Management Development Program

Management development program is a systematic process of training and growth by which individuals gain and apply knowledge, skills, insights and attitudes to manage work organizations effectively.

There is a change of attitudes to manage work organizations effectively.

Management development needs to be a planned, systematic process that integrates the organization's response to changing external and internal environments with the aspirations of individuals within. The change of attitudes and the eventual change of personality is a long process. Such an approach must be flexible enough to accommodate any environmental change. The increasing complexity of problems, both technological and environmental, demands more rigorous skills and talents from managers. The development programs must sense this and re-structure their programs to meet new objectives and goals. Man­

agement development is concerned with developing the attitudes and skills necessary to become or remain an effective manager. To be suc­

cessful, it must have the full support of the organization's top execu­

tives. Management development should be designed, conducted, and evaluated on the basis of the goals of the organization, the needs of the managers involved, and probable changes in the organization's man­

agement team.

Some of the most popular methods of management development program are the following:

Understudy Assignments

Understudy assignments are generally used to develop an em­

ployee to fill a specific job.

Coaching

Coaching by experienced managers stresses the responsibility of all managers for developing subordinates. Experienced managers ad­

vise and guide trainees in solving management problems. Coaching should allow the trainee to develop individual approaches to manage­

ment with the counsel of a more experienced person.

Experience

Development through experience is used in many organizations.

Employees are promoted into management jobs and allowed to learn on their own, from their daily experiences. The primary advantage lies with the manager when he tries to perform certain jobs. He may see the need for development and look for a way to get it.

Job Rotation

Job rotation is designed to give an employee broad experience in many different areas of organization. In understudy assignments, coaching, and experience, the trainee generally receives training and

Figure 5.2 Job rotation offers variety

S .jffln g 151

development for one particular job. In job rotation, the trainee goes from job to job within the organization, generally remaining in each from six months to a year. This technique is often used by large organizations for training recent college graduates.

S p e c ia l P r o je c t s a n d C o m m it t e e A s s ig n m e n t s

Special projects require the employee to learn about a specific subject. For example, a trainee may be told to develop a training pro­

gram on safety. .This would require learning about the present internal safety policies and problems and about the safety training done by other companies. The person must also learn to work and relate to other employees. However - and this is critical - the special assignment must provide a developing and learning experience for the trainee and not just busy work. Committee assignments, similar to special projects, can be used if the organization has standing or ad hoc committees. An employee works with the committee on its regular duties; thus, the person develops skills in working with others and learns through the activities of the committee.

L e c t u r e s

With lecturing, the trainer has control and can present the mate­

rial as desired. The lecture is useful for presenting facts; however, its value in changing attitudes and in teaching skills is somewhat limited.

C a s e S t u d ie s

This technique was popularized by the Harvard Business School.

With this method, sample situations are presented to the trainee to ana­

lyze. Ideally, the case study should force the trainee to think through problems, propose solutions, choose among them, and analyze the con­

sequences of the decision. One primary advantage of the case study method is that it brings a note of realism to the instruction. However, case studies often are simpler than the real situations faced by manag­

ers.

R o le P la y in g

In the role playing method, trainees are required to act out as­

signed roles in a realistic situation. They learn from playing the roles.

The success of this method depends on the ability of the trainees to act realistically. Videotaping allows for review and evaluation of the exer­

cise to improve its effectiveness.

In-Basket Technique

This technique stimulates a realistic situation. It requires the trainee to answer one manager's mail and telephone calls. Important

Business games generally provide a setting of a company and its environment and requires a team of players to make operating deci­

sions. Business games also normally require the use of computer facili­

ties. Often, several different teams in a business game act as companies within an industry. This method forces trainees to work not only with other group members; they also must deal with competition within the industry. Advantages of business games are: they simulate reality; de­

cisions are made in a competitive environment; feedback is provided about decisions; and decisions are made with less than complete data.

University and Professional Association Seminars

Many colleges and universities both offer credit and non-credit courses to help meet the management development needs of various organizations. These courses range from principles of supervisions of advanced executive management programs. Professional associations such as the Philippine Council of Management, also offer a wide variety of management programs. Many of the classroom techniques discussed in this chapter are used in these programs.

H U M A N ASSET A C C O U N T IN G

Human asset (for human resources) accounting attempts to place a value on an organizatiqn*s human asset. It evaluates costs incurred by organizations in recruiting; -hiring, training and developing their hu­

man assets. Primarily, the proponents of human asset accounting feel that the quality of the human resources in an organization should be shovyn on its balance sheet.

Several methods have been suggested for finding the financial value of an organisation's human resources,

1. Start up costs - Derive the original cost of hiring and training personnel as well as the costs of developing working relationships.

2. Replacem ent costs - Estimate the costs of replacing current employees with others of equivalent talents and experience.

Staffing 153

3. Present-value-method - Multiply the present value of the wage payments for the future five years times the firm's efficiency ratio (which is a measure of a firm's rate of return in relation to the advan­

tage rate of return for the indusuy).

4. G oodw ill method - Allocates a portion of the company's earn­

ings in excess to the industry average (goodwill) to human resources.