Management development in Ireland: the new organizational wealth?

Abstract

Drawing upon survey data, we assess the current state of management development in Ireland and we identify policy, practice and structural contingencies that help to explain variations in the volume of management development activity undertaken at organizational level. The data show that the level of management development, as measured by the number of days per annum, has increased in recent years with 70 percent of managers in our sample now receiving between one and five days training per year. The mean number of days per annum in Ireland now stands at 4.5. With respect to those factors that appear to affect the level of management development activity, preliminary analysis points to the importance of policy and practice variables over structural ones. Materially, in the human resource domain, our data suggest that organizations with actual policies on personnel/human resource strategy and on management development have higher levels of management development activity and, given the recent tightening in the labor market, many were promulgating their use of developmental interventions as an aid to recruitment/retention. The existence of formal career plans and succession plans, the relative emphasis on the analysis of human resource development needs and the filling of senior and middle management posts via the internal labor market all emerged as predictors of higher levels of management development. Organizations using international experience schemes also ran a significantly higher number of days of management development interventions. In the structural characteristics domain, the data indicate that management development in indigenous companies is at similar levels to internationally owned enterprises in our sample. Here structural explanations such as total employment, sector and unionization did not emerge as being statistically significant.

Investing in management development in turbulent times and perceived organisational performance: a study of UK MNCs and their subsidiaries

“…While there is no consensus in the literature about what may constitute 'best practice' MD practices, there is some common agreement that the following practices should be present to ensure that MD is effective: diagnosis and design of training, career development opportunities and the subsequent evaluation of MD activity (see, Employment Relations Research Unit 1999; Heraty and Morley 2003;D'Netto et al 2008;McDonnell 2008). In order to factor in the potential effects of the global economic crisis, MD expenditure post-2007 is also included in the analysis.…”

Evaluating the Impact of Different Training Methods on SME Business Performance

“…Moreover, the existing evidence is regarded as inconclusive and contradictory (Heraty and Morley, 2003;Morgan et al, 2003;Storey, 2004). Jayawarna et al (2007) found that formal training was more signifi cantly associated with enhanced business performance than informal training.…”

Human Resource Practices in Multinational Companies in Ireland: A Large-Scale Survey

“…This is used as a measure to indicate the extent to which the firm's human resources are regarded as an investment central to organisational success. Reliable data on this type of expenditure are not easy to come by in some companies due in no small part to the complex structures of organisations (Heraty and Morley, 2003;Edwards et al, 2007). This proved to be the case in a number of organisations with some respondents unable to even provide a range of training and development expenditure.…”