Emerging issues in management development: a blueprint for the future in the Caribbean
| Author | PAUL COLLINS |
| Date | 01 October 1996 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-162X(199610)16:4<413::AID-PAD891>3.0.CO;2-V |
| Published date | 01 October 1996 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL.
16,413414 (1996)
Professional Developments
Emerging issues in management development:
a
blueprint for
the future in the Caribbean
In January of this year, CAPAM in collaboration with its Affiliate, the Caribbean
Management Development Association (CMDA), and the Caribbean Centre for
Development Administration (CARICAD), held a regional conference entitled:
Emerging Issues in Management Development:
A
Blueprint for the Future in the
Caribbean.
Senior public officials and private sector representatives
from
16
Caribbean countries attended, as well as representatives of Venezuela, Canada, the
USA and the
UK.
The conference was hosted by the Government of Trinidad and
Tobago.
The major outcome of the conference was the acknowledged need for
ongoing
management education among senior professionals. In particular, participants at the
conference recognized the need to change the way managers, and leaders, were being
educated and trained. Conference participants were emphatic that the learning cycle
should not stop after formal education but rather it should be continuous. The
conference concluded that management development should be both in the theory and
practice of effective management. The management culture in the Caribbean, however,
was characterized as one in which senior managers and executive officers did not
appreciate the need and the urgency to invest in their
own
training and development.
The focus on the Caribbean region brought to light the need for action now to
ensure the competitiveness of the region globally in light of advanced and rapidly
changing technology as well as greater competition. A first step toward improving
management development, it was agreed, was to take stock immediately of what
resources already existed in the Caribbean. It was further agreed that the important
second step, once the environmental scan was complete, was to arrive at a clear sense
of the direction the region wished to head. In the course of their discussion, the
participants recognized that they must change the curriculum of existing training
institutions, at the same time starting a practice of benchmarking private and public
sector organizations, and studying best practices. The current curriculum must keep
pace with externalities such as globalization, information technology, and internal
cultural evolution.
The conference explored a number of subject areas where change needed
to
occur:
in keeping abreast of diversity issues, in introducing quality management, in
improving communications skills, and specifically in expanding language skills and
capacities in information technology.
A
distinctive preoccupation of the conference
was with improving leadership to promote the region into the 21st century.
Commitment on the part of a number of the participants to begin to document
their experiences-ffectively beginning a database of Caribbean best practices-
ensured that coming out of the regional conference the environmental scan was
CCC
0271-2075/96/04041342
0
1996
by
John
Wiley
&
Sons,
Ltd.
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