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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
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