Developing Executive Competences: Learning to Confront,Confronting to Learn Available to Purchase

Suggests that increasing competitiveness in the corporate environment demands new managerial skills which reflect the key values of 1990s employee behaviour – i.e. quality performance in line with the constantly changing requirements of clients and colleagues. Points to the dramatic increase in management training as one way of enhancing managerial creativity and skill, and asks if such training programmes actually work, and if they can help managers to overcome their often unproductive work habits. Describes a successful management development programme aimed primarily at directors within a large,multinational insurance broking firm. Concludes that it is crucial that such training helps managers to adjust to, and deal with, their environment by encouraging them to learn how to learn and to use this capacity to confront performance problems and to work with others to overcome them.