Why, despite its relevance in today's world, is management development so problematical in its implementation

Why, despite its relevance in today’s world, is management development so problematical in its implementation?

Management development is taking place in the context of widespread organizational change. The importance of attracting and developing quality staff is recognized as a contributor to business success. Senior executives including chief executive officers, managing directors and Boards of Directors are key influencers of management development strategy. Human Resource practitioners are the key implementers of management development strategy. Nowadays, 95% percent of organizations claim a relationship between management development activity and organizational performance. And 87% percent of organizations report the use of performance management systems. Organizations report an equal contribution of informal and formal learning activities as the tools of management development. There is widespread use of coaching and mentoring at all levels of the organization.

The term management development was used by over 72% of organisations to describe the range of activities that facilitate the development of managerial skills. The meaning attributed to the term varied by context in some companies, depending on whether the management development practices were relatively fixed (i.e. had been in place for a long time) or whether they were dynamic (i.e. evolving in response to specific organisational variables). Some respondents described management development as focused on specific work-based skills, whereas others referred to broader areas of concern including what they described as ‘soft’ skills, including leadership, and the use of tools such as coaching and mentoring.

Qualitatively, it was clear that the culture of the organisation and/or the business environment facing a company affected management development practices. This context was further explored in the quantitative interviews, where respondents claimed their organizations had gone through, or were about to go through, some sort of organizational change. The types of changes referred to ranged from structure to growth and business focus to culture. Overall, structural change was the most frequently mentioned, followed by growth and change of management. Structural change included organizational re-structuring, change in management structures, reorganizing departments, reallocating staff or even accountability/reporting changes. Growth referred to such things as merger/amalgamation, expansion/acquisition or business growth in general (acquiring new sites, staff recruitment etc). Change of management involved things such as new Chief Executive or Managing Director, change of ownership, globalization or privatization.

Overall, structural change was the most frequently mentioned, followed by growth and change of management. Structural change included organizational re-structuring, change in management structures, reorganizing departments, reallocating staff or even accountability and reporting changes. Growth referred to such things as merger, expansion and business growth in general just like acquiring new sites, staff recruitment. Change of management involved things such as new Chief Executive or Managing Director, change of ownership, globalization or privatization.

To identity of management development, it can see from the above management development training contributes to management development but is not synonymous with it, as managers also learn and develop in many other ways. Management training and management development can be differentiated in four important ways. Firstly, management development is a broader concept and is more concerned with developing the whole person rather than emphasizing the learning of narrowly defined skilled. Secondly, management development emphasizes the contribution of formal and informal work experience. Thirdly, the concept of management development places a greater responsibility on managers to develop them than is placed on most employees to train themselves. Finally, although is training generally there always needs to be a concern with the future, this is especially emphasized in management development. Managers are developed as much for jobs that they will be doing as for the jobs that they are doing. Both the organization and the managers benefit from this approach. Management development is a vital aspect of career management, and from the organization’s point of view both are methods of satisfying human resource needs while allowing individuals to achieve their career goals.

There is making tradition attached to the development of effective management as those senior in organizations have sought to preserve their elite status. Initially, there was no question of acquiring skill; entry to a management position came as part of the right of ownership, the natural entitlement of those in a particular social position. As the size of the organizations and the number of managers began increase, there was a move to professionalisation to justify managerial status, with the development of professional, controlling entry by examination and election. This together with organizational complexity, produced specialisation and the longest running feature of management development which is management training courses.

Factors affecting management development practice which to identify the issues that companies perceived would affect management development practice in their organizations over the next two or three years. Respondents to the questionnaire were asked to rank on a five-point scale from very strongly to not at all, a list of issues that emerged from the qualitative sample. The factors considered to have the potential for greatest potential impact were to do with maintaining good quality people, ensuring that performance management contributed to the success of the business, and an increasing focus on ‘soft skills’, particularly leadership skills, rather than on ...

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The influencers and implementers of management development, while overall the study identified Chief Executives, Managing Directors and Board members as the key influencers of management development strategy in companies, this influencing role was closely linked to organizational size. Top executives were more likely to have a major influence in smaller companies, whereas in medium size organizations, the key influencers were also likely to be Human Resource practitioners. In large organizations, however, a mix of individuals was influential contributors to management development strategy, including the heads of business units and line managers. The key influencers of management development strategy by company size, implementation of management development strategy were identified as the responsibility of Human Resource and Training & Development practitioners of organizations. The latter was more likely to occur in smaller organizations.

The scope of management development activity, that aimed to investigate all facets of management development activity as they currently occur in organizations. Equal emphasis was given in the questioning of respondents to both the formal and informal dimensions of management learning. For the purposes of formal management development was defined as involving those activities that were components of a structured plan or program of development initiatives. Informal management development was defined as embracing all other types of activities that were not part of a structured program but which might still include formal channels. It related to activities in which employees participated unplanned and discretion of individual managers.

1The set of character features, knowledge and skills, attitudes, motives and traits that comprise the profile of a manager and enable him or her to perform effectively in the managerial role. The competences way of crossing from job and post demands to the attributes individuals need to cope successful with them. Competences can be traits technical which like self-assertion and stress resistance or expert knowledge, cognitive abilities, self-concept and behavioral skills. There are two approaches of management development, which are informal management development and formal management development. In informal management development, managers thinking of learning and development regularly quote work experience and role models as their chief influences. Informal management development method included accidental process, non-planning, such as project and assignment work.2 In informal management development, the accidental process and non-planning can be describe by product of the variety of managerial tasks, the dynamic nature of managerial priorities, changes in the working environment and changes in colleagues and bosses, which all provide new opportunities and stimuli.

3The definition of informal management development which defines the informal managerial learning is a by-project of the variety of managerial tasks, the dynamic nature of managerial priorities, changes to the working environment and changes in colleagues and bosses which all provide new opportunities and stimuli. On average, half the total management development activity that occurred in the companies surveyed happened informally. The most frequently identified informal development activities were coaching and mentoring, on-the-job training which could include special projects or assignments, management meetings and presentations. In larger organizations mentoring and coaching were likely to occur, as were work assignments and special projects. In smaller organizations, management meetings or presentations as well as informal discussions were slightly more frequently used for informal management development.

Other sides on formal management development, personal, HRM and M.D advisors think of learning and development as coming chiefly from planned interventions. The formal management development method included structured process, training, appraisal schemes, mentoring and coaching. Given the profile of respondents and the definition of formal development activity, it is not surprising that those interviewed had greater top-of-mind awareness of the formal practices that took place in their organizations than they did of informal activities. A wide variety of formal development practices was undertaken by companies. These generally varied according to the level of management responsibility and individual needs.

A training course will usually be a key feature in a formal development, and these may be standard offerings by various specialist bodies or in-house courses developed for their own specialist needs. Increasingly, these options are being combined so that there is the possibility of an externally provided course tailored to suit organization particular needs. The nature of a training need as viewed from the perspective of the individual employee. The demands of the job will be made up of appropriate proportions of knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes. Add to these factors the demands for change, and you have a picture of what is required to perform the job in the context concerned. Against these requirements are set the employees level of knowledge, skill and so on, together with the extent of his or her willingness to co-operate in change. If the two sides match perfectly, there will be no training requirement, as is more likely, there is a mis-match between what is required and what is available, then a training need has been identified.

The place of evaluation activities in training can be demonstrated a systems view of the above process, the programme aims, content and learning methods represent inputs, the programme implementation represents the process, and the programme results represent the outputs. The last-mentioned may represent either intended outcomes, as expressed in the programme objectives, or unintended outcomes, which the designers had not anticipated. A preordinate approach could well overlook such outcomes. An unintended outcome could be the improvement of communication or understanding between groups of colleagues on a programme, or uplift in individual motivation, for example. Following evaluation the programme is either dropped or improved. Improvements are fed back into programme aims or objectives and programme content. Apart, perhaps, from routine formative evaluation conducted by training staff, most evaluation exercises have to be agreed and planned between the trainers and the various interested parties. Having identified the course or programme to be evaluated, the responsible trainer will agree the aims and scope of the exercise with client managers and colleagues. The trainees concerned will be identified together with key issues raised by their managers, the training staff and the trainees themselves. Then methods of collecting relevant information have to be decided upon. Since this stage usually involves taking up the time of the parties involved, agreement needs to be sought to proceed.

The central challenges of training can be defines to facilitate change in adults whose behaviour patterns and the ways of viewing the world are established. Enable to motivate learners to engage and learn someone else agenda. To demonstrate learning is relevant, important and valuable to individuals who are already skilled and experienced. To bring about long-lasting change in behaviour by means of a finite intervention and ensure change continues outsides the training context. The failure of training causes, training tries to be all things to all people. The reason for training is not clearly identified. The training budget is spread around to provide some training for everyone and the needs of the trainees are ignored or not taken into account. The training examples are unrelated or unrealistic and concentrated. The manager or supervisor of those being trained is not involved. Measures of effectiveness have more to do with the training department meeting its goals than the needs of the clients.

Problems of training will be no objectives in the organization, and then it can not run the organization effective. For example, with regards to training if the training is no objectives, then trainees do not know what will be achieved. Only reflects a quick reading of the participant while they are still in the class. Results should not be used as a solid basis for changing the educational content or strategy. Requires more time and money than reaction, also requires greater insight to the evaluation process to develop valid measures of learning. Requires significantly more investment of time and money, in-depth insight into performance interventions and root causes of performance deficiencies. Substantial levels of investment and expertise are required to develop the results. Often hard to decide whether or not this level is required. The training providers have sole control over how they administer and deliver the course objectives and whether or not the participants acquire the knowledge, skills, or values during training.

Mentoring is a business-to-business relationship that includes learning, information sharing, and networking among firms and intermediaries. These relationships can be essential to business success and a vital resource to help communities. A major objective of mentoring is to encourage large businesses to partner with small businesses that have more constrained access to resources. The most significant source of future leaders remains line employees or people moving into this industry from others. This means that company training programs and OJT (on-the-job training) are key to developing managers with technical and leadership skills that will contribute to the success of the organization. Regardless of the source of the emerging managers, they need support and nurturing to develop into the leaders of tomorrow. Mentoring is one way to do this. The two types of mentoring are formal mentoring and informal mentoring. Informal mentoring occurs through friendship, collegiality, teaching, coaching and counseling. In contrast, formal mentoring is planned and occurs through structured programs in which mentors and proteges are selected and matched through a selection process.

Mentoring, whether it be formal or informal, aims to accomplish the same thing - the pairing of a skilled and experienced senior person, the mentor, with a less experienced and junior person, the protege, to help the protege grow and develop under the guidance of the mentor. Mentoring relationships generally occur on an informal basis in the hospitality industry. This is typified by the general manager who takes a junior manager or supervisor under his protective wing and grooms him for greater responsibility. The relationship is based on an unspoken agreement and is subject to the availability and good will of the senior manager and the relationship that is established. Unlike the informal mentoring relationship, a formal mentoring program clearly defines the mentoring relationship by ensuring that the mentor, protege and organization clearly understand what to expect and what is expected of each party. The goals are the same but its process is different.

Coaching is an informal approach to management development based on a close relationship between the development manager and one other person, usually their immediate manager, who is experienced in management. The manager as coach helps trainees to develop by giving them the opportunity to perform an increasing range of management tasks, and by helping them to learn from their experiences. They work to improve the trainee’s performance by asking searching questions, discussion, exhortation, encouragement, understanding, counseling, and providing information and feedback. It is vital that the coach is someone who has experienced those tings which the trainee is now learning. Coaching aims to enhance the performance and learning ability of others. It involves providing feedback, but it also uses other techniques such as motivation, effective questioning and consciously matching your management style to the coachee readiness to undertake a particular task. It is based on helping the coachee to help her/himself through dynamic interaction; it does not rely on a one-way flow of telling and instructing. The disadvantages are that you will have trouble finding most of those groups, you are frequently assigned a coach, you must know and understand exactly what you want from your ideal coach, you are limited to the number of coaches within the group, if any prescreening of coaches is done it is performed using mysterious methods, these groups are normally more expensive, they normally require contracts, you are required to negotiate fees with a range of different fee structures, you will probably be restricted by geography, you will possibly encounter sales techniques, and you are on your own. Problems of coaching will be someone who does not want to be coached, they just keep doing their job with unsolved problem and wrong skill used in the wrong place on wrong person, so it is important to choose the right people and give them the right skills to do the job well.

Delegation is essentially a power-sharing process in which a manager transfers part of his or her authority to another, more junior person. The amount of power which is shared will depend on such factors as the urgency of the situation, the assessment by the senior person of the other’s readiness for power, and the willingness of the senior person to share in the first place. Delegation usually takes place within an operational context and may well be dominated by considerations of urgency or sheer convenience. However, it can also be used as a development tool for giving junior managers the chance to practise or apply new skills in planned way. There are few better ways of assessing someone’s suitability for a possible task them a similar task and observing how well they perform. Where delegation is backed up by mentoring and the support of the senior manager, it is likely to prove a powerful development tool.

Problems with delegation such controlling from the top becomes difficult when the organizations become too large. This calls for Empowerment at lower levels. Such powers can be misused and you need superb control systems to monitor. Unfortunately, both internal and external audit systems fail because people do not have the courage to stand up and point out the mistakes. 4For example, the latest scandal in Paramalat, the Italian food giant confirms it. This company beats Enron/Arthur Anderson scandal by miles. They have been fudging their figures for more than 10 years and their auditors have been certifying their results. The Italian Government is stepping in to save the jobs of 31,000 people. This is another mistake governments make. Let one such organization die, you will never have such cases in future. As long as governments continue to bail out such organizations for political reasons, this will never stop. There will be many more such organizations all over the world. What is being reported is only tip of the iceberg. The senior managers lose touch with that is happening at the grass root level. They depend on communication from lower levels and in the process, filtration and distortion of information takes place. This is inevitable in any communication process. Filtration and distortion are not necessarily intentional. This needs good communication skills on part of the employees. This should also be backed by an excellent control system, as it is found that delegation fails because of lack of adequate and appropriate controls.

One of the biggest barriers to delegation is the perception that you do not have enough time to either adequately explain the task or teach your team member the skills necessary for a delegated task. Even though it may take you less time to complete that task now, where does which put you the next time the task must be completed? This feeling is paradoxical, because one of the main benefits of delegation is saving time. People new to delegation often feel as though they are giving up their control. It is a little frightening to allow a team member to complete a task for which you are ultimately responsible. It was this reason that kept the team leader from delegating at first. Communicating with those to whom you have delegated frequently to check the progress of the task can help decrease this fear and give you some sense of control. Some leaders resist delegation because they do not have faith in their team members. If this is true of you, start by taking small risks. Early successes will encourage you to delegate more. Learn to see the potential in your team and make sure that you have adequately prepared your team members for the tasks you assign. The more prepared they are, the less worried you will be. You are not the only one that may be wary of delegation. Your team members may also have some anxieties of their own. Next, we describe several barriers to delegation from the members of your team.

In conclusion, Management development is now seen as directly linked to enhanced organizational performance. Chief Executives, Managing Directors and Board members play a key role in setting strategy for management development and in determining the criteria for evaluating organizational outcomes. Key stakeholders, including Human Resource practitioners, business unit managers and line managers are significant contributors to the architecture of strategy and evaluation for management development as well as to its implementation. The essay mentioned few problems and difficulties in management development which are training, mentoring, coaching and delegation. The scope of management development activity is broad and there is an increasing recognition of the important role played by informal managerial learning in the development of capable managers. There has been a widespread increase in the use of non-classroom approaches such as coaching and mentoring in both formal and informal management development practices.