Management Development: A Literature Review and Implications for Future Research – Part II: Profiles and Contexts

In this second and concluding part of an extensive review of the management development literature,attention is directed to studies which have sought to describe and explain how managers are in fact made and to studies which have emphasised the contextual aspects of the process. The review is concluded with an overall assessment of the management development literature – its strengths and weaknesses – and with an analysis of the implications which this assessment carries for the conduct of future research. Crucial gaps are identified, not least of which is a general failure to locate descriptions of particular management development initiatives within the context of other ways in which the management stock is enhanced,replenished and managed. Another major shortcoming which is singled out as requiring urgent attention is the failure to place management development accounts and prescriptions within the wider context of organisational characteristics.