How important is management development?

Organisational development has become increasingly important as companies face a world of ‘generic uncertainty’ (Peters, 1987), resulting in new problems and new challenges. Traditionally, firms have relied upon scientific methods to resolve these problems, but these have been criticised for failing to deliver realistic, understandable and timely solutions (Revans, 1998). As a result, ‘Action Research’ has emerged; defined as ‘an inquiry into how human beings design and implement action in relation to one another’ (Argyris et al., cited in De Loo, 2002; p246). This program seeks to allow managers the ability to tackle problems which are ‘complex, non-routine and for which no standard solution exists’ (De Loo, 2002; p246).

One technique which applies this approach is ‘action learning’. Developed since the 1920’s, its progress is attributed to Revans (1980), who suggests that there is no clear definition of the ...