A Meta-Review of the Management Development Literature

Abstract

SHARON TURNBULL The Leadership Trust FoundationAn appraisal of recent reviews of the literature on management development demonstrates the existence of a number of perspectives on the topic, and this lack of a uniform approach has contributed to confusion about the subject. This article examines a series of recent and existing literature reviews on the topic of management development. It reviews existing and current syntheses of the management development literature and typological models of management development. The aim of the article is to critically analyze these reviews, with the intention of providing an overview of what has been written about management development during the past 25 years. The article unearths core issues and trends that have emerged in the various "literatures" and provides a synthesis of the concepts and paradigms that emerge from these research literatures. The metareview concludes by proposing a framework/model, within which contributions to the literature on management development can be placed.

The current state of management development in Iran: Case of Insurance industry

“…Table1: Descriptive statistics of research variables MD activities are interpreted differently at different organizational levels (Cullen, Turnbull, 2005). Therefore, by using ANOVA post hoc tests, we studied if the means of variables in different management groups varied from each other.…”

“…The HRM context of an organization is supposed to be a determinant factor of the MD processes adopted by the organization [18]. MD has been viewed as the system of personnel practices to ensure adequate availability of competent and motivated managers [2]. Considering human resource management strategies as a component of MD activities, findings of another study revealed that 9 out of 13 organizations stated that they recruited some formal processes for identification of high-potential managers as candidates to be funded for pursuing some sort of MD activities [4].…”

“…Considering human resource management strategies as a component of MD activities, findings of another study revealed that 9 out of 13 organizations stated that they recruited some formal processes for identification of high-potential managers as candidates to be funded for pursuing some sort of MD activities [4]. Organizationally-sponsored training makes up a type of learning and development activities [19] and as a component of MD is concerned with needs assessment, training content and methods, etc [2]. MD effectiveness is defined as the extent to which MD programs achieve their expected outcomes.…”

“…Although no unique approach is pursued by MD scholars [2], there is a consensus among human resource development scholars that MD plays a strategic role in organizations [3]. Also, in the absence of MD, organizations lack flexibility in response to environmental changes and national economies fail to maintain their competitiveness [4].…”

Predicting Management Development and Learning Behaviour in New Zealand SMEs

“…The importance of understanding intrinsic barriers to MD engagement stems from the view that MD in the SME context is driven not only by organizational and external environmental forces, but also by the individual needs, disposition and unique characteristics of the owner-manager (Cullen and Turnbull, 2005;Mabey, 2008). Bishop (2008) suggests that an individual's participation in MD activities is not a simple and objective matter of weighing up economic costs against the economic returns of an MD programme.…”