Development and Training of Managers

Good executives look to the future. Every firm has the responsibility of helping in the development of men who have the potential to contribute their full measure to the welfare of the firm and to society.

By 1954 training was at a critical stage. Although it was then making inroads into enterprises, it was also being reexamined with a critical eye by its early adherents.

A developed manager is a mature manager, successful because he has grown in wisdom. Managerial wisdom requires time and rests upon the ancient truth – first attributed to Homer – that a man may be taught but does not necessarily learn.

The practice of management training encompasses formal schooling or on-the-job training or it may be as remote as theoretical psychology; it may cover all of the managerial functions, some of them, or only aspects of them; and it may be given to individuals or groups within or without the firm.

In formulating a training program there are certain elements: purpose, general premises, the nature of positions at various levels, past experience in training, and the nature of man himself. The validity of the training program rests on seven premises:

- Top managers must actively support the program.

- Top managers must be trained first.

- Learning is voluntary.

- Training needs vary with managers levels.

- Training needs determine methods.

- Methods must work at all levels.

- Theory and practice must go hand in hand.

A man may also develop by learning from experience. In manager development, experience is considered more important than training. Learning a skill requires practice and the development of generalizations about good practice on the basis of both theoretical and practical experience.

Manager development, then, is possible if the man has the intelligence and the desire to make the best use of his learning opportunities; if he is well trained in what he should be doing in each successive position; and if he practices management with insight and growing skill. Unless this comprehensive view of development is grasped, enterprise mangers are likely to settle for unsatisfactory scraps of training – and continue to wonder why training doesn’t pay.

The ultimate objective of training is to encourage the development of men in whom others have confidence. Stockholders and directors want a president who can be relied upon to guide the firm in the best interests of the owners. Subordinates of the president want a superior they can trust. Confidence rests upon the security which men of judgment can provide. Indeed, knowledge and experience, whether acquired in school or by practical pursuits, are the whetstones upon which natural intelligence is sharpened.

Topic #8

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 872