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

An IES review of trends in management development (Hirsh and Carter, 2002) included the
following findings:
• Management training still needs to provide a coherent view of what managers need to
learn, but delivery needs to be more flexible and to fit into the busy working lives of
managers, for example through shorter or more modular training courses.
• The development of inter-personal and leadership skills is a high priority and not
easily achieved through conventional formal training.
• There has been a huge growth of interest in more personal forms of development
support such as coaching and mentoring.
• Most managers are now told to manage their own careers, but do so with little
effective support or information.
• Line managers have been given a number of important roles in the development of
their subordinates, but they may not yet be equipped to carry these out, or really be
encouraged to develop others.
• High attention is often given to senior managers and ‘high potential’ staff both in
their skill development and in career planning. These approaches are labour intensive
and not easy to extend to the majority of the management workforce.
• Career development is a vital form of management and leadership development. Proactive
career management is mainly used for very senior managers or populations of
special interest (such as high potential managers or graduate trainees).
24