“Real” managers don’t do NVQs: a review of the new management “standards”

Abstract

In 1997 the Management Charter Initiative (MCI) officially launched the new management NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications), benchmarks which attempted to describe the work performed by British managers. This article is a review of those qualifications. It remembers some of the main problems associated with the original management NVQs and, drawing on some of the best theoretical and empirical accounts of managerial work, argues that the new qualifications have failed to live up to the MCI’s original promise, to assist the development and training of managers.

Leadership Competencies: Time to Change the Tune?

“…Alongside the growing use of competencies within organizations a parallel debate has raised significant concerns about their effectiveness and the extent to which they really relate to improved or superior performance at either an individual or organizational level. Five of the more commonly cited weaknesses include: (1) the reductionist way in which this approach fragments the management role rather than representing it as an integrated whole (Ecclestone, 1997;Grugulis, 1998;Lester, 1994); (2) the universalistic/generic nature of competencies that assumes a common set of capabilities no matter what the nature of the situation, individuals or task (Grugulis, 2000;Loan-Clarke, 1996;Swailes & Roodhouse, 2003); (3) the focus on current and past performance rather than future requirements (Cullen, 1992;Lester, 1994); (4) the way in which competencies tend to emphasize measurable behaviours and outcomes to the exclusion of more subtle qualities, interactions and situational factors (Bell et al, 2002); and (5) the rather limited and mechanistic approach to education that often results (Brundrett, 2000). Despite these criticisms, however, the competency movement has gathered momentum rather than slowed down and recent years have seen an expansion of the approach to incorporate leadership as well as management.…”

Transnational worker representation and transnational training needs: the case of European works councils

“…All of our experiencing takes place within a context which cannot be reduced into elements unconnected with past experience. (1987: 92) A similar argument has been made by Grugulis (1998) with respect to management training, claiming that it is unrealistic to disaggregate such a role into 'objective, explicit and unambiguously measurable elements of competence' (ibid: 397). A second critique concerns the inter-relationship between the 'hegemony of competence and the ideology of individualism' (Alexander and Martin, 1995: 84).…”

Vocational Qualifications and Higher Education: Some Policy Issues

“…The requirement to meet a large set of performance criteria and evidence requirements appears to impede the learning experience although an important mediating influence on this effect is the way in which criteria are interpreted by assessors. Revisions to standards have not had much impact on the daunting prospect that they can set (Grugulis, 1998). There appears to be considerable scope for awarding bodies to develop clearer visions for the type of learning programme and evidencing strategies that they wish to encourage on NVQs and operationalise these visions through their external verifiers.…”