The Development of Management and Leadership Capability and its ...

• Changing notions of how people learn, especially higher interest in work-based or
action learning, and also types of learning engaging managers at a deeper personal
level in their learning.
Evidence on general changes in the delivery of management development
• An IDS review of management development (1989) pointed to many of the trends we
still see today. There was a strong desire to tailor training and make it useful and this
led to arguments for and against on-the-job training as opposed to off-the-job courses.
Some companies felt they did best through tailored in-house provision and others
joined consortia. MBAs were supported by some companies, with some developing
company or consortia MBAs. Secondment was on the agenda in the late 1980s, but
mentoring and coaching were not mentioned in this review.
Thomson et al. (1997) carried out a large scale survey of management development practice
in the UK. Companies reported a move away from ‘sheep dip’ training and also spread their
training input across all levels of management. Although they wished to see management
development as a longer-term activity, it was still tactical and short-term in implementation,
largely focused on current job requirements. However, over half the organisations supported
managers taking further qualifications. The trend to more context specific training such as
coaching, mentoring and project working has been widely discussed (see also Horne and
Stedman Jones, 2001). However Mabey and Thomson (2000) indicate that formal training is
still very important - 33% of large organisations use more informal than formal management
learning, 24% both equally, and 42% more formal than informal.
• 360-degree feedback has proved to be a powerful lever for engaging managers with
their own need for skill development (Kettley, 1997) and at it is most useful when
integrated into a development programme.
• Woodhall and Welchman’s study (1998) on ‘work based management development’
in 31 organisations concluded there was a gap between all the talk of tailored
individual learning in the workplace and its implementation. ‘Coaching and,
increasingly, special projects are the interventions most likely to be consciously
promoted, but explicit guidance on using these learning interventions is rare.’
• A good deal of development activity in the 1990s was directed at the issue of
managing or leading change. Doyle (1995) found that the impact of formalised
management training activity during change was often resisted due to the residual
culture and style of the managers. In seeing management development as part of
culture change, Holbeche (1999) discusses the problem of senior management
training as appearing remedial. She argues that feedback can help managers to see the
need for change, but their willingness may still be lacking.
• There is considerable interest in the use of e-learning, sometimes presented as
programmes or modules within a 'corporate university' (Sloman, 2001; DTI, 2000;
Burgoyne 2001). Burgoyne found that companies were seeking to use e-learning
alongside face-to-face leadership skill development rather than intending to replace
personal contact in management development. Evidence from the CIPD training
survey (2002) shows that, while e-learning is used by many employers, it tends to be
used alongside other training methods and is more used for IT staff than for
managers.
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