Management development: The total process embracing informal and formal processes

This paper provides a conceptual understanding of management development (MD). The paper emphasises the need to utilise both formal and informal processes in MD. As much of the managerial learning by experience is unplanned and unstructured, informal managerial learning is a by-product of a variety of managerial tasks, the dynamic nature of managerial priorities, changes in the working environment, and changes in colleagues and bosses, which all provide new opportunities and stimuli. So, excluding them takes the MD away from reality and eliminates from conscious consideration several potential opportunities for learning. On the other hand, simple reliance on opportunities to learn from experience was not claimed to be the best answer to MD. Managers recognise gaps in their experience, and they could visualise the extent to which the opportunities could have been better recognised or the processes could have been better managed by their bosses. On the other hand, there is a growing use of formal development processes to help managers learn. Therefore, the paper describes MD that embraces the total process, including both formal and informal processes, and finally addresses the trends in and challenges to MD.