Management Assessment For Personal Planning And Development

The need for individuals to take charge of the development of their own learning and careers has expanded for a variety of reasons: the rate of change in organizations is ever increasing, and the knowledge and skills needed to perform in our work settings is continuously being modified.

Having completed a personal inventory to assist in how our idiosyncrasies affect our relationships with others in the workplace can only help us be more effective managers in a marketplace that expects us to do more with fewer resources, yet maintain professionalism and excellence. That extra level of awareness can only help guide us through situations that could otherwise be fraught with obstacles and lead to needless inefficiencies.

The goal of this lecture was as follows:

DESIRED LEARNING OUTCOMES

* Describe one's own work needs; interpersonal styles; learning styles; role efficacy; management skills; and career management approaches.

* Describe how self-perceived strengths and preferred styles contribute to effective managerial performance.

* Identify content areas critical to effective public management, and proficiency in those areas.

* Develop a personal professional development plan which recognizes personal styles and strengths, and which proposes training and education activities to address areas of need.

These outcomes were addressed by several self-administered tests (administered prior to class, then reviewed during class): type theory, Role Efficacy, David McClelland's three basic motivators (1976), Personal Style Inventory (Hogan & Champagne, 1980), Kolb's experiential learning theory, Myers Briggs Type Indicator, and the Johari Window.

Each of these tools certainly has a different slant - presents a different facet of revelation on our individual tendencies. Each tool tends to reveal a slightly different perspective of our character.

For the purposes of this paper, I choose not to get into a belabored discussion as to what my individual tests revealed. I would say that the process has certainly reflected more as to how my tendencies may affect my operation. Obviously, these tests have their limitations (they weren't administered in a controlled setting, etc., by someone more qualified than myself, etc.), but nonetheless have provided me with ample information to be more reflective in my everyday work life.

I do hope to modify my style to be more adaptable and approachable, but all learning and change, particularly about one's own personality traits, takes time.

A random compilation of my notes on this class:

(good luck if this makes sense to anyone but me: I intended for this to merely be a repository of thoughts, rather than keeping a separate document running for the purposes of this class).

Use type theory to: increase self-awareness, understand and appreciate differences in others, improve communication and interaction with others.

ROLE EFFICACY

It is important to understand that the performance of people working in a program or in an organization depends on their technical competence, managerial skills, and their potential effectiveness in the role they perform in the organization. It is the merging of the two (the person and the role) that ensures the individual's effectiveness in the organization.

Role efficacy means the potential effectiveness of an individual occupying a particular position in an organization.

People with high role efficacy seem to experience less role stress and work-related tension. They rely on their own strengths to cope with problems, use more focused behavior, interact with people and the environment, persist in solving problems (mostly by themselves), and show commitment to their work.

A participatory environment provides staff higher satisfaction and contributes to role efficacy. An environment characterized by control seems to lower role efficacy.

The Ten Aspects of Role Efficacy

Role efficacy has ten aspects to consider. These aspects can be classified into three groups, or dimensions namely, role making, role centering and role linking.

"Role making" is an active attitude towards the role, i.e. defining and making the role one likes to take on.

"Role centering" is concerned with increasing the power of the role, making it more important.

"Role linking" is concerned with extending the relationship of the role with other roles and groups. The three dimensions have been further subdivided into ten aspects of role efficacy

LEARNING TO INCREASE ROLE EFFICACY

* Self-Role Integration

o Work with the employees in redesigning their roles so that their strengths can be utilized.

o Encourage an employee to realize the potential of an assigned role.

o Reassign employees to positions in which they can use their strengths better.

o Consider if the person must be replaced.

* Pro-activity

o Encourage employees to ask for your help when they need it.

o Reward initiatives taken by staff.

o Listen to employees and respect their views

o Arrange visits of employees to other organizations to learn different practices.

* Creativity

o Encourage your employees to give ideas to solve problems as they arise.

o Create an environment that encourages people to generate ideas without fear of being criticized

o Appreciate and use new ideas given by employees.

o Evaluate new initiatives, disseminate lessons learnt and reward useful suggestions.

* Confrontation

o Take a positive approach to problem solving.

o Ensure that you are dealing with a problem and not a person.