Page 74 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

the company and its management development program 53
qualified to develop a system of effective developmental tools, learning plans, and career
instruments. It is also essential to integrate the organization’s vision of developing and
promoting employees and high-level personnel into the organization’s formal guidelines
and policies and—perhaps most importantly—into the existing organizational culture.
DaimlerChrysler Services (debis) AG, the service division of the DaimlerChrysler
group, has long striven to meet the challenge of supporting its large base of employees
and managers in order to achieve its business goals. A central task of their human re-
sources (HR) department is to develop and implement a successful system of professional
development and support—and to evaluate, give feedback on, and revise the system on
a continuous basis. This requires the HR department to cooperate in projects with debis
members from both central and decentralized business units to realize a viable manage-
ment development system that incorporates and satisfies the concerns of all parties.
It is obvious that technical knowledge, skill, and ability are fundamental prerequisites
for managerial success. Today’s economy is more service-oriented and more team- and
teamwork-oriented, however; social knowledge and social competence are therefore
more critical and more widely recognized as success factors for high-level personnel
(Campbell, Gasser, & Oswald, 1996; Motowidlo, Borman, & Schmit, 1997; Schneider,
2000). Communication skills, as well as cooperative or teamwork skills, are in high
demand, particularly in future-oriented teams and workgroups. In the service sector,
such skills are at least as essential as the specialized knowledge required to perform the
job effectively; for instance, a vital key to success is communicating with the consumer
or client in order to build interpersonal relationships with mutual trust. Furthermore,
managers must exercise independent and responsible thinking and behavior within a
social context, and such behavior may be inspired more by personality and social skills
than by one’s technical knowledge or skill. In fact, for managers, social skills may
be thought of—at least in part—as an essential vehicle for communicating technical
knowledge and skill. Technical or specialized careers should have promotion tracks
withinthem;careeradvancementshouldnotnecessarilymoveintoageneralmanagement
position, leaving technical expertise and experience behind. Special career tracks for
project managers should be established—tracks that are distinct from line managers but
with comparable benefits. This suggestion is of special relevance in Germany, where
individuals and organizations consider general management as the typical and desirable
career advance. Careful and purposeful promotion of high-potential leaders from within
their respective specialties guides them toward new job requirements and tasks that
best fit their particular capabilities and personalities. Employees at debis are asked to
seek new development possibilities tailored to their individual needs, keeping in mind
the objective of career succession into some type of higher-level managerial position. In
turn, a central aspect of every manager’s job is employee career development. Employees
not only receive direct managerial support; they also receive broader support from the
HR department of debis, which takes over a coordinating and consulting function.

THE COMPANY AND ITS MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

The Berlin-based DaimlerChrysler Services (debis) AG was first established in 1990 as
Daimler Benz InterServices (debis) AG, the service sector of today’s DaimlerChrysler
group that consists of two major service divisions: the debis Financial Services and