Wk 4 HR Disc 4

9-8: MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT

LO6

Identify the several management development methods.

Although development is important for all employees, it is essential for managers. Without appropriate development, managers may lack the capabilities to best deploy and manage resources (including employees) throughout the organization. While classroom training can be helpful, experience often contributes more to the development of senior managers because much of it occurs in varying real-life, on-the-job situations.

However, in many organizations it is difficult to find managers for middle-level jobs that provide important work experience. Some individuals refuse to take middle-management jobs, feeling that they are caught between upper management and supervisors. Similarly, not all companies take the time to develop their own senior-level managers. Instead, senior managers and executives are often hired from outside, leaving the company’s middle managers behind. Figure 9-10 shows experience-based sources of managers’ learning and lists some important lessons for supervisors, middle managers, and senior-level executives that should be provided by development activities.

FIGURE 9-10: Management Lessons Learned from Job Experience

Numerous approaches are used to mold and enhance the experiences that managers need to be effective.85 The most widely used methods are supervisor development, leadership development, management modeling, management coaching, management mentoring, and executive education.

9-8a: Supervisor Development

The beginning level for managerial development is the first-line supervisory job. It is often difficult to go from being a member of the work group to being the boss. Therefore, the new supervisors who are used to functioning as individual contributors often require new skills and mind-sets to be successful supervisors.

Employers may conduct presupervisor training. This is done to provide realistic job previews of what supervisors will face and to convey to individuals that they cannot just rely on their current job skills and experience in their new positions. Development for supervisors may vary but usually includes some common elements. The usual contents for supervisor training and development includes several topics, such as basic management responsibilities, time management, and human relations.

Human relations training helps to prepare supervisors to deal with “people problems” associated with overseeing employees. The training focuses on the development of the human relations skills a person needs to work well with others. Most human relations programs are aimed at new or relatively inexperienced first-line supervisors and middle managers. They cover motivation, leadership, employee communication, conflict resolution, team building, and other behavioral topics.

The most common reason employees fail after being promoted to a supervisors’s job is poor teamwork with subordinates and peers. Other common reasons for management failure include not understanding expectations, failure to meet goals, difficulty adjusting to management responsibilities, and inability to balance work and home lives.

9-8b: Leadership Development

Organizations are aware that effective leaders create positive change and are important for organizational success. Firms such as Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, and 3M Company are among the top firms in leadership development. Leadership development is expanding a person’s capacity to be effective in leadership roles. This development occurs in many ways: classroom programs, assessments, modeling, coaching, job assignments, mentoring, and executive education.

While universities may produce smart, ambitious graduates with good technical skills, many face a very steep learning curve when making the change from school into leadership positions.86 Common ways to help individuals transition successfully into leadership roles include modeling, coaching, mentoring, and executive education.

Modeling

A common adage in management development says that managers tend to manage as they were managed. In other words, managers learn by behavior modeling, or copying someone else’s behavior. This tendency is not surprising, because a great deal of human behavior is learned by modeling. Children learn by modeling the behaviors of parents and older children. Management development efforts can take advantage of natural human behavior by matching young or developing managers with appropriate models and then reinforcing the desirable behaviors exhibited by the learners. The modeling process involves more than straightforward imitation or copying. For example, one can learn what not to do by observing a model who does something wrong. Thus, exposure to both positive and negative models can benefit a new manager as part of leadership development efforts.

Coaching

Coaching effective leadership requires patience and good communication skills.87 As noted earlier, coaching combines observation with suggestions. Like modeling, it complements the natural way humans learn. An outline of good coaching pointers will often include the following:

Explain appropriate behaviors.

Make clear why actions were taken.

Accurately state observations.

Provide possible alternatives/suggestions.

Follow up and reinforce positive behaviors used.

Leadership coaching is a specific application of coaching. Companies may use outside experts as executive coaches to help managers improve leadership skills. Sometimes these experts are used to help deal with problematic management styles. Consultants serving as executive coaches predominantly come from a psychology or counseling background and can serve many roles for a client by providing key questions and general directions. Sometimes they meet with employees in person, but many do their coaching by phone or electronically. Research on the effectiveness of leadership coaching suggests that coaching can be beneficial in dealing with chronic stress, psychological difficulties, and even physiological problems faced by executives and managers.

Management Mentoring

A method called management mentoring is a relationship in which experienced managers aid individuals in the earlier stages of their careers.88 Such a relationship provides an environment for conveying technical, interpersonal, and organizational skills from a more-experienced person to a designated less-experienced person. Not only does the inexperienced employee benefit, but the mentor also may enjoy having the opportunity and challenge of sharing wisdom.89

Management mentoring

A relationship in which experienced managers aid individuals in the earlier stages of their careers.

Fortunately, many individuals have a series of advisors or mentors during their careers and may find advantages in learning from the different mentors. Additionally, those being mentored may find previous mentors to be useful sources for networking. Figure 9-11 describes the four stages in most successful mentoring relationships.

FIGURE 9-11: Stages in Management Mentoring Relationships

In many countries around the world, the proportion of women holding management jobs is lower than the proportion of men holding such jobs. Similarly, the number of racial and ethnic minorities who fill senior management positions is also low. Company mentoring programs that focus specifically on women and individuals of different racial/ethnic backgrounds have been successful in some larger firms. On the basis of various narratives of successful women executives, breaking the glass ceiling requires developing political sophistication, building credibility, and refining management styles aided by mentoring.

Executive Education

Executives in an organization often face difficult jobs because of changing and unknown circumstances. Churning at the top of organizations and the stresses of executive jobs contribute to increased turnover in these positions. In an effort to decrease turnover and increase management development capabilities, organizations are using specialized education for executives. This type of training includes executive education traditionally offered by university business schools and adds strategy formulation, financial models, logistics, alliances, and global issues. Enrollment in Executive Masters of Business Administration (EMBA) degree programs is also popular.

9-8c: Problems with Management Development Efforts

Management development efforts are subject to certain common mistakes and problems. Many of the problems have resulted from inadequate HR planning and a lack of coordination of HR development efforts. Common problems include the following:

Failing to conduct adequate needs analysis

Trying out fad programs or training methods

Substituting training for selecting qualified individuals

Another common management development problem is encapsulated development, which occurs when an individual learns new methods and ideas, but returns to a work unit that is still bound by old attitudes and methods. The development was “encapsulated” in the classroom and is essentially not used on the job. Consequently, individuals who participate in development programs paid for by their employers may become discouraged and move to new employers who allow them to use their newly developed capabilities more effectively.

SUMMARY

Management development is a special focus in many organizations, including supervisor development and leadership development.

Management modeling, coaching, and mentoring are valuable parts of management development efforts.