Page 76 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

the integration of the different interest groups and the role of understanding 55
requirements and constraints. Another challenge is how in the assessment process, state-
ments about concerning managerial potential are predictive or forward-looking in na-
ture. Such statements envision some sort of static future (i.e., statements control for
situational factors external to the individual, or situation × individual factors), yet state-
ments about managerial potential ideally reflect the debis Career Development Center’s
process-orientation philosophy—a philosophy that, appropriately, mirrors the constant
changes typical of everyday life in business management. Future interest in the study
and understanding of the “employee-in-organization” interaction—the fact that man-
agerial potential is to some extent a product of not just the person, but the person and
the situation—will generate more accurate and useful predictions about the managerial
potential of employees.
In addition to the commitment to a process orientation, it is critical for the organization
to define management development clearly, and to ensure that the MD procedure is in
concord with this definition. Communicating concrete, goal-oriented development op-
tions based explicitly on scores from the diagnostic managerial potential measures is of
utmost importance. MD processes at debis are enacted organization-wide and consider
the overall business context, reflecting aspects particularly relevant to the service sector.
Last but not least, it is especially important that results are easily communicated, compre-
hensible, and done in a standardized manner across the many decentralized departments
of debis.
In the context of the debis corporate culture, employees must (a) clearly understand
the MD process being implemented, (b) perceive the MD process, and their part in that
process, as fair, and (c) recognize the connection between the ideas behind the process
and the implementation of those ideas, where the engagement in and reinforcement
for MD-related behaviors are clearly outlined. The debis Career Development Center
process reflects and operationalizes the management development culture of debis.

THE INTEGRATION OF THE DIFFERENT INTEREST GROUPS
AND THE ROLE OF UNDERSTANDING

Including different interest groups in the MD definition phase was a meaningful and
intentional action during the construction of the debis Career Development Center. The
superordinate emphasis on the participants’ career development marked a fundamental
shift from previous MD approaches; previously, individual interest groups focused on
how participants fit their own particular concerns. A drive for clarity in defining the pro-
cess cycle and evaluation criteria—and communicating this information to participants—
presumably increased acceptance and motivation for participation. The company work
council was integrated in the decision-making processes, both in communicating assess-
ment center (AC) information and in observing AC activities.
The specific interests of managers is essential in this process, because different de-
centralized management committees make development decisions within their areas of
responsibility. Managers’ AC observations were connected with managers’ experiences
of day-to-day work; thus, the ideas and implementation behind the AC was understood
and refined within the larger context of the organization. Management determines and re-
solves any disagreements regarding statements about potential managers’ performance in
the AC. Personnel management understands itself in this context as an advisory partner,