysts should demonstrate

The advent of digital economy is rapidly changing not only our habits but also the practice of management. More and more business activities are digitized and a new profile of workers has emerged in the last few years, namely that of data analyst and data scientist. If their technical skills are quite clear, the emotional, social, and cognitive (ESCs) competences are still underexplored. This study addresses this void through an exploratory study on a sample of data scientists and data analysts. In-depth empirical evidence collected through Behavioural Event Interview technique demonstrated that they require a wide repertoire of behavioural competencies to attain successful performance and to face the challenge of the digital transformation. Moreover, we found that there are distinctive competencies that distinguish data scientist from data analysis, beyond the technical skills and cognitive competencies. This study advances the research about Big Data and their impact on emerging jobs, deriving implications in terms of the competency-based human resource management practices.