Thesis
The effectiveness of competency based management development and the relationship between individual and business performance
Southern Cross University, Faculty of Business and Computing
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
1998
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Abstract
The evidence of the impact of management development activities on organisational performance is often only anecdotal and studies in the area lack a sound theoretical basis or a quantitative evaluation.
Some studies have attempted to demonstrate a link between management development and the behaviours of managers. However, until recently, there has also been a lack of investigation of a suggested link between management development and organisational performance. This study has examined such a relationship.
A quasi experimental research design was utilised to investigate the extent to which a competency based management development program made measurable improvements to a manager's individual performance and to the performance of the business unit for which the manager was responsible. Using a delphi method, an evaluation of the literature and an exploratory study, appropriate constructs and instruments for measuring individual and business performance were developed. These instruments were then used in a mail survey questionnaire which was distributed, utilising the 360 degree feedback approach, to approximately 900 experimental and control group managers in a large Australian company.
Managers who had undertaken the competency based management development program were found to score more highly on ten competency constructs than managers who had not undertaken the program. The research was considered to capture actual performance differences and not just perceived performance differences among the managers in the study as participants in the survey were required to base their ratings of work unit business performance on objective performance data collected regularly by each business unit of the company.
In addition to the comparison of experimental and control group managers undertaken in the study, a model testing process was used to examine suggested relationships between the individual performance of managers and the business performance of the manager's work unit. The proposed model was found to fit the data and the model showed a significant positive relationship between a latent variable representing the individual performance of managers and a latent variable representing the business performance of the work units for which the managers were responsible. The model indicated that 72.5 % of the total variance of the business performance construct could be explained by variations in the individual performance constructs.
The conclusions to be drawn from the study are that competency based management development programs do improve the individual performance of managers and that such individual performance is strongly related to improved business performance.
Details
- Title
- The effectiveness of competency based management development and the relationship between individual and business performance
- Creators
- Peter John Miller
- Contributors
- Don Scott (Supervisor) - Southern Cross University
- Awarding Institution
- Southern Cross University; Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Theses
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
- Publisher
- Southern Cross University, Faculty of Business and Computing
- Number of pages
- xiii, 307, Appendices A-F
- Identifiers
- 991012918700002368
- Copyright
- © Peter J Miller 1998
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Business, Law and Arts
- Resource Type
- Thesis