What is Management Development?

Management Development is best described as the process from which managers learn and improve their skills not only to benefit themselves but also their employing organizations.

“The process of creating and enhancing the competences of managers and potential managers. Management development is usually thought of as a planned process, focusing on a long-term development program to increase managerial effectiveness, but it also incorporates informal and unplanned elements such as learning from day-to-day experience.”

Need and importance for management development are:

• It is managements’ responsibility of ensuring the success of the organization
• It is the management who deal with people of different background, culture, language, etc
• Mergers and acquisitions, downsizing, etc are all under management’s control
• It is managements’ responsibility to ensure that the employees obtain the required KSAs to perform the tasks
• It is managements’ responsibility to ensure that right people is hired for the right job, at the right time for the right place
• Manager’s job is complex i.e. for the managers understanding the training need is not easy because his training need is determined by how well his department is meeting its objective and goal.
• It is the management who makes decisions on the basis of judgment and intuition
• It is the manager who performs several routine duties as well as handling the exceptions in their own as well as subordinates’ routine
• Managers are engaged in varied, discontinues, and brief activities
• It is the management that understand the organization, its vision, mission, ethics, values, strategies, capabilities, and how his organization fits into the industry, and how his behavior will influence people outside the organization