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Why Focus on Management Skill Development?

 
Given that a “skill development” course requires more time and effort than a course using the traditional lecture/discussion format, we are sometimes asked this question by students, especially those who have relatively little work experience.
 

Reason #1: It focuses attention on what effective managers actually “do.” In an influential article, Henry Mintzberg (1975) argued that management education had almost nothing to say about what managers actually do from day to day. He further faulted management textbooks for introducing students to the leading theories about management while ignoring what is known about effective management practice. Sympathetic to Mintzberg’s critique, we set out to identify the defining competencies of effective managers.
 

Although no two management positions are exactly the same, the research summarized in the Introduction highlights ten personal, interpersonal, and group skills that form the core of effective management practice. Each chapter addresses one of these skills.
 

Personal Skills
 
1. Developing Self-Awareness
2. Managing Personal Stress and Well-Being
3. Solving Problems Analytically and Creatively
 
Interpersonal Skills
 
4. Building relationships by Communicating Supportively
5. Gaining Power and Influence
6. Motivating Others
7. Managing Conflict
 
Group Skills
 
8. Empowering and Engaging Others
9. Building Effective teams and teamwork
10. Leading Positive Change
 

Consistent with our focus on promoting effective management practice, the material n these chapters provides guidance for a variety of contemporary management challenges, including: “How can I help others accept new goals, new ideas, new approaches?”
 
“How can I invigorate those who feel outdated and left behind?”
 
“How do I help the ‘survivors’ of a downsizing pick up the pieces and move on?”
 
“How do I help people with very different agendas and philosophies work together, especially during periods of high stress and uncertainty?”
 
Anyone tempted to dismissively argue that the answers to these questions are “common sense” would do well to recall Will Rogers’ pithy observation: “Common sense ain’t common.” In addition, the research reported in the Introduction suggests that, in many cases, managers’ “common sense” isn’t “good sense.”
 
The premise of this book and associated course is that the key to effective management practice is practicing what effective managers—those with “good sense”—do consistently.
 
Reason #2: It is consistent with proven principles of effective teaching and learning.
 
A seasoned university professor advised a young colleague, “If your students aren’t learning, you’re not teaching—you’re just talking!” Here’s what some authorities on higher education have to say about how effective teachers foster learning
 
“All genuine learning is active, not passive. It is a process of discovery in which the student is the main agent, not the teacher.” (Adler, 1982)
 
“Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in a class listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spilling out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past
experiences, apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.” (Chickering & Gamson, 1987)
 
In their classic book, Bonwell and Elson (1991) list seven defining characteristics of active learning
 
1. Students are involved in more than passive listening.
2. Students are engaged in activities (e.g., reading, discussing, writing).
3. There is less emphasis placed on information transmission and greater emphasis placed on developing student skills.
4. There is greater emphasis placed on the exploration of attitudes and values.
5. Student motivation is increased, especially in adult learners.
6. Students receive immediate feedback from their instructor and peers.
7. Students are involved in higher order thinking (analysis, synthesis,
 
What, then, differentiates effective managers from less effective managers? If developing management skills is so crucial for organizational success, what skills ought to be the focus of our attention? The management literature is filled with lists of attributes,behaviors, orientations, and strategies for enhancing successful performance. In writing this book, we wanted to identify the skills and competencies that separate extraordinarily effective performers from the rest of us. So, in addition to reviewing the managerial and leadership literatures, we also identified 402 individuals who were rated as highly effective managers in their own organizations in the fields of business, health care, education,and state government by asking senior officers to name the most effective managers in their organizations. We then interviewed those people to determine what attributes were associated with managerial effectiveness. We asked questions such as
 
❏ How have you become so successful in this organization?
❏ Who fails and who succeeds in this organization and why?
❏ If you had to train someone to take your place, what knowledge and what skills
would you make certain that person possessed in order to perform successfully as
your successor?
 
❏ If you could design an ideal curriculum or training program to teach you to be a
better manager, what would it contain?
❏ Think of other effective managers you know. What skills do they demonstrate that
explain their success?
 
You can read more about our case study assignment help services here.
 

 
The purpose of this exercise is to help you get a firsthand picture of the role of a manager and the skills required to perform that job successfully.
 
Your assignment is to interview at least three managers who are employed full-time.
 
You should use the questions below in your interviews, plus use others that you think might help you identify effective management skills. The purpose of these interviews is to give you a chance to learn about critical managerial skills from those who have to use them.
 
Please treat the interviews as confidential. The names of the individuals do not matter—only their opinions, perceptions, and behaviors. Assure the managers that no one will be able to identify them from their responses. Keep written notes of your interviews.
 
These notes should be as detailed as possible so you can reconstruct the interviews later. Be sure to keep a record of each person’s job title and a brief description of his or her organization.
 
1. Please describe a typical day at work. What do you do all day?
2. What are the most critical problems you face as a manager?
3. What are the most critical skills needed to be a successful manager in your line of work?
4. What are the major reasons managers fail in positions like yours?
5. What are the outstanding skills or abilities of other effective managers you have known?
6. If you had to train someone to replace you in your current job, what key abilities would you focus on?
7. On a scale of 1 (very rarely) to 5 (constantly), can you rate the extent to which you use the following skills or behaviors during your workday?
 

The Doctor’s Dilemma

 
A woman was dying of incurable cancer and had only about six months to live. She was in terrible pain, but was so weak that a large dose of a pain killer such as morphine would probably kill her. She was delirious with pain, and in her calm periods, she would ask her
doctor to give her enough morphine to kill her. She said she couldn’t stand the pain and that she was going to die in a few months anyway.
 
1. Is the woman’s family in favor of giving her the overdose?
2. Is the doctor obligated by the same laws as everybody else?
 
3. Would people be better off without society regimenting their lives and even their deaths?
4. Should the doctor make the woman’s death from a drug overdose appear to be an accident?
 
5. Does the state have the right to force continued existence on those who don’t want to live?
6. What is the value of death prior to society’s perspective on personal values?
 
7. Should the doctor have sympathy for the woman’s suffering, or should he care more about what society might think?
8. Is helping to end another’s life ever a responsible act of cooperation?
 
9. Can only God decide when a person’s life should end?
10. What values has the doctor set for himself in his own personal code of behavior?
 
11. Can society afford to let anybody end his or her life whenever he or she desires?
12. Can society allow suicide or mercy killing and still protect the lives of individuals
who want to live?
 

The Newspaper

 
Rami, a senior in high school, wanted to publish a mimeographed newspaper for students so that he could express his opinions. He wanted to speak out against military build-up and some of the school’s rules, such as the rule forbidding boys to wear long hair.
 
1. Is the principal more responsible to the students or to the parents?
2. Did the principal give his word that the newspaper could be published for a long time, or did he just promise to approve the newspaper one issue at a time?
 
3. Would the students start protesting even more if the principal stopped the newspaper?
4. When the welfare of the school is threatened, does the principal have the right to give orders to students?
 
5. Does the principal have the freedom of speech to say no in this case?
6. If the principal stopped the newspaper, would he be preventing full discussion of important problems?
 
7. Would the principal’s stop order make Rami lose faith in him?
8. Is Rami really loyal to his school and patriotic to his country?
 
9. What effect would stopping the paper have on the students’ education in critical thinking and judgment?
10. Is Rami in any way violating the rights of others in publishing his own opinions?
 
11. Should the principal be influenced by some angry parents when it is the principal who knows best what is going on in the school?
12. Is Rami using the newspaper to stir up hatred and discontent?
 

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