BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS

Business Research Methods

Business Research Methods

1- A Personal Development Plan for First Three Months as a New Middle Manager

For years, management development has been synonymous with training classes. New managers are pushed through a series of classes to build communication skills, value differences, learn to lead, coach and motivate their employees, manage teams and do strategic planning. However, the development experience is more than a menu of classes.

Carnegie (2005) mentions it is hard to argue against skill building, because there are certainly skills, knowledge and aptitudes managers must have if they are to be successful. Training classes are necessary, but they are insufficient. Development has very little to do with time spent in a classroom. Actually, development is much more personal. It is reflective, situational, spontaneous and unrehearsed. Personal development creates attitudes and beliefs or builds a philosophy that is essential if the management team is to grow and prosper outside the classroom. Management development requires two things: the personal commitment of the individual manager and facilitation by the organisation (Carnegie, 2005).

Learning Model

To fully grasp what is meant by management development is to enjoy the journey as much as the destination. It is the aspect of development that can only come from one's heart. It has to do with values, aspirations, dreams, the legacy one leaves as a manager and beliefs about people.

It is about making a commitment to experience the experience and grow to one's full potential. What is really needed for an organisation and its management team to flourish is the desire to continually learn and grow. The quality of the management development experience is as much the manager's personal choice as it is the organisation's responsibility.

Describing the management development learning model as a process would be misleading. Each circle represents a phase and each phase overlaps with the others. If one only focuses on skill-building classes and disregards the other phases, the amount of learning that transfers back to the job is significantly reduced. Management development requires that managers understand how they learn. Managers who understand their own learning process can better orchestrate the process, selecting learning opportunities they know will be meaningful. Here are the five phases that capture the essence of the development process (Alvero, Bucklin and Austin, 2001).

Personal empowerment--taking responsibility for one's own development--may be the most important aspect of the learning model. The classroom approach to management development makes us dependent on classes that other people believe are important and have scheduled. No class, no development.

Managers responsible for their own development view the organisation as the stage for learning. They create a vision of the successful manager and work toward it. They let go of dependency on others and take control of their own destiny. These managers view each new experience as an opportunity for learning. They create as well as seize learning opportunities.

Development implies change, which is not always easy (Alvero, Bucklin and Austin, 2001). Openness to change and a willingness to take risks lead to a greater self-awareness and ...