Management development

Meaning and Concept

– Any attempt to improve current or future management performance by imparting knowledge, changing attitudes, or increasing skills.

Succession planning

– A process through which senior-level openings are planned for and eventually filled.

• Anticipate management needs
• Review firm’s management skills inventory
• Create replacement charts
• Begin management development

Managerial on-the-Job Training

• Job rotation
– Moving a trainee from department to department to broaden his or her experience and identify strong and weak points.

• Coaching/Understudy approach
– The trainee works directly with a senior manager or with the person he or she is to replace; the latter is responsible for the trainee’s coaching.

• Action learning
– Management trainees are allowed to work full-time analyzing and solving problems in other departments.

Off-the-Job Management Training and Development Techniques

• Case study method
– Managers are presented with a description of an organizational problem to diagnose and solve.

• Management game
– Teams of managers compete by making computerized decisions regarding realistic but simulated situations.

• Outside seminars
– Many companies and universities offer Web-based and traditional management development seminars and conferences.

• Role playing
– Creating a realistic situation in which trainees assume the roles of persons in that situation.

• Behavior modeling
– Modeling: showing trainees the right (or “model”) way of doing something.
– Role playing: having trainees practice that way
– Social reinforcement: giving feedback on the trainees’ performance.
– Transfer of learning: Encouraging trainees apply their skills on the job.

• Corporate universities
– Provides a means for conveniently coordinating all the company’s training efforts and delivering Web-based modules that cover topics from strategic management to mentoring.

• In-house development centers
– A company-based method for exposing prospective managers to realistic exercises to develop improved management skills.

• Executive coaches
– An outside consultant who questions the executive’s boss, peers, subordinates, and (sometimes) family in order to identify the executive’s strengths and weaknesses.
– Counsels the executive so he or she can capitalize on those strengths and overcome the weaknesses.