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

same as showing a link to actual performance. Little research has been done either to show
the link between management development and changed behaviours in the workplace, or the
further link to organisational performance. Indeed, there is some limited evidence to suggest
that individual’s reported gains do not necessarily translate into business terms (see box). It
is important for research to try and establish a better understanding of what does work and
how learning can be translated back into the working environment.
Measures of programme effectiveness
A research study looking at assisted training programmes for MDs in SMEs
(McMullan et al 2001) found no link between their subjective views of the
programme’s effectiveness and business performance. Those who thought the
programme had been effective were no more likely to show improved business
performance after the intervention than those who did not think the course had been
effective, although there was a link between the intervention and performance of the
businesses overall. There are two possible explanations for these results. The
programmes may be effective but individuals may be poor judges of what they have
learnt and therefore judge the programmes inaccurately; or the programmes may be
ineffective but because of self-selection bias (the fact that successful people may be
more likely to undertake programmes) appear to be related overall to performance.
More research is needed to find out what the causal relationships are.
New methodologies are needed both to demonstrate the link between development and
organisational performance and to demonstrate the intervening step, to show that
development produces changes in management capability. The most common measure of the
outcomes of management development is to use course satisfaction sheets or other selfreports
of learning, but evidence relating course satisfaction to actual learning having been
achieved is hard to find. New methodologies are needed to develop this line of research.
One study of MBA and undergraduate marketing students used the methodology of customer
satisfaction research and was able to show that learning was strongly related to course
satisfaction (Guolla 1999). It may be that research using more sophisticated methods like
this is needed in order for worthwhile results to be found.
Similarly, a study by Warr et al (1999) of workers undergoing training (not managers) found
that trainees’ reactions to training were actually related to learning outcomes, but not to
changed behaviour at work. This may or may not apply to managers - there is insufficient
research evidence here - but it does illustrate some strands in the literature which have sought
to relate training outcomes to transfer of learning into the workplace. More work needs to be
done specifically with managers on this topic.
Our assessment is that there are promising new methodologies that are appropriate to this
area, based on the position known as ‘critical realism’ in academic and social science circles
(see Sayer 1999). This manifests as research and evaluation methodologies to deal with
phenomena that deal complex networks of effect and the emergent properties of people and
their behaviour, for example Pawson (2002), Pawson and Tilley (1997).
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