Understanding managerial learning can help us to know about how managers learn and the importance of SDL for them. This is the objective of this section and I intend to do it through explaining three topics: (1) the need for managerial, (2) how managers learn, and (3) female managers’ learning.
1) The need for managerial learning: Ohlott, Ruderman and McCauley (1994) defined managerial learning as the development of a person's ability to manage effectively. Managers usually initiate their own learning pursuits (Vaill, 1996). The need for managerial learning was expressed by Tough (1979) by saying: “It is hard to imagine that one could serve usefully in certain occupations without frequent efforts to learn” (Vaill,
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1996, p.32). Moreover, managing is considered a complex skill in which experience matters (McCall et al., 1988). Many researches proved that managers learn throughout their careers (McCally, Lombardo & Morrison 1988; Mumford 1993; Wouters & Buyens 2006). Bennis and Nanus (1997) concluded from their research about leaders that the most essential skill for running organisations is the ability to learn.
Dechant (1990) discovered that the ability to learn, which was considered later the first essential skill for running organisation by Bennis and Nanus (1997), was often neglected. She also concluded three learning competencies that help managers to overcome the mismatch between their current circumstances and the set of skills that they need for running their organisations: (a) the ability of the managers to diagnose their learning needs, (b) the managers have to find resources and devise learning strategies to suit their needs within their situation, and (c) they should evaluate the stages that they have accomplished to reach their learning goals.
The volatility and instability of the current managerial landscape and the necessity for SDL in this environment was studied by Vaill (1996). He concluded that the managers must be flexible and adaptable learners within their work environment and this can be implemented through SDL. He describes the managerial and organisational landscape as "permanent white water” within which self-directedness becomes essential as managers have different circumstances. Moreover, he believes that the manager is the only person who is capable of identifying his or her learning needs which leads him or her to implement an inventive, exploratory learning. The notion of "white water" which is used by Vaill makes the managers feel confused and unable to control. Therefore, the traditional, passive models of learning become ineffective in this unstable, turbulent environment because they cannot satisfy the managerial learning needs.
Pedler et al. (2007) believe that self-development is a continuous process and the managers should review their progress to set new goals as time
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proceeds. Then, they should evaluate their progress against their goals and decide what further action, if any, to take. Ideally, this method of thinking, diagnosing and goal setting should be incorporated into the managers’ everyday activities to increase their effectiveness continuously. The following figure explains their learning cycle:
2) How managers learn: Guglielmino and Klatt (1994) investigated 162 successful entrepreneurs to study their SDL abilities. The researchers used the SDLRS (Guglielmino, 1977) and they concluded that there are statistically significant differences between the participants and the general population because the entrepreneurs had higher scores on the SDLRS than the managers and supervisors. Therefore, this was considered a clear indication that if someone is considered a self- directed learner according to the SDLRS, he or she will be successful at doing jobs that require skills like problem-solving, change and innovation and these are necessary skills for managers.
Many researchers showed that managers learn throughout their careers (Davies & Easterby-Smith 1984; McCall, Lombardo, & Morrison 1988; Mumford 1993; Wouters & Buyens 2006). These researches also indicated that continuous management development relies strongly on managers’ individual initiatives, nearly half of the managers' development happens through on job experience and another third of
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managers' learning occurs through relationships within the workplaces (McCall, Lombardo, & Morrison, 1988). The relationship between managers and learning was also explored by Cope (2003) who confirmed that managers need certain professional competencies to be able to manage their business successfully.
Some researches indicated that only 20% of managerial learning is done through formal training programs (Dechant, 1989). Cope (2003) stated that "Many managers become actively engaged in learning to be effective managers of people and resources" (Cope, 2003, p.429). Moreover, a survey of 84 managers was done by Enos, Kehrhahn, and Bell (2003) in the insurance industry to learn to how managers learned core skills revealed that informal learning was the predominant method for acquiring managerial skills. The survey also indicated that managerial learning occurs through interactions with and observations of other managers. Moreover, the surveyed managers stated that job experience provided included work problems that required action and this provided essential learning, and 70% of their job-related learning activities were informal in nature.
Contant (1996) made a survey of public sector managers and he concluded that job experience was the most highly rated form of learning. The survey indicated that 56% of the survey respondents considered their interactions with their peers, i.e. managers, very important constituent of their learning. Moreover, nearly the third (30%) of the surveyed managers stated that classroom education was important for their development throughout their careers. The surveyed managers also indicated that they consider their learning from the results of their decisions important for their development.
A survey of 84 managers in the insurance sector was made to understand how managers learn core skills. The results showed that the predominant method for acquiring managerial skills was informal learning which happened in particular through interactions with other managers and observing them. Moreover, informal learning, as the surveyed managers
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stated, formed 70% of all their job-related learning activities (Enos, Kehrhan & Bell, 2003). This survey also indicated that managers consider job experience as the source of challenging work problems that need taking decisions and actions, and this experience is highly regarded by those managers as it provided them with the essential learning that they needed.
Many researchers (McCall, Lombardo & Morrison 1988; McCauley, Mumford 1993; Ruderman, Ohlott & Morrow 1994) concluded that challenging assignments are considered the essence of their managerial learning experiences throughout their careers. The studied managers in these researches stated clearly that they have learned many useful skills from the difficult assignments. They indicated that they have learned important issues like how to handle ambiguity and strategies of identifying the important or key ideas, factors etc. Furthermore, the traditional skills of managers like selection, training and motivating employees were also considered by the studied managers as important issues that they have learned and mastered.
The importance of assignments for managerial learning was studied in detail by Mumford (1993). He studied 141 managers who work at 41 different organisations and concluded that they learn from certain assignments. The study showed that learning appears in many occasions which were grouped into three categories: (a) the present job of the manager, (b) assignments like projects and committees, and (c) the new jobs. Moreover, it was discovered that the managers' present jobs provided them with important opportunities for learning when there were new demands or changes, or when the managers changed their opinion regarding what was included in that job. It is worth mentioning that most of the participants stated that their learning was unplanned, disorganised and unreflective. Sherlock (2000) concluded from his studies of transformative learning that CEOs lack critical reflection on learning.
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McCauley, Ruderman, Ohlott & Morrow (1994) concluded that learning environments need support to be established during highly stressful managerial assignments. The required types of support include the approval of others, relationships between co-workers and peers, endorsement of one’s ideas in addition to permissions to fail. Moreover, the study also revealed that severely challenging assignments may cause a severe stress which may make managers fail to recognise the inner opportunities that they have.
Tinelli (2000) conducted a study of two corporate leaders who were working on transforming their organisations and he concluded that managerial learning is both accidental and incidental. He explained that accidental learning happens during overcoming obstacles that occur when managers try to accomplish their tasks. On the other hand, incidental learning is rooted in the work itself, i.e. it was not planned nor managed by the managers. Moreover, it was discovered that reflection happens within the framework of the job when decisions must be taken by managers. The study also revealed that the essential factors that influenced the leaders' learning were: (a) the organisational context, (b) the usage of intuition to guide the processes of decision-making, (c) the network of professional relationships, and (d) the daily prayer.
Away from the Western societies, Man (2006) conducted a research in Hong Kong to study twelve entrepreneurs in order to know how they learn. The interviewees considered critical events as an important source of learning throughout their career. The study concluded that there are six behavioral learning patterns which can be regarded as learning competencies: (a) learning constantly, (b) learning in depth, (c) learning selectively and purposely, (d) transferring learning into current practice (e) reflecting upon experience, and (f) seeking learning opportunities. The study indicated that formal training for entrepreneurs should focus mainly on practicing these six learning behavioral patterns more than focusing on gaining certain knowledge and skills.
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Antonacopoulou (2006) studied 78 managers at three different banks to understand how they develop their activities. The study revealed that the managers received a strong motivation to learn by themselves from the level of organisational support. On the other hand, the managers who received low levels of support learnt only what was expected from them to perform their duties. Anyway, most of those managers felt that they were encouraged to learn more and develop their skills.
Tremblay (1991) concluded from his study that a large amount of workplace learning is either self-directed or informal despite that fact that training programs at organisations usually focus on learning in classrooms. McCall, Lombardo & Morrison (1988) concluded that continuous management development depends generally on the initiatives of the individual managers, and almost half of this development results from the experience which is gained from work. Moreover, nearly the third of the managerial learning happens throughout relationships within the job environment. However, Landriault & Gosselin (1997) found that the training managers showed interest in knowing more about SDL in workplace and they believed that the workers lacked the required skills to practice SDL. The study also revealed that those training managers ignored or did not have adequate understanding of SDL.
3) Female managers’ learning: The aim of including this section is to understand the main topics and researches which are related to the female managers’ learning. This will is useful for understanding any similar issues or topics that the participants may raise regarding gender differences in the field of SDL. There are many researchers in the West who studied managerial learning by women and gender differences regarding managerial learning. It was proved that gender has influence on how managers obtain developmental opportunities and the types of the opportunities sought by managers of both sexes. For example, it was discovered that in the USA female managers are 45% of managers, but in general, women managers find difficulties in gaining the developmental
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experiences they want to go up on the management ladder (Catalyst, 2004, 2007). Other researches also indicated that women's methods of learning are unique because they gain their managerial advancement through methods that are different from men (Bryans & Mavi 2003; Catalyst 2004, 2005).
The notion of how male and female managers report or regard their experience in the field of mentoring was studied by White, Cox, and Cooper (1992). Their research indicated that both sexes had positive mentoring relationships and they also gained what is called 'informal' networks through their mentors. The women managers who had been mentors reported that affirmation from their mentoring relationships and the men said that they have taken into consideration the benefits of being mentors for their own career progression. Moreover, the women also stated that they have learned from their ex-mentors how to exert an appropriate corporate image. On the other hand, the men said that they have learned this from their observation when they thought it was necessary to learn it (White et al., 1992). Powell (1993) concluded from his study that many women have problems regarding mentoring such as failing to recognise the value of the mentor, encountering difficulties in finding a mentor or lacking the necessary skill to find the mentor they need.
Fenwick and Hutton (2000) investigated through interviews 95 women entrepreneurs to understand how they develop while they were managing their businesses in Canada. Most of these women did not have a business education. The researchers concluded that there are three important themes related to entrepreneurial learning: (a) the entrepreneurs chose what they wanted to learn by themselves, (b) the knowledge produced indicated what these women valued, and (c) the learning process itself was described by networking experiences with people who were internal and external to their businesses. Moreover, most of the interviewees referred to the importance of learning how to learn and indicated that they mentioned that their confidence had
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developed. Half of them stated that they had personal weakness in business finance and marketing, and they also considered hiring and managing staff a necessary management skill. They learnt how to manage their employees through intuition, seeking advice and experimenting. Regarding SDL, the researchers concluded that the emergent and unpredictable nature of the participants’ experience as entrepreneurs cannot be properly described by current depictions of SDL.
Van Velsor and Hughes (1990) implemented studies that included 189 male managers and 78 female managers to know the differences between them regarding their learning experiences. The participants were asked to identify significant learning evens; job assignments were considered as the significant learning events, but many women managers indicated that they consider other people significant for their learning (i.e. women managers learn more from other people than male managers).
Bryan and Mavin (2003) conducted a study to investigate the experience of six women managers in the UK to understand how they have learnt to become managers. The studied participants clearly indicated that they have used their former managers as role models to gain their knowledge about management and they also stated that social interactions with others in addition to their observations were adopted and used by them to develop and gain their managerial experience.
Singh, Vinnicombe and James (2006) conducted a research which included interviews with ten English women to explore what they have learned through their usage of role models about management. The researchers concluded that there are six categories of learning: (a) control, (b) determination, (c) style, (d) personal characteristics, (e) leadership, and (f) life skills. The interviewees informed that researchers that they have used the challenging job assignments to develop and manage their employees because this was the same type that was used by their own managers to develop and manage them previously.
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C. Culture: Since this research is in the Middle East, it is necessary to try to