Management and Leadership Development Mabey-Prelims.Qxd 11/9/2007 5:41 PM Page Ii

Mabey-Prelims.qxd 11/9/2007 5:41 PM Page i Management and Leadership Development Mabey-Prelims.qxd 11/9/2007 5:41 PM Page ii ‘This is the first really thought-provoking book that I have read on management development. It will stretch those who read it and challenge them to adopt a broader perspective on the topic than current practitioners are inclined to do, one that acknowledges the values and beliefs – individual, organizational, and societal – that management development implicitly embraces. The multi-discourse approach is highly illuminating, and, of itself, developmental. ‘This is a book primarily addressed to students, but in this field, we are all students. Hopefully,the book will contribute to a more reflective management development practice. It merits a wide readership both among practising managers as well as among those responsible for developing them.’ Max Boisot, ESADE ‘Mabey and Finch-Lees inject a breath of fresh air into the management development field by expanding upon its heretofore functionalist base sustaining managerial prerogative and organizational performativity.They offer an informative critique of mainstream views, featuring alternative discourses to examine such hard questions as why management development hasn’t quite delivered on management’s considerable investment in it.As a veritable tour de force in its absorb- ing integration and review of a large tract of literature, the book informs both management scholars and practitioners what might be expected from management development’s intended but also unanticipated outcomes.’ Joe Raelin, Northeastern University ‘In a well-written, accessible and yet sophisticated text, Mabey and Finch-Lees show themselves to be as familiar with the latest in management development practice as they are with the sometimes arcane theoretical literature that surrounds it. Its great strength is to recognize the plurality of discourses – some overlapping and complementary, others distinct and oppositional – about the subject. This book can be recommended as a unique resource for students and scholars of management development.’ Chris Grey, University of Warwick ‘This book represents a significant step forward in the theory of management and leadership development. It offers an international perspective in this era of globaliza- tion and a new and questioning perspective on the common belief that leadership is something completely different to, and more important than, management. ‘This book will be of great help to the serious theorist and researcher of management and leadership development. It is an invaluable point of reference for a broad range of theory and research in this area, which it summarizes with admirable brevity and clarity.’ John G. Burgoyne, Lancaster University Management School and Henley Management College Mabey-Prelims.qxd 11/9/2007 5:41 PM Page iii Management and Leadership Development Christopher Mabey and Tim Finch-Lees Mabey-Prelims.qxd 11/9/2007 5:41 PM Page iv © Christopher Mabey and Tim Finch-Lees 2008 First published 2008 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP SAGE Publications Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road New Delhi 110 044 SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd 33 Pekin Street #02-01 Far East Square Singapore 048763 Library of Congress Control Number: 2007927621 British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-4129-2901-1 ISBN 978-1-4129-2902-8 (pbk) Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India Printed in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press Ltd,Trowbridge,Wiltshire Printed on paper from sustainable resources Mabey-Prelims.qxd 11/9/2007 5:41 PM Page v Contents Acknowledgements vi Part I: Understanding the significance of management development 1 1 Management development: paradox, reflexivity and discourse 3 2 Meanings of management development 28 Part II: Grand Discourses of management development 49 3 Management development: measurement and performance 51 4 Management development: narratives, ritual and symbolism 77 5 Management development: identity and discipline 101 6 Management development: power and control 126 Part III: Meso-discourses of management development 155 7 Management development and best-practice 157 8 Management development and institutionalism 177 9 Management development and diversity 199 10 Conclusion: making sense of management development 224 References 239 Index 265 Mabey-Prelims.qxd 11/9/2007 5:41 PM Page vi Acknowledgements Although authored by the two of us - and we take responsibility for the final outcome - we are indebted to a number of colleagues who took the time to read and comment on earlier versions, notably Scott Taylor, Tess Finch-Lees, Jo Duberley, Roger Bell and Vanda Morgan.The genesis of this book has also been informed by many conversations and discussions with academic partners of the European Management Development network (a research team of scholars in nine countries), with associates and staff at ASK Europe plc (with whom the first author has gained significant experience over the years as leadership development consultant) and with Diageo plc (where the second author held a number of director-level roles over a 14-year period).We are also grateful to the SAGE team for their encouragement during this project, particularly Kiren Shoman who has guided wisely from the outset and Rachel Burrows who has helped us see it through to completion. Mabey-ch-01.qxd 11/9/2007 5:38 PM Page 1 Part I Understanding the significance of management development Despite the intense interest in the development of managers and leaders and a good deal of research over recent decades, the field remains ripe for enquiry with many vexing questions still unresolved. How can managerial capability be bench- marked and to what extent can productivity at a national or organizational level be linked to the calibre of managers and leaders? Cultivating leadership talent is expensive and time-consuming for employers; the opportunity costs can also be high, design lead-times can be lengthy and the time-lagged effects difficult to determine. Given this, how confident are we that such resource allocation is worthwhile? Individual investment can be considerable too; participants fre- quently make personal sacrifices to update their expertise and develop their pro- fessional capability and training activities often involve high stretch and risk. Do the rewards outweigh the costs? Management development programmes are often used as a device to reduce discriminatory attitudes and improve diversity in orga- nizations; yet it is not unusual to find such development actually exacerbating inequality in the workplace. All this begins to suggest that at least some of the significance attached to management and leadership development may lie elsewhere than in its performance impact or personal utility. Perhaps, for example, the potency of such activities is more to do with the way precious resources are being allocated, the way corpo- rate messages are being disseminated, the way ideologies and ethical stances are receiving reinforcement or being undermined, the way managerial identities are being forged and so on. In the first chapter we attempt to create some reflexive space in order to explore these differing conceptions of management development.We argue that discourse is peculiarly suited for this kind of analysis, and the rest of the book dips into a range of discourses to illuminate some of the fasci- nating facets of management and leadership development interventions. Each reveals something different, surprising and occasionally disturbing about such programmes and events. Furthermore some of the discourses sit very uncomfort- ably alongside each other; it is perhaps for this reason that they are rarely com- pared or considered in the same piece of writing.Yet for us,the real challenge and excitement in writing this book has been to wrestle with the contradictions and conundrums that arise when trying, both systematically and faithfully, to inhabit Mabey-ch-01.qxd 11/9/2007 5:38 PM Page 2 2 MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT these contrasting views of the world. Before we embark on this, given that the title of the book refers to the development of both managers and leaders, we need to explore what is implied by these labels. This we address in chapter two, as well as sketching in the shifting borders between management development and its neighbouring fields of management education, management training and management learning. Mabey-ch-01.qxd 11/9/2007 5:38 PM Page 3 1 Management development: paradox, reflexivity and discourse The university stands for things that are forgotten in the heat of battle, for values that get pushed aside in the rough and tumble of everyday living, for the goals we ought to be thinking about and never do, for the facts we don’t like to

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