The management development methods: Issues, and discussion around how make an effective management development program

Essay by emma.pUniversity, Bachelor'sC, April 2004

download word file, 10 pages 4.0

Introduction

I.The management development methods

A.The formal methods

B.The informal methods

II.Are formal methods appropriate to an effective management development program?

A.The issues of methods used

B.An effective management development program

Conclusion

References and bibliography

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Introduction

'Given the varied nature of managerial work and the wide range of individual strengths and weaknesses which every manager brings to it, there are some strong advocates of the view that formal approaches (to management development) are simply inappropriate' (Storey and Tate, 2000: p. 208).

This quote translates the difficulty of defining what management is and what the best way to apply it is. In fact, management is not simply something that you learn and you apply afterwards. It is a mixture of formal and informal methods of managing people. But, it is also something more sensitive, you need to have some personal skills, some feelings or instincts which can not be taught.

(Occupational Psychology, Kotter).

This can emerge from past experiences as well because we learn more from our experiences (not only from work experiences but from life experiences as well) than from taught knowledge. 'I learn to be a manager from experience'.

(Mumford, 2000)

Then, why is it so complicated to manage people? The reason is there is not only one way to manage people but a multitude of ways. Everybody is different, he/she acts and reacts differently to the same situation. There are a lot of variables which intervene like character, knowledge, past experience...

Moreover, the environment of the work very much influences the form and the efficiency of the management which is applied. Indeed, there were a lot of changes in the way of managing people, because the structure of the company has changed (restructuring, re-engineering, downsizing...), the market has changed as well (globalisation, decentralisation, deregulation...), the culture has...