Education for Specific Needs Company-Sponsored Courses

An electric public utility, facing a necessary change in organization structure and a continuing problem of managerial replacements, discovered a dearth of managers immediately capable of assuming larger responsibilities. A full-scale inventory of managerial resources was undertaken, and a four-pronged appraisal tool was used to produce composite individual appraisals. A comparison of appraisals with position specifications revealed numerous instances of potential ability and aptitude, but inadequate present knowledge of the concepts and skills of business management, as well as frequent cases of unfamiliarity with the complex factors involved in applying economic analysis to engineering decisions. Exploration of personal histories revealed that, in such instances, neither undergraduate education nor postbaccalaureate experience had been sufficient to insure competence in the managerial and economic areas. Establishment of a 4-week school dealing with management concepts; evening seminars dealing with the skills of leadership, communications, decision making, and delegation; and a 30-hour course in engineering economics were among the internal developmental activities undertaken by the company to provide an effective solution to some of its most pressing problems of employee education and development.