Analysing Formal and Informal Management Development

von: Hauke Barschel

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. Developing managers and theoretical approaches

3. The effectiveness of management development methods and their roles

4. Concluding recommendations for an effective management development programme

1. Introduction

Formal approaches to management development are inappropriate, say some advocates. This work provides a description and evaluation of formal and informal management development methods and their roles within management development programmes. In order to verify whether formal development is inappropriate this work supplies recommendations considering management development programmes with reference to critical success factors.

2. Developing managers and theoretical approaches

It is difficult to determine what managerial work encompasses and who managers are. According to Kubr and Abell (Kubr and Abell in Prokopenko 2000 p. 9) a manager is a person who operates and leads business on behalf of the company’s owners. Thus managerial work encompasses all leading activities within a business from setting the corporate goals until the final review and controlling. And managerial work has changed in the recent years due to flatter hierarchies and modern organisational structures e. g. focus on teamwork and matrix structures. Management skills and managerial effectiveness have to be developed. An effective management development is essential for a company’s ability to attain its goals (Harrison 2000 p. 359). When the human resource department or senior managers plan the development of subordinate managers often competency frameworks define what skills, knowledge and capabilities are necessary for a certain managerial post within in the company. The purpose of management development is to create a prosperous fit between the defined competencies and actual capabilities of management and a response to skill deficiencies within the organisation (Mabey 2002 p. 1140).

There are different theoretical approaches to strategic management development. Burgoyne’s model defines six steps of maturity of development and suggests that management development effectiveness increases by being formalized. The Mumford model outlines a distinction between formal and informal management development and introduces an integration of formal and informal development. (Mumford 39 – 46)

3. The effectiveness of management development methods and their roles

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