The Manager's Role in Staff Development

A number of writers on management have emphasised the development of subordinates as a major function of management. This has been placed alongside the other functions of planning, organising, motivating and controlling. Hekiminian and Jones went as far as to suggest that the greatest contribution managers could make to their organisation was the development of the human resources under their control. This developmental or educator role has been described as providing the “vision and ability to perform”. In spite of the importance of this function, our own experience, shared by others (see Stewart), suggests that it is a neglected one, in which the manager receives little guidance from the organisation. Managers therefore concentrate on those aspects of work which superiors regard as important.