1. Employee Development
Employee development and career management are key contributors to a company’s competitive advantage by helping employees understand their strengths, weaknesses, and interests and by showing them how new jobs, expanded job responsibilities, and career paths are available to them to meet their personal growth needs. This helps retain valuable employees who might otherwise leave to join clients or competitors. Employee development is a necessary component of a company’s efforts to compete in the new economy, to meet the challenges of global competition and social change, and to incorporate technological advances and changes in work design. Employee development is key to ensuring that employees have the competencies necessary to serve customers and create new products and customer solutions.
Employee development is also important to ensure that companies have the managerial talent needed to successfully execute a growth strategy and to retain talented employees. Also because companies (and their employees) must constantly learn and change to meet customer needs and compete in new markets, the emphasis placed on both training and development has increased.
Chapter 9 discusses the relationships between development, training, and careers, looks at development approaches, including formal education, assessment, job experiences, and interpersonal relationships, and emphasizes the types of skills, knowledge, and behaviors that are strengthened by each development method. The chapter describes the steps of the development planning process. Employee and company responsibilities at each step of the process are emphasized. Special issues in employee development, including succession planning, dealing with dysfunctional managers, and using development to help women and minorities move into upper-level management positions (referred to as “melting the glass ceiling”) are also discussed.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Training and Development Comparison
Current
Low
Preparation for
current job
Required
Development
Future
High
Preparation for
changes
Voluntary
Focus
Use of work
experience
Goal
Participation
Table 9.1 shows comparison between training and development. Development is the acquisition of knowledge, skills and behaviors that improve an employee’s ability to meet changes in job requirements and in client and customer demands. Development refers to formal education, job experiences, relationships, and assessment of personality and abilities that help employees prepare for the future. Training is important to all employees not just managers. Traditionally, training focuses on helping employees’ performance in their current jobs. Development prepares them for other positions in the company and increases their ability to move into jobs that may not yet exist. Development also helps employees prepare for changes in their current jobs that may result from new technology, work designs, new customers, or new product markets. Development is especially critical for talent management, particularly for senior managers and employees with leadership potential.
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3. Careers
A protean career is based on self-direction with the goal of psychological success in one’s work.
Psychological success - feeling of pride and accomplishment that comes from achieving life goals.
Development Planning System- retain and motivate employees by identifying and meeting development needs. (also called career management system)
Careers are the sequence of positions held within an occupation and are boundaryless and often change.
A protean career is based on self-direction with the goal of psychological success in one’s work.
Psychological success - feeling of pride and accomplishment that comes from achieving life goals.
Development Planning System- retain and motivate employees by identifying and meeting development needs (also called career management systems).
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4. Employee Development Approaches
Formal Education
Assessments
Personality Tests and inventories such as
Myers-Briggs, (MBTI), etc.
Performance appraisals
Upward feedback
360-Degree Feedback Systems
Job Experiences
Interpersonal Relationships
Formal education programs include off‑site and on‑site programs designed specifically for the company's employees, short courses offered by consultants or universities, executive MBA programs, and university programs in which participants actually live at the university while taking classes. MBTI, the most popular psychological test for employee development, consists of more than 100 questions about how the person feels or prefers to behave in different situations.
The assessment center is a process in which multiple raters evaluate employees' performance on a number of exercises.
Benchmarks is an instrument designed to measure the factors that are important to being a successful manager.
Performance appraisals is the process through which an organization gets information on how well an employee is doing his or her job.
Upward feedback refers to appraisals that involve collecting subordinates’ evaluations of managers’ behaviors or skills.
The 360‑degree feedback system is a performance appraisal system for managers that includes evaluations from a wide range of persons who interact with the manager.
Job experiences are the relationships, problems, demands, tasks, and other features that employees face in their jobs
Employees can also develop skills and increase their knowledge about the company
and its customers by interacting with a more experienced organization member.
Mentoring and coaching are two types of interpersonal relationships that are used to develop employees.
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5. Assessment Centers
An assessment center, usually off-site, uses multiple raters to evaluate employees’ performance on exercises.
4 Types of Assessment Exercises:
Leaderless group discussion
Interviews
In-baskets
Role plays
Assessment involves collecting information and providing feedback to employees about their behavior, communication style, or skills.
From 6 to 12 employees usually participate at one time, and the assessment center is usually held at an off‑site location.
The evaluators are normally managers from the organization who have been trained to identify behaviors related to the skills assessed.
A leaderless group discussion is a process in which a team of five to seven employees solve an assigned problem together within a certain time period.
An interview refers to when employees are questioned about their work and personal experiences, skills, and career plans.
In-basket is a simulation of the administrative tasks of a manager’s job.
Role-plays refer to a participant taking the part or role of a manager or other employee.
Assessment center exercises are designed to measure employees’ administrative and interpersonal skills. Skills typically measured include leadership, oral and written communication, judgment, organizational ability, and stress tolerance. As illustrated in Table 9.5, Examples of Skills Measured by Assessment Centers include:
Leadership (Dominance, coaching, influence, resourcefulness)
Problem solving (Judgment)
Interpersonal (Sensitivity, conflict resolution, cooperation, oral communication)
Administrative (Organizing, planning, written communications)
Personal (Stress tolerance, confidence)
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6. Skills for Managerial Success
Resourceful
Quick Study
Compassionate
Straightforward
Confront Problems
Decisive
Self-aware
Flexible
Do Whatever It Takes
Lead
Build & Mend Relationships
Develop
Team
Balance
Hire Talented Staff
Put Others at Ease
Table 9.5 provides skills and attributes related to managerial success such as
Resourceful
Quick Study
Compassionate
Straightforward
Confront Problems
Decisive
Self-aware
Flexible
Also included are the abilities to
Do Whatever It Takes
Lead
Build & Mend Relationships
Develop
Team
Balance
Hire Talented Staff
Put others at ease
Display warmth and a good sense of humor
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7. 360-Degree Feedback Activities
Identify:
Strengths &
Weaknesses
Development
Goal
Process for recognizing goal accomplishment
Strategies for reaching goals
To effectively use 360-degree feedback, understand strengths and weaknesses and identify a development goal, have a process for recognizing goal accomplishment and strategies for reaching the development goals.
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8. Job Demands and Lessons Learned
Make transitions
Create change
Have high level of responsibility
Face obstacles
Be involved in non-authority relationships
Table 9.7 shows job demands and the lessons employees learn from them such as making transitions, dealing with unfamiliar responsibilities, developing new directions, creating change, having high level responsibility with high level stakes, facing obstacles such as adverse business conditions, lack of personal support or a difficult boss and being involved in non-authority relationships to influence peers or others.
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9. Job Experiences for Career Development
Vertical Assignments
Promotion
Lateral
Moves
Transfer
(lateral move)
Job
Rotation
(lateral move)
Enlargement of
current job
experiences
Job experiences can be used for employee development such as enlarging the current job, job rotation, transfers, promotions, downward moves, and temporary assignments.
Job rotation gives employees a series of job assignments in various functional areas of the company or movement among jobs in a single functional area or department.
In a transfer, an employee is assigned a job in a different area of the company.
Transfers do not necessarily increase job responsibilities or compensation. They are likely lateral moves (a move to a job with similar responsibilities).
Volunteer assignments may give employees opportunities to manage change, teach, have a high level of responsibility, and be exposed to other job demands.
Promotions are advancements into positions with greater challenges, more responsibility, and more authority than in the previous job. Promotions usually include pay increases.
A downward move occurs when an employee is given less responsibility and authority. This may involve a move to another position at the same level (lateral demotion), a temporary cross-functional move, or a demotion because of poor performance. Temporary cross-functional moves to lower-level positions, which give employees experience working in different functional areas, are most frequently used for employee development.
Temporary
assignments,
projects &
volunteer work
Downward
move
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10. Job Experiences
Job enlargement -adding challenges or new responsibilities.
Job rotation-moving a single individual from one job to another.
Transfer-moving an employee to a different job assignment in a different area of the company.
Promotions-advancement into positions with greater challenge and more authority than previous job.
A downward move occurs when an employee is given a reduced level of responsibility and authority.
Job enlargement - adding challenges or new responsibilities to an employee’s current jobs.
Job rotation helps employees gain an overall appreciation of the company's goals, increases their understanding of different company functions, develops a network of contacts, and improves their problem solving and decision making skills.
A transfer is the movement of an employee to a different job assignment in a different area of the company.
Promotions are advancements into positions with greater challenges, more responsibility, and more authority than in the previous job; they usually include a pay increase.
A downward move occurs when an employee is given less responsibility and authority.
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11. Temporary Assignments
Externship refers to a company allowing employees to take a full-time operational role at another company.
A sabbatical is a leave of absence from the company to renew or develop skills.
Externship refers to a company allowing employees to take a full-time operational role at another company
A sabbatical is a leave of absence from the company to renew or develop skills.
To ensure that employees accept transfers, promotions , and downward moves as development opportunities, companies can provide:
Information about the content, challenges, and potential benefits of the new job and location.
Involvement in the transfer decision by sending the employees to preview the new location and giving them information about the community.
Clear performance objectives and early feedback about their job performance.
A host at a new location to help then adjust.
Information about how the job opportunity will affect their personal finances.
Reimbursement and assistance in selling and purchasing or renting a place to live.
An orientation program.
Information on how the new job experiences will support the employee’s career plans.
Assistance for dependent family members.
Help for spouse in identifying and marketing skills and finding employment.
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12. Successful Mentoring Programs
Voluntary participation
Flexible matching process
Mentors chosen on ability & willingness
Clearly understood purpose
Program length specified
Minimum level of contact specified
Contact among participants encouraged
Program evaluated
Employee development rewarded
A mentor is an experienced, productive senior employee who helps develop a less‑experienced employee (protégé).
Most mentoring relationships develop informally; however, companies can have formal mentoring programs.
Mentors should be chosen based on interpersonal and technical skills. They also need to be trained.
A key to successful mentoring programs is that the mentor and protégé are well matched and can interact with each other face-to-face or virtually using video conferencing.
Mentor programs socialize new employees, increase the likelihood of skill transfer from training to the work setting, and provide opportunities for women and minorities to gain the exposure and skills needed to evolve into managerial positions. Although many mentoring relationships develop informally, one major advantage of formalized mentoring programs is that they ensure access to mentors for all employees, regardless of gender or race. An additional advantage is that participants in the mentoring relationship know what is expected of them. One limitation of formal mentoring programs is that mentors may not be able to provide counseling and coaching in a relationship that has been artificially created. To overcome this limitation, it is important that mentors and protégés spend time discussing work styles, their personalities, and their backgrounds, which helps build the trust needed for both parties to be comfortable with their relationship.
Some characteristics of a successful mentoring program are:
Participation is voluntary
Matching process is flexible
Purpose is clearly understood
Mentors are chosen on ability and willingness
Program length is specified
Minimum level of contact is specified and how often and when they will meet and how they will communicate outside of meetings
Contact among participants is encouraged
Program is evaluated
Employee development is rewarded
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13. Benefits of Mentoring Relationships
Career Support
Coach, protect, sponsor and provide challenging assignments, exposure and visibility.
Psychological Support
Serve as a friend and role model, provide positive regard and acceptance and create an outlet for a protégé to share anxieties and fears.
Group Mentoring Program
A program pairing successful senior employees with less experienced protégés.
Protégés normally receive higher rates of promotion, higher salaries, and greater organizational influence.
Mentoring relationships provide opportunities for mentors to develop their interpersonal skills and increase their feelings of self-esteem and worth to the organization.
Characteristics of a successful formal mentoring program include such things as voluntary participation and the length of the program being specified (Text Table 9.11).
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14. Coaching A coach is a peer or manager who works with an employee to:
motivate
develop skills
provide reinforcement and feedback
3 roles a coach can play:
one-on-one
help employee learn
provide resources such as mentors,
courses or job experiences
To develop coaching skills, training programs need to focus on four issues related to a mangers’ reluctance to provide coaching: managers feel reluctance to discuss performance issues, managers may be better able to identify performance problems than to help employees solve them, managers may feel that the employee interprets coaching as criticism, and managers may feel that there is not enough time for coaching. Coaching improves managers’ use of 360-degree feedback by helping them set specific improvement goals and solicit ideas for improvement, which results in improved performance.
The main reasons coaches are used include developing high potential managers, acting as a sounding board for managers, or specifically trying to change behaviors that are making managers ineffective. Part of coaching may be one on one with an employee (such as giving feedback). Another role is to help employees learn for themselves. This involves helping them find experts who can assist them with their concerns and teaching them how to obtain feedback from others. Coaching may involve providing resources such as mentors, courses, or job experiences that the employee may not be able to gain access to without the coach’s help.
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15. Career Management Process
Action
planning
Identify needs
realistic to develop
Goal
Setting
Identify steps & timetable to reach goals
Identify opportunities to improve
Reality
Check
Identify goals & methods to determine progress
Figure 9.1. Steps and Responsibilities in the Career Management Process
Self‑assessment helps employees determine their interests, values, aptitudes, and behavioral tendencies.
With a reality check employees receive information about how the company evaluates their skills and knowledge and where they fit into the company's plans.
Reality check refers to the information employees receive about how the company evaluates their skills and knowledge and where they fit into the company’s plans (potential promotion opportunities, lateral moves). Usually this information is provided by the employee’s manager as part of performance appraisal. It is not uncommon in well developed career management systems for the manager to hold separate performance appraisals and career development discussions. In goal setting employees determine their short‑term and long‑term career goals during this phase of the career planning process.
Goal setting refers to the process of employees developing short- and long-term career objectives. These goals usually relate to desired positions (such as becoming sales people), level of skill or skill acquisition. These goals are usually discussed with the manager and written into a development plan. Development plans usually include descriptions of strengths and weaknesses, career goals, and development activities for reaching the career goal. Goals should be SMART- specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and timely.
During the action planning phase, employees determine how they will achieve their short- and long term career goals. Action plans may involve any one or combination of development approaches (such as enrolling in courses and seminars, getting additional assessment, obtaining new job experiences, or finding a mentor or coach). The development approach used depends on the needs and developmental goal.
Self-
assessment
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16. Training & Development Needs
Development Plan
Competencies &
Strengths
Career
Development Goals
Next Assignments
Training & Development Needs
Areas for
Improvement
Competencies/strengths
Career development goals
Next assignments
An effective development plan focuses on development needs that are most relevant to the organization’s strategic objectives.
This figure shows an example of the key elements of a development plan. Each employee completes a development plan that asks them to consider four areas:
Professional goals and motivation, talents and strengths, development opportunities, and objectives and actions steps.
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17. Special Issues Glass Ceiling Dysfunctional Managers Succession
Planning
Glass
Ceiling
Special
Issues
Dysfunctional
Managers
Managers making developmental assignments need to carefully consider whether gender biases or stereotypes are influencing the types of assignments given to women versus men. Networking and mentoring help break the glass ceiling.
High‑potential employees are those that the company believes are capable of being successful in higher-level managerial positions.
Succession planning requires senior management to systematically review leadership talent in the company. It ensures that top-level managerial talent is available. It provides a set of development experiences that managers must complete to be considered for top management positions; this avoids premature promotion of managers who are not ready for upper management ranks. Succession planning systems also help attract and retain managerial employees by providing them with development opportunities that they can complete if upper management is a career goal for them.
Dysfunctional managers exhibit behavior that can cause an otherwise competent manager to be a “toxic” or inefficient manager. Typically, a combination of assessment, training, and counseling is used to help managers change the dysfunctional behavior. Such behavior includes insensitivity to others, inability to be a team player, arrogance, poor conflict management skills, inability to meet business objectives, and inability to change or adapt during a transition. These managers are in jeopardy of losing their jobs and have little chance of future advancement because of the dysfunctional behavior.
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18. Summary
Development methods include formal education, assessment, job experiences and interpersonal relationships.
Both employee and company have responsibilities.
A mentor can help employees better understand the company and gain exposure to key persons.
A manager’s job responsibility is coaching.
Employees should have a development plan.
Various development methods that companies use include formal education, assessment, job experiences, and interpersonal relationships. Most companies use one or more of these approaches to develop employees. Formal education involves enrolling employees in courses or seminars offered by the company or educational institutions. Assessment involves measuring the employee’s performance, behavior, skills, or personality characteristics. Job experiences include job enlargement, rotating to a new job, promotions, or transfers. A more experienced, senior employee (a mentor) can help employees better understand the company and gain exposure and visibility to key persons in the organization. Part of a manager’s job responsibility may be to coach employees. Regardless of the development approaches used, employees should have a development plan to identify (1) the type of development needed, (2) development goals, (3) the best approach for development, and (4) whether development goals have been reached. For development plans to be effective, both the employee and the company have responsibilities that need to be completed.
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