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

that that terms like management and leadership do not necessarily have direct equivalents in,
for example French, German and Japanese languages, and the work labels given to those
involved in organising organisations in these nation states and cultures are different. Finally,
there are other work terms, like Director, Chief Executive, Chief Executive Officer used
differently within Anglo-American culture to refer to people and roles that we would
associate with leading and managing.
For the purpose of this analysis, we suggest that the CEML (2002) position that it is
unhelpful to split management and leadership (and by extension entrepreneurship) is the most
useful one to take, but within this broad family of activities concerning the organisation of
organisation there are some differentiated activities, which ultimately integrate, which are
work considering separately but with this in mind.
5.7.1 Entrepreneurial skill
The question of entrepreneurial skill and how it can best be developed is a key issue in the
current policy and economic environment. While the development of skill is part of the
overall learning situation and can be taught in a variety of ways, skill development is also
dependent both upon the context in which it is taught and the context in which it is used.
Little is known about the nature of entrepreneurial skill and whether it can be taught or is
innate.
If entrepreneurial ability is not innate, then it can be developed. One report has studied
entrepreneurs and found that rather than being highly risk-taking individuals as has
previously been thought, in fact they have different cognitive perceptions of business
situations to those of others. They perceive opportunities where others see risks, rather than
actively seeking the risk and being natural ‘risk takers’ (Palich and Bagby 1995). This
finding has implications for management development. Whereas personal propensities such
as a tendency to risk-taking are believed to be innate and largely impervious to change
(Nicholson 1997), psychology suggests that cognitive processes can be developed in learning
situations. If successful entrepreneurs are operating by different cognitive processes and
these processes can be identified and taught, then their successfulness is likely to increase.
As Palich and Bagby say (p 435), “It stands to reason that those who seek opportunity are
likely to find it.”
5.7.2 Leadership skill
A great deal has been written about the nature of leadership and the skills and behaviours
leaders need to have (see for example Horner 1997). Horne and Jones (2001) in a strongly
evidenced study found eight key characteristics of leadership of which inspiration was seen
as both the most important and the most lacking. A considerable range of methods was
considered effective for leadership development.
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