- Email: [email protected]
New challenges for management development
328
EMJ VOL. 8 NO. 3: September
7990
Jan Hommen Director,
OCTA Management
Development,
and Consultancy
Services,
Holland
Sybren Tijmstra Director,
Communications
and Marketing,
EAP Ecole Europeenne
M anagement
development is facing challenges from new ways in which human resources are being organized and designed in corporations. Consequently, management training needs to be looked at again. These new ways are set against the background of the role of technology and market strategy. The authors conclude that management development in firms will become more entrepreneurial, with firms making people their principal competitive weapon. Changes in management attitudes will result from management development.
In fact all these factors Figure 1.
des Affaires, are interrelated
Paris as shown
in
Investment in organizational design and management development has been much smaller than in technology and marketing. Companies are redressing the balance as they see the former as part of competitive strategy.
Human Resources and Business Success
We have concluded that, although none of the above interrelated factors in Figure 1 should be neglected, current economic and social changes in the future suggest the former will have higher priority in the 90s. As far as organizational design and culture are concerned, companies are emphasizing knowledge and skills (a systems approach) at the expense of attitudes and culture (an organic/integral approach). See Figure 2.
Companies have invested heavily in technology in the past, service as well as production-oriented companies. The spur has been the belief that technology could solve managerial problems. Investment was heavy in marketing too as the market became focussed on sellers and firms sought close links with partners.
Management is refocussing on performance away from quality and efficiency. Attention is also being paid to the attitude of management as well as skills upgrading. Developments in marketing and technology underpin this.
Investment in the organizational design/culture and human resource field was smaller, however. Reasons include the rapid rate of change in society, and the timidity of companies. Most firms do not restructure their organizations drastically.
Technology
and Business Success
There are several aspects to the value-added from technology - product and process innovation and new
HOMMEN
AND TIJMSTRA:
NEW CHALLENGES
FOR MANAGEMENT
DEVELOPMENT
329
Nolan’s curve illustrates the different phases of both developments:
6. SatwatT
Phases
Business performance
Planning and control 2. Popularization
Figure
1
Interrelated
factors in business
success
infrastructures. However, advanced technology is no guarantee of increased competitiveness for the firm. Access to technology has been made easier through strategic alliances, proliferation of know-how and shorter product life-cycles. information/communication
How fast technology is adopted has a lot to do with people and organizations. Figure 3 illustrates different phases of technological development and the related learning focus of organizations. We argue that, although it is impossible to jump phases of technological development, good coordination with management development can accelerate the process and speed up increases in competitiveness. Indi\riduals develop faster than organizations. Managers must therefore guard against personally preempting organizational change. One jump ahead gives Two jumps ahead and quite enough stimulus. managers lose ~edib~ity and effectiveness. It is wrong to be perceived as a radical “missionary”. Yet, “conservative” managers may be seen as too cautious, and they can actually slow bown co-ordination.
Figure 3 Technology and the Organizational (Nolan’s Curve)
Market Structure Success
“Co-makership” and networking are the new, favoured modes of marketing. It results from two trends - the shift from technology push to market pull, and developments in information technology. Clearly, they are linked. For example: l
customerization CAD/CAM
was assisted
Attitudes The refocus on performance
and Business
Like technology, the marketing function has shifted emphasis as far as its relationship to competitiveness of the firm is concerned. Formerly, reference to the four “p”s (product, price, place and promotion) was supposed to guarantee success, today it is more complex, Nowadays, customers rate sales service high, both pre- and after-, and like high quality/low price ratios.
t
Figure 2
Learning Curve
bvi developments II
in
330 l
l
l
EMJ VOL. 8 NO. 3: September
7990
Transformation
the change from batch-processing to real-time improved customer service after-sales service was supported by networking facilities information on customers and markets improved
All that has been said so far affects the way management is being transformed in the current business environment. Figure 3 shows how, in the first three phases of the Learning Curve, management focuses on implementation - it implies new procedures and improved quality - (technology push). In Figure 2, management competence is shown on the left side, - managers need awareness, knowledge and skills.
For the future, the technology-push versus market-pull debate will become sterile. The two will be interlinked as in Figure 4. Figure 4 shows our argument that corporate development will shift emphasis from technology push (thesis) to market pull (antithesis) resulting in the interaction shown (synthesis). It is worth noting the current development in “niche” marketing, based on an in-depth knowledge by the company of its “niche” customers. These trends in marketing strategy and their important implications for organizational design and culture can be illustrated as follows: To: customer oriented networking relationship oriented achievement culture
From: bureaucratic hierarchical product oriented power culture
Management
We believe that management skills should include more attitude-oriented elements as shown in Figure 5.
The fourth phase features innovation. It marks the change-over from technology push to market pull. Managers become aware of the increased importance of attitudes and culture. Phases five and six are business-oriented. Managers try to maximise competitive advantage with a technological infrastructure. In Figure 2, management competence is shown on the right. Figure 6 shows that most of the development in its first three phases is concentrated on implementation located at the micro-level of the organization and related to quality and efficiency. This illustrates the Pareto Principle: quality is 80% of the investment. In these three phases, management competency is: implementation, raising quality, establishing new processes, introducing people to technology. In the fourth phase of the organization’s development, mustering complex situations requires that activity concentrates at the middle level. This level contains the most potential for change (compare with a piano - the tuner starts at the middle where tension is highest). Starting to tune elsewhere creates distortions.
Phases
Technology-market
interaction
Market pull
/
Transformation Figure 4
Technology
and market strategy
interaction Meso
I
1 FROM:
TO:
bureaucratic hierarchical product oriented power culture
customer oriented networking relationship oriented achievement culture
Technology
push
The business-oriented
organization
Micro Organizational level
J
I
Figure 5
I
Figure 6
Innovation
through
transformation
HOMMEN
AND TIJMSTRA:
NEW CHALLENGES
Management Competency in this fourth phase can be defined as: managing change, mastering complex situations, solving problems, focussing on innovation, and having networking capabilities. The fifth and sixth phases should co-ordinate information and business strategy. The organization should be flexible and allow staff to operate as internal entrepreneurs. Efforts should be concentrated on planning and overseeing the organization. (Compare with a Mount Everest expedition or the Japanese long planning, innovation model; short In these phases, management implementation). competency can be defined as: much strategic planning and preparation, anticipating the future, entrepreneurial activity, flexibility, fast action and exploring the unknown.
Communication
DEVELOPMENT
because they are hierarchically-minded, search for boundaries in management.
331
avoid risk and
Those in the middle quadrant (personnel officers, communications and service people) also need direction because they lack strategic thinking and a performance orientation. Those in the right-hand quadrant (e.g. line managers) should be able to understand the thinking of those in the other quadrants. Knowing all this, the organization should be able to develop good internal communications to ensure the best use of all its employees.
New Challenges Development
for Management
and Transformation
Phase four in our development process is one of transformation. With the move from technology-push to market-pull, good communications become crucial to management. There is a parallel in the Learning Curve described earlier. There is much potential for communications breakdown. The reasons are different attitudes and values rather than lack of knowledge or skills. See Figure 7. In Figure 7, each employee is dominant in one or two of the quadrants shown. No one is dominant in all three. Managers generally dominate on the right (strong-willed) and junior staff on the left (reason). The potential conflict is readily apparent. We argue that people in the left quadrant need clear direction (accountants, systems analyst, R&D workers)
We have argued so far that people are an organization’s best resource to be competitive. But these people within the organization must re-orientate towards performance and, particularly, attitudes. The correct attitudes were analysed when we looked at the interaction between technology and market strategy. But greater customer care and management focussing on networking and relationships cannot be achieved by training alone. It should be continuous and part of the corporate culture. What is needed, in fact, is the creation of a learning organization. This is defined as one which acquires knowledge from both positive and negative experiences in order to understand better client problems and factors related to business success. As well as informal training procedures (job evaluation and coaching), formal training should try to encourage learning processes to support organizational strategy and experimentation. A learning organization sees problems and crises as opportunities. Management development has a crucial role to play in the creation of such a learning organization. This it can do by redefining itself as a strategic issue, encouraging people to be entrepreneurs, and by facilitating the infernal communication process in such a way that the “learning environment” is encouraged.
Past
Orientation: Behaviour: Quality, Weakness: Values: Culture:
Figure
FOR MANAGEMENT
7
System Completeness Structuring Risk adverse Integrity Open
The differing
People Cooperation Communication Needs oriented Relations Service
orientation
Result Pragmatic Growth Individualistic Success Closed
of managers
and staff
This means the following specific tasks: making sure technology is an integrated management task, fitting people to the new culture, evaluating employees by their affifudes as well as knowledge and skills (e.g. eagerness to take on new responsibilities), using job rotation to stimulate learning, reorientating management’s view of training towards encouraging learning,
332
EMJ VOL. 8 NO. 3: September
and making outsourcing individual learning curve.
an integral
1990 part
of the
l
l
New Challenges Training
for Management
By redefining management development at a strategic issue, two new target groups are identified - top management and more senior and older managers. The first have experienced little training, but with more carefully-designed schemes, are now being catered for. The second are more familiar with training, but older people are being included more and more - this is the result of an increasing appreciation of the valuable experience of older people, and the shortage of younger ones. The training follows: . .
should
be
more
entrepreneurial
as
training must be more strategic (training vision and mission) it should focus on key groups in the organization who have maximum potential for changing things (training strategy)
a new infrastructure for learning should be set up which eases the shift to performance-oriented training (e.g. off/on-the-job, external training) it should use internal communications and technology to support the “learning environment” (training vehicles)
Within the learning organization, shifting:
From Reactive Product-oriented Imitation Consuming knowledge Learning Teaching Functional approach Figure 8
training activities are
To Pro-active Business-oriented Experiment Generating knowledge Action learning Counselling Integral approach
Shifts in management
training
We believe that management trainers should smooth and encourage these passages. They should be good “sparring partners” for the managers they train and be catalysts and entrepreneurs for their “learning organizations“.
EMJ VOL. 8 NO. 3: September
7990
Jan Hommen Director,
OCTA Management
Development,
and Consultancy
Services,
Holland
Sybren Tijmstra Director,
Communications
and Marketing,
EAP Ecole Europeenne
M anagement
development is facing challenges from new ways in which human resources are being organized and designed in corporations. Consequently, management training needs to be looked at again. These new ways are set against the background of the role of technology and market strategy. The authors conclude that management development in firms will become more entrepreneurial, with firms making people their principal competitive weapon. Changes in management attitudes will result from management development.
In fact all these factors Figure 1.
des Affaires, are interrelated
Paris as shown
in
Investment in organizational design and management development has been much smaller than in technology and marketing. Companies are redressing the balance as they see the former as part of competitive strategy.
Human Resources and Business Success
We have concluded that, although none of the above interrelated factors in Figure 1 should be neglected, current economic and social changes in the future suggest the former will have higher priority in the 90s. As far as organizational design and culture are concerned, companies are emphasizing knowledge and skills (a systems approach) at the expense of attitudes and culture (an organic/integral approach). See Figure 2.
Companies have invested heavily in technology in the past, service as well as production-oriented companies. The spur has been the belief that technology could solve managerial problems. Investment was heavy in marketing too as the market became focussed on sellers and firms sought close links with partners.
Management is refocussing on performance away from quality and efficiency. Attention is also being paid to the attitude of management as well as skills upgrading. Developments in marketing and technology underpin this.
Investment in the organizational design/culture and human resource field was smaller, however. Reasons include the rapid rate of change in society, and the timidity of companies. Most firms do not restructure their organizations drastically.
Technology
and Business Success
There are several aspects to the value-added from technology - product and process innovation and new
HOMMEN
AND TIJMSTRA:
NEW CHALLENGES
FOR MANAGEMENT
DEVELOPMENT
329
Nolan’s curve illustrates the different phases of both developments:
6. SatwatT
Phases
Business performance
Planning and control 2. Popularization
Figure
1
Interrelated
factors in business
success
infrastructures. However, advanced technology is no guarantee of increased competitiveness for the firm. Access to technology has been made easier through strategic alliances, proliferation of know-how and shorter product life-cycles. information/communication
How fast technology is adopted has a lot to do with people and organizations. Figure 3 illustrates different phases of technological development and the related learning focus of organizations. We argue that, although it is impossible to jump phases of technological development, good coordination with management development can accelerate the process and speed up increases in competitiveness. Indi\riduals develop faster than organizations. Managers must therefore guard against personally preempting organizational change. One jump ahead gives Two jumps ahead and quite enough stimulus. managers lose ~edib~ity and effectiveness. It is wrong to be perceived as a radical “missionary”. Yet, “conservative” managers may be seen as too cautious, and they can actually slow bown co-ordination.
Figure 3 Technology and the Organizational (Nolan’s Curve)
Market Structure Success
“Co-makership” and networking are the new, favoured modes of marketing. It results from two trends - the shift from technology push to market pull, and developments in information technology. Clearly, they are linked. For example: l
customerization CAD/CAM
was assisted
Attitudes The refocus on performance
and Business
Like technology, the marketing function has shifted emphasis as far as its relationship to competitiveness of the firm is concerned. Formerly, reference to the four “p”s (product, price, place and promotion) was supposed to guarantee success, today it is more complex, Nowadays, customers rate sales service high, both pre- and after-, and like high quality/low price ratios.
t
Figure 2
Learning Curve
bvi developments II
in
330 l
l
l
EMJ VOL. 8 NO. 3: September
7990
Transformation
the change from batch-processing to real-time improved customer service after-sales service was supported by networking facilities information on customers and markets improved
All that has been said so far affects the way management is being transformed in the current business environment. Figure 3 shows how, in the first three phases of the Learning Curve, management focuses on implementation - it implies new procedures and improved quality - (technology push). In Figure 2, management competence is shown on the left side, - managers need awareness, knowledge and skills.
For the future, the technology-push versus market-pull debate will become sterile. The two will be interlinked as in Figure 4. Figure 4 shows our argument that corporate development will shift emphasis from technology push (thesis) to market pull (antithesis) resulting in the interaction shown (synthesis). It is worth noting the current development in “niche” marketing, based on an in-depth knowledge by the company of its “niche” customers. These trends in marketing strategy and their important implications for organizational design and culture can be illustrated as follows: To: customer oriented networking relationship oriented achievement culture
From: bureaucratic hierarchical product oriented power culture
Management
We believe that management skills should include more attitude-oriented elements as shown in Figure 5.
The fourth phase features innovation. It marks the change-over from technology push to market pull. Managers become aware of the increased importance of attitudes and culture. Phases five and six are business-oriented. Managers try to maximise competitive advantage with a technological infrastructure. In Figure 2, management competence is shown on the right. Figure 6 shows that most of the development in its first three phases is concentrated on implementation located at the micro-level of the organization and related to quality and efficiency. This illustrates the Pareto Principle: quality is 80% of the investment. In these three phases, management competency is: implementation, raising quality, establishing new processes, introducing people to technology. In the fourth phase of the organization’s development, mustering complex situations requires that activity concentrates at the middle level. This level contains the most potential for change (compare with a piano - the tuner starts at the middle where tension is highest). Starting to tune elsewhere creates distortions.
Phases
Technology-market
interaction
Market pull
/
Transformation Figure 4
Technology
and market strategy
interaction Meso
I
1 FROM:
TO:
bureaucratic hierarchical product oriented power culture
customer oriented networking relationship oriented achievement culture
Technology
push
The business-oriented
organization
Micro Organizational level
J
I
Figure 5
I
Figure 6
Innovation
through
transformation
HOMMEN
AND TIJMSTRA:
NEW CHALLENGES
Management Competency in this fourth phase can be defined as: managing change, mastering complex situations, solving problems, focussing on innovation, and having networking capabilities. The fifth and sixth phases should co-ordinate information and business strategy. The organization should be flexible and allow staff to operate as internal entrepreneurs. Efforts should be concentrated on planning and overseeing the organization. (Compare with a Mount Everest expedition or the Japanese long planning, innovation model; short In these phases, management implementation). competency can be defined as: much strategic planning and preparation, anticipating the future, entrepreneurial activity, flexibility, fast action and exploring the unknown.
Communication
DEVELOPMENT
because they are hierarchically-minded, search for boundaries in management.
331
avoid risk and
Those in the middle quadrant (personnel officers, communications and service people) also need direction because they lack strategic thinking and a performance orientation. Those in the right-hand quadrant (e.g. line managers) should be able to understand the thinking of those in the other quadrants. Knowing all this, the organization should be able to develop good internal communications to ensure the best use of all its employees.
New Challenges Development
for Management
and Transformation
Phase four in our development process is one of transformation. With the move from technology-push to market-pull, good communications become crucial to management. There is a parallel in the Learning Curve described earlier. There is much potential for communications breakdown. The reasons are different attitudes and values rather than lack of knowledge or skills. See Figure 7. In Figure 7, each employee is dominant in one or two of the quadrants shown. No one is dominant in all three. Managers generally dominate on the right (strong-willed) and junior staff on the left (reason). The potential conflict is readily apparent. We argue that people in the left quadrant need clear direction (accountants, systems analyst, R&D workers)
We have argued so far that people are an organization’s best resource to be competitive. But these people within the organization must re-orientate towards performance and, particularly, attitudes. The correct attitudes were analysed when we looked at the interaction between technology and market strategy. But greater customer care and management focussing on networking and relationships cannot be achieved by training alone. It should be continuous and part of the corporate culture. What is needed, in fact, is the creation of a learning organization. This is defined as one which acquires knowledge from both positive and negative experiences in order to understand better client problems and factors related to business success. As well as informal training procedures (job evaluation and coaching), formal training should try to encourage learning processes to support organizational strategy and experimentation. A learning organization sees problems and crises as opportunities. Management development has a crucial role to play in the creation of such a learning organization. This it can do by redefining itself as a strategic issue, encouraging people to be entrepreneurs, and by facilitating the infernal communication process in such a way that the “learning environment” is encouraged.
Past
Orientation: Behaviour: Quality, Weakness: Values: Culture:
Figure
FOR MANAGEMENT
7
System Completeness Structuring Risk adverse Integrity Open
The differing
People Cooperation Communication Needs oriented Relations Service
orientation
Result Pragmatic Growth Individualistic Success Closed
of managers
and staff
This means the following specific tasks: making sure technology is an integrated management task, fitting people to the new culture, evaluating employees by their affifudes as well as knowledge and skills (e.g. eagerness to take on new responsibilities), using job rotation to stimulate learning, reorientating management’s view of training towards encouraging learning,
332
EMJ VOL. 8 NO. 3: September
and making outsourcing individual learning curve.
an integral
1990 part
of the
l
l
New Challenges Training
for Management
By redefining management development at a strategic issue, two new target groups are identified - top management and more senior and older managers. The first have experienced little training, but with more carefully-designed schemes, are now being catered for. The second are more familiar with training, but older people are being included more and more - this is the result of an increasing appreciation of the valuable experience of older people, and the shortage of younger ones. The training follows: . .
should
be
more
entrepreneurial
as
training must be more strategic (training vision and mission) it should focus on key groups in the organization who have maximum potential for changing things (training strategy)
a new infrastructure for learning should be set up which eases the shift to performance-oriented training (e.g. off/on-the-job, external training) it should use internal communications and technology to support the “learning environment” (training vehicles)
Within the learning organization, shifting:
From Reactive Product-oriented Imitation Consuming knowledge Learning Teaching Functional approach Figure 8
training activities are
To Pro-active Business-oriented Experiment Generating knowledge Action learning Counselling Integral approach
Shifts in management
training
We believe that management trainers should smooth and encourage these passages. They should be good “sparring partners” for the managers they train and be catalysts and entrepreneurs for their “learning organizations“.