Management development program (part 2)

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

MANAGING FOR SOCIETY, THE MANILA TIMES By Evelio G. Echavez Management development program II

Business organizations have shifted their strategy from relying too much on factors in the past that provided them with competitive advantage, such as the use of technology and patents, among others, to the strategic use of effective management leadership, and a competent and highly motivated workforce. One of the areas that progressive companies are beginning to pay attention to is management development. Coaching is a very effective management development technique. It consists of day-to-day feedback, instruction, and advice provided by the employee’s supervisor. In fact, many companies in the US have replaced manager titles with coach titles. Job rotation helps a manager learn and do the work of a manager who handles another function. During my time as an executive in a local cement group, we cross-posted managers to train them to handle other positions and prepare them for greater responsibilities. This was especially true of managers assigned to a specialized field, such as production. We found out that after the cross-posting, the managers were more well-rounded, more willing to cooperate with each other, and more effective in their jobs because they had acquired the knowledge and experience of other functions. Some multinational companies cross-post their managers and executives to their overseas offices to expose them to other cultures and to allow for faster development. Another technique is to create a position for an individual for training purposes, such as assistant to a vice president. In this position, trainees are allowed access to the different sections and activities of a specific unit, but follow a schedule of what knowledge or competencies they have to learn for a given period. Employees can also be assigned to a task force or committee where they are expected to participate actively and increase their knowledge about work and the company. This method may involve grooming employees to become managers or executives who will be assigned to a task force or committee that is tasked to solve a cross-functional problem or launch a new product. Mentoring is another method of training managers and executives, and is used more frequently at higher levels of management. In mentoring, an executive who is usually older, has more experience and occupies a higher position takes under his or her wing a younger, less experienced manager or executive. Ask successful CEOs or executives and more often than not, they will tell you that they had mentors who helped them become who they are today. One of the off-the-job methods is sending managers to outside seminars and school-based management development programs. In the cement group I previously worked for, we sent practically all our managers and superintendents to management development programs conducted regularly by a leading school of management in the country. The group also sent its senior executives to advanced executive programs in the US Promising young engineers and managers took graduate studies here and abroad. Management development programs enhance the knowledge and competencies of the company’s human resources. In this day and age of computers and technology, human capital is still widely acknowledged as being the best asset of any firm.