Fluent Essays

Management Development and Equity Training Management Development, Education, and Training Management development refers to the process by which individuals grow, learn, and improve their abilities to perform managerial tasks within organizations. This can be accomplished by obtaining management education, which refers to the acquisition of a broad range of managerial knowledge and general conceptual abilities, and is usually obtained through college or university programs; or by receiving management training, which refers to activities designed to impart specific managerial skills, and is usually arranged by the organization. Managers are necessary for developing or redesigning a culture based on norms defined by senior management. As well, improving manager functioning helps to improve overall organizational performance, and acquiring a reserve of knowledge is a safeguard for an undefined future. Management Development Strategy The choices that managers make depend on continually competing demands from the boss, subordinates, the job itself, the environment, and technology. These demands dictate options that shape long-term organizational strategy. The focus of management development is to cultivate collective talents and capabilities required to create innovative products and services. Training must fit the organization’s culture and must begin with strategy formation. In a strategy-driven organization, management is seen as a process of interpretation rather than one of control, and involvement or ownership is seen as crucial. Leadership is viewed as a renewable resource that is neither easily copied nor stolen, and managers are given autonomy appropriate to their expertise and position. Controlled chaos is accepted because it fosters innovation and change, and integrity is part of the cultural orientation that leads to respect in the community. Choosing a Method of Management Development The chosen management development method depends on the firm’s long-term strategy as it relates to culture, role of the manager in the culture, and the changing external environment. Core skills are tangible competencies that required at every management level. This process begins at orientation and continues throughout managers’ careers. A new approach called 360 degree feedback has the ability to identify developmental needs by receiving feedback from various sources, such as subordinates, peers, customers, and supervisors. Programs to develop managers include MBA programs, computer-assisted training, and internal and external courses. Discretionary skills are leadership and change management competencies. There are many differences between managers and leaders: managers administer, maintain, focus on structure and control, work in the short term, and do the job right; leaders innovate, develop, focus on people, develop trust, work in the long-term, and do the right job. Leadership initiatives and change management are usually trained on the job and linked to the organization’s strategy. Otherwise, training may be ineffective because continual change will be difficult to achieve. Coaching involves identifying required changes, providing perspectives necessary to be effective, and developing plans to try new behaviors. Coaching includes two functions: to improve performance/skills and to establish relationships to enhance psychological development. Learning from experience is based on action-learning theories that suggest that exposure to rich settings provide optimal conditions for development. Job rotation exposures many functions within the firm as a part of an ongoing career development program. It is the main activity that links education and training in the workplace. The Trainer’s Role in Management Development The trainer becomes a change agent and internal consultant when developing managers. The trainer focuses on developing mechanisms that allow for talent to be matched with opportunity. Trainers are involved with policies and procedures regarding special assignments, responsibility enhancement, job rotation, staff assignments, and reward systems. They also assess leadership potential, previous experience, and employee strengths and weaknesses, and they design career paths and manage the learning process to integrate learning with work. Trainers must include coaching in the training process and they must build ethical standards into training. They must also evaluate training effectiveness because effectiveness is often overlooked by organizations. Equity Training and Acknowledging Diversity Equity refers to the treatment of employees in a fair and nonbiased manner. Access to resources and opportunities should not be denied based on irrelevant grounds such as gender or race. Designated groups, including females, non European descendants, Aboriginal persons, and people with disabilities, must have equitable opportunity to undertake training. As well, trainers must be aware of the possible learning difference among cultures, and recognition of cultural differences should guide development of training programs that account for cultural diversity. Cultural conditioning refers to the different learning styles of different cultures. Canadian educational philosophies are guided by western world views, which emphasize individual competition and achievement, mastery and control of nature, adherence to rigid time schedules, limited affective expressions, and ethnocentrism. Most trainers have been educated in the western world, and beliefs may underlie unconscious acts of discrimination during training. Diverse training teams are more creative and solve problems more effectively compared to homogenous groups. Because diverse training teams focus on problems more broadly, a wider range of perspectives are used to critically evaluate problems and generate alternatives. Discrimination refers to actions and personal and institutional belief systems that result in inequitable treatment of certain groups of employees. Stereotyping, or classifying people based on visible characteristics and then deducing personality or behavior traits, blocks learning within organizations. The dominant model of instruction within North America is the transmission model, whereby the content, knowledge, and subject matter of training are perceived to be universal, yet the curriculum is ethnocentric. This type of curriculum may cause students to refrain from introducing their culture into classroom discussions because of fear, discomfort, or embarrassment. Instructors should encourage participation by responding positively to students and by allowing time for student responses and discussions. Pedagogy When persons of non European descent are in a subordinate group, teaching that considers their language and culture significantly increases their academic success. Therefore, training programs must be designed to accommodate students’ culturally conditioned learning styles. Individuals in subordinate positions have to work harder to maintain conversations by asking more questions, and by supporting and encouraging responses, because they are less powerful compared to the instructor. As well, a large part of information is communicated nonverbally, and these behaviors are often culture specific. Confusing or misreading behaviors may result from misinterpreting actions that have different meanings for different cultures. Training effectiveness requires the recognition and elimination of discriminatory practices. Trainees with Special Needs Persons with disabilities are individuals with a physical or mental impairment limiting one or more major life activities. It has been suggested that special needs persons can perform eighty percent of the jobs outlined in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles if given the appropriate equipment. The tools and techniques used to assist special needs workers vary from inexpensive to highly sophisticated, and organizational funding is usually available to help employees with disabilities. Classroom lectures should occur on the ground floor of a facility that does not have an elevator. Lecture notes should be recorded on audio or videocassette. Sound can be amplified, braille printers can be purchased, and sign language interpreters can be solicited. As well, several computer companies have designed technology to serve special needs persons. Chapter Favorites · The continual flowchart of the management development process in chapter 12 is a concise means of accounting for all the factors involved in management development. It would be shortsighted to consider an appropriate management development strategy but not consider the climate, the context, and culturally acceptable delivery systems. · It is important that the authors included a section in chapter 12 on developing leaders, and that they recognize that managers and leaders are not exactly the same. The leadership development section is particularly useful for great managers who may be in a position of stagnancy and wish to strive beyond their expected duties. · Exercise 1 in chapter 12 presents an excellent opportunity to assess the actual responsibilities of managers, and to determine if traditional methods to training them are appropriate. · The information in Table 13.1 contains valuable information about some of the many differences among cultures. Throughout school, I have been the type of person to migrate toward people of different cultures, particularly if they had difficulties understanding English. These friends are some of my favorite people because they provide me with many very interesting insights. As well, they generally try so hard to understand our culture and live among our customs, so we should allow them the same courtesy. Areas for Chapter Improvements · The nature of management work section should be at the beginning of chapter 12, following the introduction to management development section. This would help to understand the role of managers before having to determine how to develop this role effectively. · Differences between managers and leaders are outlined on page 310, after which it is stated that ‘no organization would want to hire someone who was either a total leader or a total manager.’ To determine both baseline and optimal levels of manager and leader qualities within employees, a questionnaire similar to Training Today 1, page 350, could be included. · Although the equity section addresses the fact that ‘no one should be denied access to resources or opportunities based on irrelevant grounds,’ training managers to employ recruitment and selection practices that are job-related and legally defensible is extremely important and should be addressed in its own section. Summary of chapters from the following book: Belcourt, M, Wright, P.C., & Saks, A.M. (2000). Managing Performance through Training and Development (2 nd ed.). Scarborough, ON: Nelson Thomson Learning.