Change and the Quality of Management
| Pages | 21-22 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635579210012250 |
| Date | 01 April 1992 |
| Published date | 01 April 1992 |
| Author | Brian Groggins,Ian Millar |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
CHANGE
AND THE
QUALITY
OF
MANAGEMENT
21
Change and
the Quality of
Management
Brian Groggins and Ian Millar
Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 92 No. 4, 1992, pp. 21-22,
© MCB University Press Limited, 0263-5577
M
anagement and leadership must be
replaced with a much clearer and
well-
defined strategy.
Change
"The only consistent thing today
is
change"
preaches
Tom
Peters. It always has been but was either not the
"fashionable" thing to say, was ignored because of its
complexities or, in the case of management development,
training and education, change management
was
the first
thing to be cut or eliminated when budget constraints were
introduced.
The management of change, or indeed providing managers
with the insight and tools to make or
allow change
to occur,
has altered little over the last ten years. Change is made
by individuals
first[1],
then organizations. Why, therefore,
cut off the hands and minds which feed the change
process? Leaders, not just managers, must be developed
to fire up the whole process of change.
Change is inevitable. It is empowered
by
the environment
in
which we
live.
Management development however has
not kept
pace.
Continuous improvement, which is required
and is
a
prerequisite for survival and
being
in
the top group
within an industry, can only be achieved if management
first understands the need for change and also drives the
process. Managers must therefore be continuously helped
and supported if they are to drive the change process.
To lead, concepts and usable measures must be
established. The crystal-ball approach to management[2]
and leadership must be replaced with
a
much clearer and
well-defined mission and strategy. Measurement must
play
a key role in the way in which we manage, but no single
measurement suffices[3, pp. 81-90]. Several, as
determined by the needs of the business, are required
and all need to be integral parts of the well-tried and, I
suggest, trusted control features of plan, publish, measure,
compare, report and correct.
Management Development
How is management development — in terms of
leadership, as a team leader and generator of change
—
created or established? How is management performance
established and improved?
Innovation
is a
key part of business
survival[3,
p.
86].
What
follows is innovative, not revolutionary but evolutionary,
and departs from the traditional programmes where the
emphasis was on imparting knowledge from external
sources in a sporadic shot-in-the-arm process. The J.I.
Case/Sheffield Business School collaborative programme
is about consolidating basic management skills and
techniques in an action-learning environment over several
months. It is about a workshop approach which provides
opportunities for participants to develop and improve their
management awareness and skills by working together on
current, future and survival issues within their own
companies.
The benefits of such a programme are:
• Topics are directly related to and support the
strategies and development of the company. It is
not an "academic" exercise.
• It develops a common shared view of what is
required to improve company performance across
functional boundaries.
• It allows incremental development or continuous
improvement combined with modular academic
progress to recognized qualifications.
Development Programme
The programme was designed in collaboration with
Sheffield Business School and throughout the programme
the quality and integrity of
the
content was reviewed both
by J.I. Case sponsors (plant managers) and
by
the Sheffield
Business School course leader.
A
developing and building
relationship was established which harnessed the
combined forces both of industry and academic initiative.
The programme consistently meets the company's goals
in terms of compatibility with the company's major
strategic programmes. At several stages throughout the
programme participants commit themselves to a company-
specific action plan.
The programme also met the company's requirements for
flexible delivery, i.e. "teaching" times suited the
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