Management Development Programme

Management development programme is an attempt to improve managerial effectiveness through a planned and deliberate learning process. Unlike general purpose of training, management development programme aims at developing conceptual and human skills of managers and executives through organized and systematic procedures. In India, many professional institutes like Administrative staff college of India, Management Development Institute, Indian Institute of Management, Quality Management International, National Institute of Personnel Management, Indian Society of Training and Development etc, conduct different management development programmes to sensitize managers and executives to various emerging problems of the corporate world.

The major components of Management Development Programme  are:

  1. Selection: To identify innate potentiality or managerial abilities of executives.
  2. Intellectual conditioning: To educate executives and managers on different managerial tools & techniques.
  3. Supervised training: To guide executives and managers on application and use of knowledge in the course of day to day activities.

Management Development Programme Objectives

For top management MDP intends to develop better comprehension & decision-making power, while for middle level it is meant to develop their intellectual capability besides awareness of managerial problems. For specialists MDP is to increase functional knowledge in specific fields and proficiency in various management techniques. One of the interesting study of management development  comparing the processes of two different countries suggested a number of objectives of MDP.

Characteristics of Management Development

  • Continuous Process:  Management development is continuous process and required to look after the entire professional career of managers and executives. In India management development is considered as a sporadic activity, resulting in failure to meet the organisational requirements.
  • Knowledge updating activity:  The need of management development is imperative and appreciated in filling up gap between actual and potential performance. Management development provides scope for continuous improvement in all functional areas. It bridges the gap by enriching the functional capacity of executives and managers by continuously updating their knowledge and skill.
  • A vehicle for attitudinal activity:  Human behavior is dynamic and complex. Management development programmes attempt to understand the behavioral and attitudinal aspects of human behavior through simulating sessions, ensure better interpersonal skill as an important prerequisite for managerial success.
  • Stimulant to higher competence:  Managers and executives are stimulated to bear the intricacies of managerial stress and strain through different management development programmes in order to exert their potential for the benefit of the organisation. Management development programme must be designed considering issues like employees’ motivation, habits, age mix, pattern of conflict and chaos. and this can enable elevation of managerial functions of the executives during the post training phase.
  • Deficiency improver:  Management development programmes are catered to the individual requirements to improve functional as well as personal deficiencies of the individual managers, thereby enabling the organisation to derive immediate benefit from such programmes.
  • A self development process:  Management development facilitates self development of managers, as they learn many things through action learning methods, sharing the experience of each other in a simulated classroom atmosphere.

Steps of Management Development Programme

  1. To look at the Organization’s objective.
  2. To ascertain the development needs.
  3. To appraise the present performance of managerial staff.
  4. To propose manpower Inventory.
  5. To plan & establish training and development programme.
  6. To evaluate different programmes.

Benefits of Management Development  

There are different benefits the MDP seek for different stakeholders like individual employee, managers and organisation itself.

Benefits for individual employee include

  • An increased ability to develop individual performance
  • A reduction in stress about un-tackled gaps in personal performance requirements
  • An increased chance of holding on to a desired present job
  • An increased chance of developing potential for other job
  • A clearer process for establishing personal aspirations
  • A clearer process for establishing commitment of my manager and the organisation to my development

Benefits for the manager of the individual include

  • A reduction in performance problems
  • An increased use of additional opportunities for effective work in the unit
  • A reduction in the belief that my manager does not believe in development
  • More individuals capable of dealing with new or difficult tasks or complete jobs

Benefits for the organisational unit include

  • Increased ability to meet current and organisational needs
  • Increased effectiveness for the unit, through improved performance
  • Increased likelihood that development for individual is based on organisational need
  • Improved motivations for individuals leading to greater commitment to the organisations
  • Increased provision of continuous learning rather than one off-training

Methods of Management Development Programme

The two categories of development methods are on-the-job development, and off-the-job development. Some of the widely used on-the-job development methods are, coaching, job rotation, under study assignments and multiple management. Off-the-job development methods include simulation exercises, sensitivity training, transactional analysis, conferences and lecturers. To ensure the success of the management development programs, they have to be evaluated from time to time.

Dilemmas in Management Development

Firstly, most of the times management development programme gives more attention to formally designed structured learning than that of informal and accidental learning. That dilemma needs to be reconciled. Management development programme has to embrace both informal and accidental learning opportunities as well as formally created one. A HR director may desire management development programmes, systems and policy primarily to take care of the organisation requirements than that of individual need like easier job mobility, which needs reconciliation to a great extent by sharing views and finding common ground. Secondly, very often management development seems to be looking back even at yesterday’s need rather than today’s.

At the end management development programme always act on a large number of mangers. With the large group there will be a significant difference of need in respect to different functional groups and job requirements which needs to be taken care of. Again management development programme very often ignores relevance of individual difference. Hence an organisation must balance and reconcile all the management dilemmas and take a contingent approach in order to be effective.

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