IMPARTING MANAGEMENT THINKING

In: International social science journal: ISSJ, Band 20, Heft 1, S. 63-76

Abstract

A rethinking of management educ in GB is suggested to discover more precisely what a manager's job consists of & how his educ & training may be tailored to fit. management educ in the past has been found unsatisfactory for a number of reasons, eg, a lack of systematic training within the Co in step with the development of the manager himself, the remoteness of both outside & Co courses from experience (a clash of theory with practice) & actual working needs. There has been over-concentration on the techniques of training at the expense of a thorough revision of the content of that training, with the object of keeping the formal educ of a manager rigorous & up to date. It is stated that in the last few yrs the British gov has taken a livelier interest in the educ of future managers & the recently endowed & founded business Sch's, notably London & Manchester, have set up a sharp pace. Gradually attention is being paid to techniques imported from the US, eg, participatory classroom techniques. No simulated situation can ever be an adequate substitute for experience, but it provides a connection between what is taught & what is done in practice. Several books on management educ are cited. The apparent failure of the management press to implant an understanding of management control techniques, including the value of electronic data processing, in the minds of executives who make the key decisions about methods & applications is noted. management journals & textbooks are examined in this context. There should be more courses aimed at particular problems of particular types of jobs. Further, some revision is needed in the decision-making as to what type of manager should be sent on a particular course. Managers at the same `level' in a Co do not necessarily have the same training needs, except perhaps in certain internal courses of the Co. Greater use of audio-visual teaching aids is recommended both in routine training & conferences of senior managers. Finally, little or no res has yet been done into the effects of management educ & training. More res is urged. An indigenous management literature is developing in GB, which is indicating that a new phase in British management educ has begun. Modified HA.