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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.
Evelio G. Echavez is a faculty
member of the De La Salle Professional Schools Ramon V. del Rosario
Sr. Graduate School of Business, and Dean of the College of Business
Administration and Accountancy of Baliuag University in Baliuag,
Bulacan. He welcomes comments at egechavez@yahoo.com.
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