Management Training and Development: In Search of an Integrated Approach

Management training and development (MTD) in the UK has been a subject of increasing debate in recent years. This interest is reflected in the range of recent reports and the emergence of new institutions devoted to the development of management education. Whilst the main message coming from this debate is still 'do something' or 'do more', there is now a growing cohort of companies who have taken on board the need to develop their managers and who arc currently working towards the best means of achieving this goal. This paper is about the practices and preoccupations of those companies who have made a commitment to develop their managers and arc discovering what is involved in translating this commitment into a workable process. The research on which this account is based was carried out for the Training Commission (now the Department of Employment Training Agency) during 19KK." The views expressed arc those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Training Agency. The initial brief for the study was to seck to identify areas of unmet training need in the field of post-experience rnanagement training and development. However. as the investigation progressed, it rapidly became evident that it was not realistic to discuss unmet training need without also considering the particular characteristics of companies and employing organisations. Consequently, the brief was extended to include a review of MTD policy and practices within companies. Whilst there arc really only traces of a literature which bear directly on the question of 'unmet needs' in the area of MTD, there is a rapidly expanding literature concerned with detailing and categorising the MTD policies and practices of organisations within both the private and public sectors. Indeed, much of this literature is so well known that it is now perhaps not wholly