Managing Management Development

* How important is management development to organizations? * How can it be managed so as to provide most benefit? * Why do management development activities frequently miss their mark? Graham Mole presents a practitioner's approach to management development in organizations. There is a strong emphasis on the practical applications of development techniques such as appraisal, assessment and 360 degree feedback, and vignettes and examples are drawn both from the author's own experience and from others' research. Management development is a well-trodden and increasingly lucrative field in which large numbers of managers, developers, consultants, academic institutions and others play. It deserves to be done well; but Managing Management Development highlights critically the differences between management development as it is commonly construed and packaged and an approach which properly takes account of relevant organizational theory and research. It is argued that one needs to understand organizational power systems, business requirements, managerial jobs and individual characteristics in order to successfully design, build and integrate management development initiatives. This book poses highly pertinent and challenging questions both for those involved or interested in management development in their own and others' organizations, and for students of business and organizational behaviour.