Brief History of Management Training and Development
Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD(This document is referenced from Management Development Planning.)
Management Training at the Turn of this Century
In the past, organizations developed managers, first by recognizing an individual’s strong occupational knowledge about the organization’s products or services. These individuals were promoted to first-level positions that included work direction. One cannot say they supervised in the current sense of the word, that is, they usually didn't delegate, support career counseling, conduct performance reviews, etc. Rather, they told workers what to do and workers did it. These work directors had little training about supervision, e.g., about delegating, interpersonal skills, stress management, career developments, etc.Management Training in the 50s to 80s
Management training focused on covering certain standard topics or types of activities in the organization, e.g., planning, organizing, finances, sales, accounting, etc. Students would immerse themselves in the current course, then leave that course to immerse in the next. However, reality is that a manager in the workplace seldom solves a problem by applying his or her knowledge of one specific topic (then goes on to solve the next problem by applying his or her knowledge of another specific topic). A highly effective manager integrates expertise across various management topics. Yet few management schools provided opportunity for management students to integrate and apply information from their various courses.Traits of Progressive Management Development Programs
With the Human Relations movement, training programs recognized the need to cultivate supervisory skills, e.g., delegating, career development, motivating, coaching, mentoring, etc. Progressive management schools now have students review a wide body of management topics and learn those topics by applying that knowledge in the workplace and reflecting on that application. Learning activities incorporate learners’ real-world activities in the workplaces or their lives. Assignment include reflection and analysis on real-world experience. Learning is enhanced through continuing dialogue and feedback among learners. Very good schools manage to include forms of self-development, too, recognizing that the basis for effective management is effective self-management.Effective management development programs help students (learners)
take a system’s view of their organizations, including review
of how major functions effect each other. Assignments include
recognizing and addressing effects of one actions on their entire
organization.
For the Category of Management:
Related Library Topics
Recommended Books
For Managing Yourself, See
Personal Development -- Related
Books
For Managing Other Individuals, See
Supervision -- Related
Books
For Managing Teams, See
Facilitation and Teams -- Related
Books
For Leading, See
Leadership -- Recommended Books
General (For-Profit and Nonprofit)
General (For-Profit and Nonprofit)
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
Nonprofit-Specific
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
