Page 209 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance
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192 assessing potential and future performance
fairly broad “highly educated” target groups. Only later is a decision made with regard
to which positions they will be appointed and whether, taking into consideration the
goals pursued by the organisation, they are actually high potentials or not. The fact that
employment of this target group should be guaranteed not only in terms of quantity, but
also in terms of quality, is not separate to, but does fall largely outside of, this discussion.
However, a traineeship does also entail a considerable investment for the organisation
in terms of training funds, time and salary expenses. The profit generated during the
traineeship often amounts to little more than that gained from a student taken on for the
purpose of a Master’s research project or work experience. This makes a measurement
of the real potential that somebody possesses in the light of the organisation’s goals ex-
tremely desirable. A correct selection of the trainee pool requires a serious approach to
how the selection and assessment of the competencies and the potential of this group is
handled.
Management development activities/leadership development
Management development is the area of HR activity with the greatest potential for
determining the strategic capability of organisational management teams (Purcell &
Ahlstrand, 1994; Mumford, 1988; Storey, 1989). The central objective of Management
Development (MD) is, first of all, the occupation of key positions within the organ-
isation, and the maintenance of the present (top) management. The policy of many
organisations in relation to “high” potential is then completely oriented towards the
development of its future managers. In addition, MD offers scope for training and de-
veloping so that employees continue to be challenged and are allowed to learn, and
potential is bonded to the organisation. The focus of a MD programme then shifts
from structured training programmes for the various layers of managers to individual
development plans and the support of career development by means of coaching in the
workplace. Organisations increasingly define this field as leadership development, partly
because the target groups are not usually those who have just graduated from university or
college.
The underlying principle, introduced in the previous paragraph, is also that the best
executives are not necessarily those who possess a previously identified, generous list of
traits or who have risen to the top through ‘survival of the fittest’ (McCall, 1998). Rather,
the real leaders of the future are those who have the ability to learn from their experiences
and remain open to continual learning. If these people get the right experience on the
job, they will have the ultimate opportunity to learn new executive skills. In the case
of MD, the target groups in larger organisations follow structured training programmes
which usually focus on the transfer of knowledge and skills with regard to management
methods and techniques. This traditional MD approach has encountered a lot of criticism.
In view of the current insecurity about the future in customer and labour markets, MD
programmes are being perceived as formalistic and rigid. Especially with a view to the
development of knowledge and competencies, two major points of criticism are encoun-
tered. Firstly, MD activities are often too far removed from daily management problems
and the real experiences of management tasks. Secondly, due to a too heavy workload,
insufficient opportunities exist in the work setting to apply the relevant knowledge and
skills gained; as a result, these skills fade away. Thus, in most instances the programmes