With reference to the literature, what are the main trends in MD and how will it evolve in the future? Do you think leadership development and management development will continue to co-exist or will one supplant the other?
Management Development
Management development is the process through which managers of an organization are trained, and learn on ways to advance their specific managerial skills in order to benefit both their organization in terms of better services provision, and themselves on a personal level. It is important to recognize the fact that managerial efficiency is a crucial part of success of any organization, hence, the decision made by the organization to invest in management can as well be linked to the related economic benefits for the organization. Although managers are regularly exposed to activities that involve learning in their day to day working process, most of them usually take the form of informal learning, while management development can be defined as a learning activity that requires the use of formal learning procedures.
Main trend in management development
According to Marquis (2002), in the year 2012, the focus in management development has taken a different turn. It no longer emphasizes the development of individual managers, distinct functions, or perhaps the major staff members of the organization, but is now largely concerned with the capabilities of the organization as a whole. This shift occurred due to the realization that management development entails a lot more than just training, but a more comprehensive set of procedure for the development of organizational capabilities. Therefore, in the beginning of 2012, management development process underwent significant changes both in terms of focus and in the related procedures. As it has been outlined by Lencioni (2002), the perception of management development has completely changed, describing management development as a pipeline that is focused on the future in terms of the need for talent in the given organization.
Management development plays an important role in molding the general behavior of managers in relation to their work. It is therefore encouraged that the managers should strive to understand the capacity of present management through which the assumptions can be made on the future situations, and hence the ability to improve competency among the organizations’ staff for the achievement of the objectives which are meant to be implemented on long-term scale. According to Northouse (2004), the trend in 2012 is more focused in developing managers a specific way that makes it possible for the organization to invest with the aim of obtaining management development strategies that goes hand in hand with the organization long-term objectives as well as the existence of competency that promise more benefits. In the process of exploring the new inventive means of allocation of the management development expected budgets, there increases the capability among the organization managers on the expertise of making informed and useful decisions on the investments plans of concern to the organization (Cummings, 2004).
The organization has come to the realization of the actual importance of some educative programs in relation to the management and the key staff of the company. In this light, the organizations are making use of their independent earned internal resource to fund and implement the management development programs into the organization development system. These important programs are focused on the subject of corporate internal trainers as well as the mentorship related programs of the organization. Cummings (2004) outlines that the managerial internal courses that focus on management generic competency subjects are the most effective and the best of all the management development lessons. The lessons involving factors such as organization, planning techniques, control and leadership are generic in nature and so they can be applied to a good number of the overall workforce in management (Drucker, 2007). Moreover, there also exist a number of sectors that make demand of some sort of particular organization related content and so the delivery must be done by the organization specific key staff. The general implementation of such internal management programs that is specific to the organization demand a capable staff who can ensure the realization of effective as well as efficient attaining of results (Marquis, 2009).
Management development has for a long time been part and parcel of strategic management in a number of ways. It is a known fact that strategic management is mainly focused on the general as well as specific improvement on the productivity, efficiency and the overall state of the organization so as to be able to utilize and maximize the organization internal and external resources (Zanko, 2002). This in turn leads to increased productivity in the functioning of the organization, the management development has for over the years been implemented into the organization system as a means to improve the performance of the organization in terms of output and produce but also as a means through which the organization is able to utilize as well as maximize its resources for its own set benefits. As Giuliani (2002), this was achieved through the organization investment in the required learning procedure of the key managerial post holders and the relevant staff in the organization. It is therefore evident that since the historical times of the management development, the technique was and still is a major part of strategic management.
In the earlier years the management development programs were set up to focus mainly on the individual manager gaining the required skills and little to do with the organization as a structure. The process mainly involved such functions as the process that were set up in the organizations so as to structure the general informal way of learning as it is bound to take place regularly (Lencioni, 2002). The management development procedure was directed in the formal training of the managers on different subject’s matter ranging from technical subjects to educative management running skill oriented courses. The executive based education provided in the management development procedure covered the entire managerial team of the organization from the lowest seat of junior managers to the team leaders of the organization (Drucker, 2007). These techniques give managers the ability to escalate the performance of all the tasks by means of using the approved solutions.
Ever since the introduction of management development technique, the management development technique has been used to equip the respective managers of the different organizations with the knowledge and the relevant skills that comes in handy in the managerial field whenever need arises, as well as the required solutions. Mumford & Gold (2004) outline that a lot of management related problems that led to popularity of the management development in the organizations as a means to control or perhaps eliminate the challenges faced by the management body.
However in the year 2008 there raised a number of problems related directly to the part of maximizing the operation of the managers. Marquis (2009) notes that the areas of concern are mainly based on the failure of the managers to move to the level of being able to make a consultative decision making approach. Inability of the managers to spend time and be able to communicate with their immediate staff members as well as the fact that staff believed the organization was trying tooth and nail to bring up and develop the coming generation of the future managers (Northouse, 2004). The existence of such problems suggests that the leaders are not in any way anticipating for the future. The failure in establishing effective consultation disables the development of decision making technique of the future managers of the organization. This is in addition to the undefined communication systems which create a barrier in gaining of knowledge and the general state of awareness among the upcoming managers of the organization (Lencioni, 2002).
The concept of management development before 2008 was therefore more individual oriented, and had the aim to equip the management body of an organization with the relevant expertise that will enable the individual manager improve his communication skills, not only with his fellow managers but also with the other employees of an organization with an aim to improve the organization’s management effectively (Marquis, 2009). The other place of concern in the 2008 management development was to focus on the developing the organization’s management body in the decision making techniques. This was an important subject as it is of importance to the organization for the managers to be able to make informed decisions concerning the running of the organization (Cecil & Rothwell, 2007).
The different decisions that are made by the management are bound to have direct effect on the organization hence the need for emphasis on the subject matter of equipping all the managers with the required skills. This is meant to enable them make the decisions that are of benefit to the organization and carry positive returns that will lead to the general state of well being of the whole organization. According to Marquis (2009), the organization management development in the 2008 had the objective to improve the consultative ability among the managers in bid to encourage team playing property among the managers. The consultative property was important as it encouraged the manager to work together and participate in the collective making of decisions which was important as it ensured the making of better informed, and wise decisions that are bound to be beneficial to the organization as a whole (Mumford & Gold, 2004).
The future trends in management development
In the 1990s, according to Marquis (2009), management development trends portrayed such trends as; a trans-national opinion of programs implemented, less opportunities for the managerial body spending long periods outside work environment. Moreover, management development was more concerned with the acquisition and the relevant application of real-life demand in the organization. The organization encouraged managers to be responsible for their learning in order to attain the goals of management development, the realization of the chance that management development could be achieved through learning by the use of specific courses, as well as the fact that the client organizations were focusing on the establishment of their private database systems. In addition to this, they also employed the tutors who ran the business courses as well as insisting on the members of the organization to take participation in business teaching school based courses management for them. The trend of management development in the 1990s was no doubt tiresome and it put little pressure on the managers to enhance management development and improvement in attempt to utilize the organization’s resources (Lencioni, 2002).
The future trends of management development are more organization related as the company seeks to address the entire subject related to the organization that needs to be understood by the managers in bid to ensure the absolute maximization of the organization resources. As Marquis (2009) outlines, the future trend in the management development ensures that the organization takes full responsibility in ensuring that its managers are being equipped with the relevant expertise which will enable the organization compete fairly in the competitive world of business. The organization is equipped with the responsibility to take care of all the financial as well as any other form of support that may be needed to ensure that the management development projects proceed in accordance to plan (Mumford & Gold, 2004).
In the near future, as Lencioni (2002) outlines, the environment of the world in terms of management development is expected to be more focused on the utilization of the multi-interaction of the virtual world space as the training eventually takes replacement of supervision, in the quest of getting the best results in terms of the output and profit of the organization. The future world is endowed with technological advancement that ensures the availability of all the required in formation in their best possible format. Due to this reason, the future world of management development operates on different defined rules which include the fact that considerable shelf-life exclusively remains for reasons of knowledge, ideas, skills, competencies and values that enables the organization to take control and influence the future circumstances Northouse, 2004).
However, the shortcoming facing management development in future is the inability for the organization managers to learn at the pace of the changing world as well as the fact that the output of the organization in the future is bound to depend on even wider, not to mention the broad range in relation to knowledge, the required skills, the upheld values, competencies and technology at large (Lencioni, 2002). This puts the management development program in a position that it has to implement not only wider range of information but also the learning process to take as little time as possible in order to keep pace with the demands of the future world. The future trend in management development therefore is in full support of the continuous learning process that is based on the acquisition of the relevant skills, as well as knowledge necessary in the application in the future of the real world business (Marquis, 2009).
The relationship between Leadership development and Management development in future
In the running of the organization, Marquis (2009) outlines that the leadership is normally responsible with the making of decisions on the right thing to do in relation to the organization orient matters; they establish the direction of action and in the establishment of the goals to be achieved. Management, on the other hand, takes the responsibility of ensuring that the course of action established by the leadership sectors is followed to the letter. Management works in such a way that it ensures the laid down objectives of the organization is achieved in the in the most effective and cost efficient way possible (Northouse, 2004). The leaders are bound to employ and make use of the management based skills while the managers are bound to make use of the leadership based skills as well. There is need for coexistence between the leaders and managers in order to achieve more productivity and general efficiency in the organization as one cannot replace the other at the same time the efficiency in one is directly dependent on the other.
It is more likely than not that leadership and management development are in the verge of coexisting in the future due to the fact that in the years to come, organizations seem to face a greater need to perform better and to increase productivity and efficiency, which will be highly demanded for the organization’s survival (Lencioni, 2002). The leaders and managers are likely going to be faced with no other alternative but to work together to ensure the survival of the organization in the competitive world of tomorrow.
Self learning audit
The management development procedure, must involve regular self auditing and assessment in order in a bid to locate the progress of an individual in every development stage. For a successful practice of this there ought to be a standard guideline to focus on in self auditing. The very best guideline that has registered a great success is a six step guide that includes: focused motivation, leadership prioritization and commitment, student service, measurements and goals, staff support and a practical approach (Giuliani, 2002). These factors are geared to give a clear measurement of success as the average score is as close to the true measure of the progress of an individual in leadership development. These success factors are helpful tools in self learning audit as they cover the three most important processes that cater for both the most basic and the outright unique needs of various organizations and companies. Thus, the first factor involves achieving a well balanced internal assessment that will provide the starting point on which an individual can comfortably air the results of the process of self development and convince as to the reasons bringing about the conviction of self progress.
Second on the list is obtaining a standard comparison of other valid leadership and management initiatives that are at the same level as the one participated in. This is especially helpful as it provides a wider scope in a particular area of learning and enhances the process of making the whole exercise measurable to world standards.
Management development has been an important issue on the agenda of numerous organizations for a long time. However, only very recently the development of individual managers was connected to the overall organizational learning and started to converge with leadership development. It has become more common to view management development not as an individual training, but as a set of educational and practical activities, which should be closely integrated into organizational daily operations. Only in this way it will be possible to embrace the full benefits of management development in the future and to use the opportunities that this practice can offer.
References
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