TRENDS IN EXECUTIVE EDUCATION: TOWARDS A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

Transcription

1 INTERMAN 7 TRENDS IN EXECUTIVE EDUCATION: TOWARDS A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING by Douglas A. Ready, Albert A. Viere and Alan F. White RECEIVED 2 7 MAY 1393 International Labour Offie tlo BIBL BIT International Management Development Network (INTERMAN)

2 INTERMAN 1993 International Management Development Network /o International Labour Offie CH-1211 Geneva 22 Switzerland

3 WHAT IS INTERMAN INTERMAN the International Management Development Network is an international assoiation ommitted to enhaning managerial effetiveness on a world-wide basis. Membership is open to orporations, eduational institutions, management assoiations, and development agenies. INTERMAN's mission is to lead in the global development of management thought and pratie by promoting, linking and strengthening regional and national networks of management institutions. INTERMAN provides a forum for members to examine and shape management eduation and training world-wide. It ontributes to the growth of management knowledge and pratie whih is both relevant and speifi to eah region's soial and eonomi environment. By serving as learing house and broker, INTERMAN is uniquely positioned to promote a global partnership for innovative management development. MAJOR REGIONAL NETWORKS AACSB St. Louis USA NASPAA Washington USA CFDMAS Ottawa Canada EFMD Brussels Belgium ARADO Amman Jordania Hi CMDA St. Mihael Barbados CLADEA Lima Peru AIMAF Abidjan Cote d'lvoire WAMDEVIN Lagos Nigeria AMTIESA Arusha Tanzania r AAPAM Addis Ababa v. Ethiopia AIMS Bangalore India AOSGM Manila Philippines AMDISA Hyderabad India III

4 NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHORS Douglas A. Ready is founder and President of the Center for Exeutive Learning, a management development onsulting firm speializing in ustom tailored exeutive eduation programmes, onferenes and ontrat researh on leadership and exeutive development. He is also Founding President and Exeutive Diretor of the International Consortium for Exeutive Development Researh, a ollaborative of 3 major global orporations and 2 leading business shools from around the world that onduts applied researh and best praties on innovative approahes to developing world lass organizations and leaders under onditions of hange. Prior to founding CEL and ICEDR, he was Diretor of Exeutive Eduation and served on the faulty of the Shool of Management at Boston University. Dr. Ready has served as Dean of the Shool of Exeutive Eduation at Babson College and Diretor of the Exeutive Development Projet for Harvard's John F. Kennedy Shool of Government. He has taught in exeutive and graduate programmes for a number of universities, inluding Babson College, Boston University, Cranfield Shool of Management in the United Kingdom, Pennsylvania State University, and Japan's Waseda University. He serves on the editorial review board for the University of Mihigan's HRAA Journal. Dr. Ready onsults with a broad spetrum of ompanies in the areas of management and exeutive development. He serves as a onsultant and writer for Fortune Magazine's Speial Projets Department on trends and innovations in exeutive development, as well as an adviser to the Northeast Human Resoures Assoiation for its professional development ativities. He has reently ompleted a transnational, multi-year study on organizational and leadership ompetenies of 3 managers from the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. He holds an MPA in Management from Harvard University and a PhD in International Human Resoures from the Cranfield Shool of Management in the United Kingdom. Albert A. Viere is Assoiate Dean for Exeutive Eduation, Diretor of the Center for Exeutive and Organization Development Researh, and Assoiate Professor of Business Administration for the Smeal College of Business Administration at Penn State. The author of more than 5 publiations in the fields of leadership and exeutive development, Professor Viere is also an ative leturer and onsultant to numerous ompanies around the world, inluding Digital Equipment Corporation, Westinghouse, ARA Servies, Conrail and the National Health Servie (United Kingdom). IV

5 Alan F. White is Senior Assoiate Dean responsible for Exeutive Eduation and International Programs at MIT's Shool of Management. He began his areer at MIT in 1973, having previously ompleted a Master's Degree in Management at MIT in 1971 as an Alfred R Sloan Fellow and later served as Diretor of that Program. Mr. White reeived his undergraduate degree from the University of Miami (Ohio). Mr. White has had a diverse areer, with signifiant experiene in the private setor, where he served an apprentieship as a printer and later worked in printing sales and prodution. He has had international government experiene working as a Senior Administrator in the United States Peae Corps in the Philippines from 1963 to He was the Diretor of the University of Hawaii Center for Cross Cultural Training and Researh from 1967 to 197, and served as Exeutive Assistant for the President of the University of Hawaii from 1971 to Mr. White has travelled extensively and has been responsible for MIT programmes in Europe and Asia. His urrent responsibilities inlude a major institution building assignment in Singapore where MIT and the Government of Singapore have a five-year agreement to develop a business shool at Nanyang Tehnologial University. He is Chair of the University Consortium for Exeutive Eduation and serves on the Boards of Kenan Systems, Management Sienes for Health, the Frenh-Amerian Chamber of Commere and the Advisory Board of the Japan Management Institute. He is a member of the Boston Counil of the Counil on Foreign Relations (Boston) and the International Consortium for Exeutive Development Researh. Mr. White has served as a onsultant in the area of management development to many organizations, inluding British Petroleum, Citibank, and the Young President's Organization. V

6 In a world in whih the ompetitive environment is getting tougher every day, there is a growing onsensus that the key to ompetitive suess is having world lass human resoure apabilities. For years CEOs have stated that their employees are their most important resoure, but rarely did they bak up their statements with effetive initiatives designed to develop their people resoures. This is hanging and the revolution has just begun. It is no longer possible for an organization to neglet the development of its people. Organizations where employees are not learning and where employees are not ontributing to organizational learning, organizational transformation, and organizational hange are likely to be organizations in stages of deline. Trends in exeutive eduation How are these hanges affeting the field of exeutive eduation? Exeutive eduation is a young field. The onept is barely 6 years old. It is a field whih traditionally has been haraterized by experimentation, but poorly researhed. Most organizations feel that the most effetive management development experienes our on the job. Few organizations have been systemati in their approahes. There is a growing awareness that ongoing eduation and development has a very important if not the most important role to play in making the organization more ompetitive. The impliations of this awareness, and some important trends are as follows: 1. Development is moving from a motivational fator to a ompetitiveness fator. 2. Eduation and development is being brought front and entre as a key organizational funtion, and as an ongoing ontinuous ativity. 3. The Human Resoure funtion has been upgraded in importane. Staffing is more professional than in the past, and many times the human resoure funtion is now linked with other senior organizational responsibilities. 4. Organizations are relying more on their own resoures and less on university resoures for their exeutive development ativities. 5. The pereption of university effetiveness in the field of exeutive eduation has lessened. 6. Organizations plan to send fewer managers to open enrollment university programmes and to use resoures far more speifi to the organization ation learning programmes. 7. Organizations seek improvements in exeutive eduation to link eduation to the realities of work, they seek new approahes to learning, they want more ustomer-foused programmes and they want more input into ourse design. 8. Organizations plan programmes that fous on organizational development initiatives (ulture reinforement, team building,

7 hange initiatives) rather than programmes foussed on individual development. 9. Organizations do not plan to derease their expenditures on eduation but they do plan to diret their expenditures toward internal initiatives. 1. There is a growing rowd of providers of exeutive eduation programmes. It is likely that there will be a market shakeout, and that those providers that invest in and differentiate their produts are most likely to find suess. The role of universities Regarding the last point, it is widely reognized that exeutive eduation has beome a fierely ompetitive business. A few years ago no universities ran advertisements for their programmes; today any issue of the Eonomist will feature a flood of programme offerings. Universities experiening budget onstraints aross the board have foused on their business shools as ash ows. A number of shools are now very ustomer foused. Their goal is to find out what the ustomer wants and then offer solutions; they are operating as onsulting firms rather than universities. This has ontributed to the pereption noted above. From the ompany's point of view, most organizations are onerned more with organizational hange, organizational transformation and ulture hange, rather than with individual development. The traditional fous of the university has been toward individual development. The researh fous of universities is toward preise, disiplinary units. How do universities shift from their traditional fous to the needs expressed by organizations? This is a diffiult question to answer. There are a number of responses under way and they represent muh of the tremendous hange ourring in the field of exeutive eduation. The need for a systems approah As mentioned earlier, few organizations have been systemati in their approah to exeutive development. There is a growing awareness of this and a realization of the need for a systems approah to exeutive resoures planning. The authors have developed a model whih illustrates the linkages neessary to make exeutive development a fore for organizational ompetitiveness. The atalyst for this perspetive is a fous on the organization's strategi imperatives the ore drivers of its ompetitive ations. Based on these imperatives, the organization will then need to larify its objetives for exeutive development and prioritize the "target lient groups" within the organization for development ativities. One these objetives and lient groups are identified, the organization determines appropriate methods for implementation to ensure the optimal utilization of sare finanial and human resoures. In this systems approah, all exeutive development elements are linked so as to fous squarely on the most essential out- 2

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9 ome: building sustainable ompetitive apabilities. The imperatives The hallenge is to merge these sets of hoies into a omprehensive, effetive system that more losely links the various exeutive development proesses to strategi and organizational imperatives something more easily said than done. To begin building an integrated exeutive development planning system, managers should pay areful attention to their strategi imperatives (the key driver of their system) and then: Clarify ore purposes for development, suh as ultivating ritial ompetenies; broadening perspetives; building networks and teams, ultivating organizational apabilities; enhaning ommuniations; hanging organizational ulture or formulating and implementing ompetitive strategies. Prioritize lients for development, using identifiation variables suh as strategi imperatives, level, funtion, key proesses or regional onerns. Integrate methods and approahes used for development with strategi intent, lient base and organizational learning objetives. Develop a oherent rationale for utilizing university based exeutive eduation. This rationale should inlude a statement of how, why and when university programmes strengthen the firm's approah to building leadership and organizational apabilities. Build a strategi partnership with a selet group of university providers of exeutive eduation, but reassess these relationships periodially to ensure that they are ahieving the objetives initially outlined. Link development ations with HR systems; leverage the impat of exeutive development efforts by linking them more tightly to the organization's overall human resoures management proesses, inluding performane management and reward systems, reruitment and seletion initiatives, suession and exeutive resoures planning ativities for key jobs, projets and task fores. Future outlook With the hypothesis that development should play a ritial role in preparing managers to exeute ompetitive strategies more effetively, thus improving a firm's future performane, some organizations have begun to plae greater emphasis on the identifiation of ompeteny requirements for leadership effetiveness 4

10 in searh of twenty-first entury management praties and leadership traits. However, the added unertainties brought on by rapid hanges in tehnologial, politial, ultural, soial and eonomi shifts during the 198s and early 199s has left us to onlude that fousing too losely on the development of ompetenies might not be adequate for ompetitiveness as the "half lives" of speifi ompetenies are diffiult to determine. The ompetenies that have brought an organization to its urrent position may not be the ompetenies needed to move an organization forward. Further, generi ompetenies are not very helpful as drivers of effetive development programmes. We note that a number of organizations are working to ensure that the onditions for ontinuous learning are present, with suh apabilities residing within both individuals and organizational systems and ultures. The introdution of this systems perspetive has led orporations to realize that an exeutive development system is only as strong as the weakest link in its hain, pointing to an inreased need for researh into the effetiveness of a variety of exeutive development proesses and praties. This has led to new emphasis on the reation of exeutive development systems that ombine job experienes, eduational opportunities, mentoring, and other HR ativities into an ation plan for both the individual development of exeutives and the overall development of the organization. 5

11 Researh methods: A brief summary Most of the bakground work done for this paper derives from three soures. The first was a "work-in-progress" report on a speial setion for Fortune Magazine on trends and innovations in exeutive eduation and development whih was published in the 14 Deember 1992 issue of Fortune. The study was onduted by Douglas A. Ready, Exeutive Diretor of the International Consortium for Exeutive Development Researh. In preparation for this report, approximately 9 international orporations and business shools submitted surveys indiating their pereptions of ritial ompeteny requirements for the future, their primary target lients for exeutive development, as well as a variety of additional perspetives, suh as their projeted approahes to development and key reommendations for improved effetiveness. In addition, the institutions were asked to submit strategy and mission statements indiating their strategi intent, areas of exellene and future diretions, as well as fundamental statements about why they are in the business of exeutive eduation. Approximately 98 per ent of those responding to the survey also responded to this request. The seond method was a survey onduted by Albert A. Viere, Assoiate Dean for Exeutive Eduation at the Pennsylvania State University. Dean Viere's work is also "in proess" and a part of a broader longitudinal study on utilization patterns and pereived effetiveness of exeutive eduation and development. Professor Viere's work examines both the tatial and strategi omponents of deision making onerning exeutive development, by studying a variety of fators suh as hanging investment patterns, target lients, approahes to and roles of both internal and external exeutive eduation, as well as the pereived effetiveness of the university provider ommunity. The third method was a strutured interviewing proess, onduted in Asia and the Paifi, Europe and the United States by Alan F. White, Senior Assoiate Dean for Exeutive Eduation at MIT's Sloan Shool. After the preliminary findings from the two surveybased methods were integrated, a series of preliminary trends were identified. The researhers felt that a strutured interview with a small sample of senior level exeutive development professionals would perhaps help to larify some of the preliminary findings. The three researhers designed the instrument and additional improvements were made. The researhers gathered a signifiant amount of data and onduted an informal fator analysis to searh for underlying themes. 6

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