How Can Managers Be Most Effectively Developed?

9 Pages 2271 Words

elop current skills, even reaching the job satisfaction (Pool, 1997).

One of the important trends in Management Development (MD) over the last decade has been increased recognition of the contributions made by less formal OJT approaches. The trend does not suggest that the importance of other approaches, for example off-the-job management training, should be downgraded. Though organisations can use OJT in a variety of ways, it is not always the best option. OJT is appropriate when the number of people who need training at a given time is low, even if the total number of people trained overall is high (Lee & Beard, 1994). OFJ approaches make sense only when large numbers of employees need training at one time. This draws attention to the fact that it is easy to neglect the less formal, less structured processes, which have an important role to play, particularly with regard to meeting the needs of the managers (Sheal, 1992).

On-the-job training (OJT) is the major means of developing competent managers. The major advantage of OJT is that the new employee is doing productive work and learning at the same time. It is one of the simplest and most cost effective ways of training employees (Revans, 1991). A successful OJT program allows experienced employees to pass their knowledge on to new hirees through one-on-one training sessions (Lee & Beard, 1994). However, OJT is not suited to all tasks or job settings. The major disadvantage of OJT is that the pressures of the workplace can cause the supervisor to neglect the employees. OJT is often used strategically to train employees precisely when they need to gain defined knowledge or skills. It would be used as a follow-up or in combination with off-the-job programs. Such combinations recognise that group-based classroom training can be better suited than OJT to achieve some training goals (Lee & Beard, 1994). For example, a series of OJT sessions related to a work process can be used in c...