D. Upward feedback and 360-degree feedback are popular tools for development,
particularly for managers.
1. Upward feedback refers to appraisal that involves collecting subordinates’
evaluations of managers’ behaviors or skills.
2. The 360-degree feedback process is a special case of upward feedback, in which,
employees’ behaviors or skills are evaluated not only by subordinates but by peers,
customers, their bosses, and themselves.
3. Type of activities involved in using 360-degree feedback for development:
a. Understand strengths and weaknesses
b. Identify a development goal
c. Identify a process for recognizing goal accomplishment
d. Identify strategies for reaching the development goal
4. Benefits of 360-degree feedback include:
a. Gathering multiple perspectives of performance, allowing the employee to
compare his/her self-evaluation with the evaluation of others.
b. Formalizing communications between the employee and both internal and
external customers.
5. Potential limitations include:
a. The time demands placed on multiple raters.
b. Negative ramifications for raters.
c. The need for a facilitator to interpret the results.
d. Companies’ failure to provide opportunities for employees to act on the
information they receive.
Job Experiences
A. Job experiences are the problems, demands, responsibilities, tasks, relationships, and
other features the employees deal with in their jobs.
B. It is assumed that job experiences are most likely to be developmental when there is a
mismatch between the employee’s skills and experience and those required for the job.
Stretching in the job forces the employee to learn new skills.
C. The Center for Creative Leadership conducted a series of studies of key events that made
a difference in managers’ styles and lessons learned from experiences. Recent research
suggests that all job demands, with the exception of obstacles, are related to learning.
Enlarging the Current Job
A. Job enlargement involves adding challenges or new responsibilities to an employee’s
current job in order for the employee to learn and grow.
B. This could include special project assignments, switching roles within a work team, or
researching new ways to serve clients and customers.
Job Rotation
A. Job rotation involves moving employees through various job assignments in various
functional areas, within one functional area of the company or within a work team. One’s
title and level of compensation is maintained throughout the rotation
B. Benefits of job rotation include:
1. It helps the employee understand the overall mission and goals of the company and
how the various jobs and functions contribute to achieving those goals.
2. It allows for networking.
3. It enhances problem solving and decision making skills.
C. Potential problems with job rotation include:
1. It may create a short-term perspective on problems and solutions.
2. Employees may not be given enough time in a position to receive a challenging
assignment. Satisfaction and motivation may be negatively affected.
3. Productivity losses and work load increases may occur to both departments involved.
D. Characteristics of effective job rotation systems include:
1. It is used to develop skills and to give employees experience needed for managerial
positions.
2. Employees understand specific skills that will be developed by rotation.
3. It is used for all levels and types of employees.
4. It is linked with the career management process so that each job assignment is linked
to specific developmental needs.
5. The timing of rotations is managed to minimize work load costs and to help
employees understand the role of the job assignment in their development plan.
6. All employees are given equal opportunity for job rotation assignments without
regard for their demographic status.
Transfers, Promotions, and Downward Moves
A. A transfer refers to reassigning an employee to a different job in a different area of the
company, most likely a lateral move. Job responsibilities and compensation are not
necessarily increased.
1. Transfers may involve relocating, which can be very stressful to the employee and
his/her family, and are not always well received.
2. The employees most willing to transfer are those with high career ambitions, a belief
that his/her future with the company is promising, and a belief that accepting the
transfer is necessary to advance and succeed in the company.
B. A promotion involves advancing an employee into a position of greater challenge,
responsibility and authority. This usually involves an increase in compensation.
1. Obviously, employees are more willing to accept promotions than they are to accept
lateral moves or downward moves.
2. Promotions are most available when the company is profitable and growing.
C. A downward move involves giving an employee a position with less responsibility and
authority. The primary types include:
1. A lateral demotion, which is a move to a position at the same level but with less
authority and responsibility.
2. A temporary cross-functional move for developmental purposes.
3. A demotion to a lower level position because of poor performance.
D. To ensure that employees approach transfers, promotions, and downward moves as
opportunities for development, particularly when relocation is required, companies can:
1. Provide information about the content, challenges and potential benefits of the new
job and, perhaps, location.
2. Involve the employee in the decision by sending him/her to preview the new location
or job, giving them information about the location, etc.
3. Provide clear performance objectives and early feedback about their job performance.
4. Assign a host at the new location to help with the adjustment.
5. Inform the employee how the new job will affect their income, taxes, and expenses.
6. Reimburse and assist the employee in selling a home and renting or purchasing
another.
7. Provide an orientation program.
8. Show the employee how the new job experiences fit with the employee’s career
plans.
9. Assist family members in the relocation, e.g., identifying schools, as well as child and
elder care.
10. Help for spouses in identifying and marketing their skills and finding employment.
E. Externships allow employees to take a full-time operational role at another company.
Temporary Assignments, Projects, Volunteer Work, and Sabbaticals
A. Temporary assignment with other organizations may emerge from two companies
agreeing to exchange employees in order for the companies to better understand each
other.
B. Volunteer assignments can also be used for development. They may offer employees
opportunities to manage change, to teach, to take on a higher level of responsibility, or to
be exposed to other job demands.
C. Temporary assignments can include a sabbatical (a leave of absence from the company to
renew or develop skills). Employees on sabbatical often receive full pay and benefits.
Sabbaticals improve employee well-being through reducing stress and burnout and
helping them acquire new skills and perspectives.
How to Match Job Experiences to Employees’ Development Needs and Goals
A. Job experiences are used for development in companies of all sizes, but their type and
availability vary.
B. Large companies have the ability to provide high-potential employees with many
different kinds of developmental experiences.
C. Smaller companies might not have the same type or number of development experiences
at work, but can encourage employees to get relevant experiences outside of work.
D. Regardless of the size of the company, for job experiences to be an effective development
activity, they should be tailored to employees’ development needs and goals.
Interpersonal Relationships
Employees can also develop skills and increase their knowledge about the company and its
customers by interacting with a more experienced organization member. Mentoring and
coaching are two types of interpersonal relationships that are used to develop employees.
Mentoring
A. Mentoring involves an experienced, productive senior employee (the mentor) helping to
develop a less experienced employee (the protégé). Most mentoring relationships develop
informally due to shared interests, values or work assignments, but mentoring can also be
formalized into a mentoring program company initiative.
B. Advantages of formalized mentoring include:
1. Ensuring access to all employees, without regard to race or gender.
2. Participants can be informed of what is expected of them.
C. Limitations of formalized mentoring include that the relationship may not “stick” if it has
been “artificially” created.
D. Characteristics of a successful formal mentoring program include:
1. Having participation to be voluntary for both mentors and protégés, allowing for the
relationship to end whenever the two parties agree
2. Ensuring that the mentor-protégé matching process does not hinder the formation of
informal relationships, e.g., provide a pool of mentors from which the protégé can
choose
3. Choosing mentors who have a good record in developing employees, have the
willingness to serve, and demonstrate positive coaching, communicating and listening
4. Mentor-protégé matching based on how the mentor’s skills can help meet the
protégé’s needs
5. Stating the purpose of the program clearly as well as the roles and expectations of
both the mentor and the protégé
6. Providing a formal time period for the program, but encouraging participants to
continue relationships beyond the designated period
7. Specifying a minimum expected amount of contact between mentor and protégé.
8. Determining the mechanics of the relationship between mentors and protégés
9. Encouraging protégés to interact.
10. Evaluating the program, e.g., interviewing or surveying mentors and protégés for
feedback.
11. Rewarding employee development, which signals managers that mentoring and other
development activities are worth their time and effort.
E. Benefits of mentoring relationships can emerge for both mentors and protégés.
1. Benefits to protégés include:
a. Career support, which involves coaching, protecting, sponsorship, and the
provision of challenging assignments, and exposure and visibility
b. Psychosocial support, which includes friendship, a role model, acceptance, and an
outlet to talk about anxieties and fears
c. Skill development
d. Higher rates of promotion
e. Larger salaries
f. Greater organizational influence
2. Benefits to mentors include:
a. Developing interpersonal skills
b. Increased self-esteem and sense of worth to the company
c. Access to new knowledge in their field
F. Purposes of mentoring programs:
1. Socializing new employees
2. Maximizing transfer of learning from training to the work setting
3. Helping women and minorities gain experience and exposure needed for managerial
positions
4. Sharing information
G. In a group mentoring program, one mentor is paired with four to six protégés, allowing
protégés to learn from each other as well as from the mentor and requiring fewer mentors
than traditional one-on-one arrangements.
Coaching
A. A coach is a peer or manager who works directly with an employee to help him/her
develop skills, generate his/her motivation, and provide reinforcement and feedback. The
coach can play three roles:
1. One-on-one directing the employee and giving him/her feedback
2. Helping the employee learn for him/herself, e.g., pointing him/her to appropriate
resources
3. Providing resources, e.g., mentors, courses, or experiences, to which the employee
might not otherwise have access
B. To develop coaching skills, four issues need to be addressed:
1. Managers may be reluctant to discuss performance issues to avoid confrontation
2. Managers may be better able to identify performance issues in employees than to
solve them
3. Managers may fear that employees will perceive coaching as criticism
4. Managers may feel they don’t have time to coach effectively
Succession Planning
A. Succession planning refers to the process of identifying, evaluating, developing, and
tracking high potential employees who are capable of moving into higher-level
managerial positions.
B. Succession planning helps organizations on several different ways.
1. It identifies and prepares future company leaders
2. It helps ensure that the company runs smoothly when key employees and managers
leave, and creates opportunities for development and promotion.
3. It provides a set of development experiences that managers must complete to be
considered for top management positions
4. Succession planning also helps attract and retain managerial employees by providing
them with development opportunities that they can complete if upper management is
a career goal for them.
C. High-potential employees are those people that the company believes are capable of
being successful in higher-level managerial positions, such as general manager of a
strategic business unit, functional director (such as director of marketing), or CEO.
D. Assessing and making development plans using the nine-box grid:
1. The nine-box grid is a three-by-three matrix used by groups of managers and
executives to compare employees within one department, function, division, or the
entire company.
2. One axis of the matrix is based on an assessment of job performance. The other axes
are typically labeled “potential” or “promotability.”
3. High-potential employees—with high performance are found in the top-right corner
of the matrix. These are employees who should be developed for leadership positions
in the company.
E. One advantage to making a succession planning list public or telling employees who are
on the list is that they are more likely to stay with the company because they understand
they likely will have new career opportunities. Another is that high-potential employees
who are not interested in other positions can communicate their intentions. This helps the
company avoid investing costly development resources in them and allows the company
to have a more accurate idea of its high-potential managerial talent.
F. The disadvantages of identifying high-potential employees are that those not on the list
may become discouraged and leave the company, or changes in business strategy or
employees’ performance could take them off the list. Also, employees might not believe
they have had a fair chance to compete for leadership positions if they already know that
a list of potential candidates has been established.
Developing Managers with Dysfunctional Behaviors
A. A number of studies have identified managerial behaviors that can cause an otherwise
competent manager to be a “toxic” or ineffective manager. These behaviors include
insensitivity to others, inability to be a team player, arrogance, poor conflict-management
skills, inability to meet business objectives, and inability to change or adapt during a
transition.
B. Onboarding or socialization refers to the process of helping new hires adjust to social and
performance aspects of their new jobs. Effective onboarding includes understanding
mundane tasks, such as completing tax forms and knowing how to complete time sheets
or travel reimbursement forms.
C. Characteristics of effective onboarding programs include:
1. Employees are encouraged to ask questions.
2. The program includes information on both technical and social aspects of the job.
3. The employee’s manager has some onboarding responsibility.
4. Debasing or embarrassing new employees is avoided.
5. Employees learn about the company culture, history, language, products, services,
and customers.
6. Follow-up of employee progress occurs at different points up to one year after joining
the company.
7. The program involves participation, active involvement, and formal and informal
interaction between new hires and current employees.
8. Relocation assistance is provided (such as house hunting or information sessions on
the community for employees and their significant others).
Chapter Summary
The chapter begins with a description of the steps of the development planning process, and
highlighting the responsibilities of both the employee and the company at each step. The
framework of the chapter provided the student with an interesting discussion of employee
development. Four major approaches to development were addressed. First, formal education
programs were highlighted. Second, assessment for developmental purposes was discussed,
including much information on the popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instruments for
measuring key factors in being a manager. Other assessment activities described in the chapter
were the assessment center and performance appraisals. The currently popular appraisal method
called 360-degree feedback was detailed. Third, job experiences for development were
discussed, with focus on job rotation and transfers. Fourth, interpersonal relationships were
addressed, with the focus being on mentoring. Benefits and limitations of the various
development vehicles were discussed. Finally, the chapter concluded with discussion on
succession planning. This chapter provides the student a very current look at the activities and
events through which employees can intentionally develop. The key is for both the employee and
the company to plan for development and to very intentionally engage in activities that are
developmental.