Dissonant Views of the Manager's Role:Management Development Implications

In an article in this journal, Elliott and Knibbs[1] presented some preliminary findings about the relationships between the expectations of course members on Management Development programmes and those of sponsoring organisations and members of the educational institutions. The course members had been asked to rate their reasons for attending certain post‐graduate management courses and tutors' views about the ideal course member had been elicited. The article pointed out the possibility of a mismatch between actual behaviour of course members whilst on the course and that presented as ideal by tutors: it identified a lack of congruence between the career aspirations of course members and the views of sponsoring organisations. This present article presents some additional research, conducted by one of the authors, which has indicated some disquieting discrepancies in the relationship of course members and tutors of the Management Development programme.