Content area
Numerous management development programmes are not implemented successfully and those that are implemented are usually not evaluated scientifically.
The purpose of this research was (a) to determine why a comprehensive management development programme failed to be implemented; and (b) why the attempt at evaluating the programme was unsuccessful.
The development programme that was used as a case study was designed to develop the leadership skills of managers at a South-African financial institution.
The programme met most of the prerequisites for successful implementation, that are listed on the literature. The full development programme as originally planned was however, not completed for the following reasons: (a) Major changes that had nothing to do with the development programme were made to the organisation structure. This absorbed all of management's attention. (b) Top management's behavior remained unaltered, i.e. contrary to the prescriptions of the programme and no follow-up actions were taken. Steps were taken to evaluate the impact of the development programme, and again most of the prerequisites for successful evaluation were met. The evaluation attempt failed however, because: (a) The validity of the measuring instruments was not determined beforehand. (b) The experimental design was disrupted as a result of the major organisational changes. As a result of this research the following prerequisites for the successful implementation of management development programmes can be added to the list, namely: (1) A management development programme should only be implemented in a stable environment, i.e. where the changes in the nature of the environment will be minimal, so that they will not require management's full attention. (2) Management development must include all related facets in the organisation, i.e. focus should be on organisation development rather than on management development. (3) Top management must apply the management practices advocated in the programme. Secondly the following prescription can be added to the list of prerequisites for the evaluation of management development programmes: (1) The measuring instruments must be validated beforehand by means of criterion comparisons. (2) The evaluation must be carried out in an organisation where the disruptions in the experimental design will be limited to an absolute minimum.