The paper analyzes different types of training that are required for managers to improve their efficiency and effectiveness in the operation and management of organizations. Among the teaching that should be provided include, technical, interpersonal skills, professional and legal, organizing, quality, managerial, safety and planning training. These training programs are meant to improve the managers’ skills in the management position and have a competitive advantage in the market. Technical training involves the practical aspect of management and includes topics such as information technology, database analysis, project management, coding and programming, and technical writing. Managers that gain the technical skills are more flexible to the rapid technological changes. Interpersonal skills that managers should be trained on include communication ability, ability to interact and relate to others, listening skills, attitude, and self-etiquette. These skills enable the manager to show empathy, motivate, and solve problems among the employees. Professional and legal training involves providing knowledge to the managers about the laws and regulations that influence the organization internally and externally. Within the organization, it includes the rules that ensure the employees’ rights are protected, and outside the organization, it involves tax and market laws. The organizing training equips the manager with the skills needed to carry out the organizing function of management on how to allocate resources, delegate duties, form departments, and assignment of jobs. Quality training is meant provides managers with the knowledge on how to detect quality products, and safety training offers measures on how to minimize injuries and accidents in the workplace.
Types of Training Required for Managers
Training of managers is an essential program in any organization that wishes or plans to be successful in their operation. Since learning is a continuous process in any field of activity, teaching of administrators helps to develop their skills in various areas of service in the organization and improve their relationship with the company‘s human personnel (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). The exercises provide opportunity for the executives to expand their knowledge of the business and how the broader industry operates. The types of activities required for managers include technology enhancement, interpersonal skills improvements, professional and legal preparations, organizational approaches, quality monitoring, managerial aspects, safety and planning components. The paper will, therefore, discuss the above types of training activities that are required for the managers to help in improving the institutional performance and gain a competitive advantage over other firms in the same industry.
Technology Training
The innovation training teaches the managers the technical aspects of a given task. The tasks are practical and relate to mechanical, information technology, mathematical and scientific work. Managers should be trained on such technical job to ensure efficient running of the organization. Examples of specialized tasks managers should develop skills include database analysis, project management, coding and programming, and technical writing (Van Merriënboer, 2013). The company relies on data about their clients and on the success of their products to improve their performance and customer satisfaction. Training the manager of data analysis skills like data compiling, management of big data, statistical analysis, and data roaming will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.
Training managers on the coding and programming skills enable them to handle technical tasks within the organization such as troubleshooting, forming network security system of the organization, hardware management, and also use the knowledge to train employees (Van Merriënboer, 2013). Alternatively, training managers on project management enable them to perform tasks such as benchmarking, budget planning, performance review, and scheduling efficiently which improve the performance of the organization. Since managers have the job of sourcing information and convincing investors into the organization, training them on technical writing techniques is crucial. Written communication or documents such as letters and emails need to synthesize the complex information into a simple language that is easy to understand without straining (Van Merriënboer, 2013). In cases where the manager has the secretary who processes the letters, the manager can use the knowledge gained from the technical training to train the secretary.
Interpersonal Skills Training
Excellent interpersonal skills are essential requisites for the management position. The role of a manager in any organization involves planning of the objectives of the company, organizing resources within his access, staffing of personnel, directing and controlling. For these roles to be achieved efficiently, the manager must have excellent interpersonal skills that will help in getting the job done. Interpersonal skills include the ability to interact and relate to others in the organization, proper communication and listening skills, attitude towards others and self-etiquette. Managers with these skills can coordinate the staff and increase the work output and competitive capacity of the business in the perfect markets (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).
Through training, managers can increase their relationship with the employees by appreciating and supporting staff, showing empathy, and solving conflicts in a fair manner such that all the victims are satisfied. Training on communication gives the managers persuasive and convincing power. In a situation where new technology is to be introduced, the manager can use his or her communication skills to prevent employees from resisting the change. Good communication also enables the free flow of work since the employees are aware of their work positions. To get a grasp of everything that takes place within the organization, it is necessary for the managers to have better-listening abilities that enable them to acquire essential information from a conversation (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Moreover, training of managers on etiquette and their attitude towards the employees helps to improve work relationship and respect.
Professional and Legal Training
Managers should take professional training to increase their competence and drive their career to the next level. Professional training is vital for any organization because it keeps the manager updated on the current trends technologies available in the market which can be used to increase the productivity (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Notably, this kind of training also boost the confidence of the managers of future employability in case they lose their current job due to the high skills gained from the training program. Professional training increases the accountability and diversification of the manager as they will be conversant with many areas of operation in the company.
Legal training requires the managers to be well equipped with the laws and rules available inside and outside the organization that affect the firm either positively or negatively. Managers’ knowledge about the laws that influence the operation of the enterprise will help to prevent unnecessary charges on failure to adhere to them (Locke, 2013). Legal knowledge of taxation will help the manager to prevent cases of the corporation being overtaxed or undertaxed. Within the company, the manager should be aware of the legal rights of the employees to maintain a peaceful relationship with the labor union that is responsible for ensuring that the employees’ rights are protected (Locke, 2013).
Organizing Training
For managers to be successful in their job, they must be equipped with the skills of organizing. The organizing duties of a manager involve the assignment of responsibilities to employees, the grouping of tasks into departments, the delegation of authorities and allocation of resources between the departments formed (Alexander, 2013). For this process to be successfully achieved, managers need to train on the basics of how to organize a business. The managers are trained on how to structure their transactions efficiently for the smooth flow of activities. The structure is the system on how tasks are divided among the employees based on reasonable criteria, resources allocated, and coordination of departments. To improve the level of efficiency in control, the manager delegate authority to the subordinates where the level of control is arranged from the top level management to the lowest level. Delegation of authority improves flexibility to meet customer needs and to adapt to competitive markets.
Quality Training
In production-based businesses, training of managers on the quality of products is crucial as it determines the competitive ability of the company as compared to other businesses that produce similar products. Quality training is meant to familiarize the manager with the means of detecting, preventing, and eliminating inferior quality products. Quality training provides adequate knowledge to the manager on how to recognize a nonquality product and also teaches on how to handle such a scenario. With the knowledge and skills on how to detect nonquality products, the manager can escape purchase of such products that may lower the quality of the final product that the firm produces.
Several companies have come up to help in the control of the quality of products. They include International Organization for Standardization (ISO) which measures the quality of metrics and also provides stamps on the product to approve their condition to buyers. Managers with quality detection skills and the knowledge of the ISO have an upper advantage in the competitive market as it helps in cost saving during the production process. Moreover, it ensures superiority in the marketing of quality controlled products.
Managerial Training
Management training focuses on improving both the manager’s skills in management duties and also leadership skills required in coordinating the personnel within the organization. Alexander (2013) examined the management skills like the soft skills such as delegation of duties, the motivation of employees, personality traits, social relationship and communication skills. Managers should be trained on the best ways of delegating responsibilities to employees according to the work that each employee is good at to increase work productivity through specialization. Educating them on how to motivate the employees who are loyal and hard working in the company increases the work output. Also, the managers should be trained on improving their personality traits to have a good manager to employee relationship. The ability of the manager to efficiently communicate and convince the employees on the best way of achieving the goals of the corporation is made possible through managerial training. Inclusively, encouraging social institution and relationships enable the employees to have a feeling of belong to a given group where they can remove boredom.
Managerial training also involves providing knowledge on the leadership skills that will assist the managers in leading the employees in the case of HR manager. Leadership skills that managers need to acquire include the power of positivity where the manager should have a positive attitude in whatever task they undertake, creativity that will enable the manager to solve critical problems in the organization, and being flexible in changes that occur. Furthermore, training helps the managers to develop skills such as commitment, responsibility, trustworthiness, feedback and motivation (Rosemann & Brocke, 2015). These skills assist in the smooth running of the business and increase the performance of the organization.
Safety Training
Since the manager is the overall controller of the whole business or organization, he or she becomes accountable to everything that occurs within the employees’ workplace environment. Safety training is done to ensure that employees are protected from injuries and accidents that occur during the daily activities. Since disasters cannot be prevented and nobody is immune to them, training managers on safe and healthy working environment ensure that injuries are minimized. The goal of safety training is to provide safety culture and also meant to meet the legal requirement of the organization of protecting the workers from harm. The type of training being proposed is is most common in organizations that are engaged in the production of chemical compounds, hazardous materials, and the construction companies.
Safety training focuses on topics such as evacuation plans, fire drills, workplace violence, first aid action, construction safety, food service safety and eye safety. Managers are trained on indicators of accidents and the appropriate measures to ensure the safety of workers. Evacuation plans are done in places that are suspected to cause disasters hence employees are restricted from going to such places and also in areas suspected of a fire breakout. Managers are also trained on the best protective clothing that they should provide to their employees to lower the intensity of accidents such as helmets, gumboots, and gloves. The institution responsible for ensuring safety measure is the Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) which enforces the safety regulations in the US.
Planning Training
One of the managers’ functions in an organization is the planning role. Planning involves setting the goals and objects of the company and coming up with the strategies on how to achieve them. It consists identifying the resources available in the organization and utilizing them optimally to ensure the maximum outcome. The major components of strategic planning involve a clear understanding of the mission statement, vision, values, and the strategies of the business (Burke, 2013). The managers should be trained on these topics to assist them in the planning of the organization goals so as achieve the goals and objectives of the business.
The mission statement defines the fundamental purpose of a business and the main reasons why it exists. The component assists the manager in the planning of the company about the goals of the corporation. The vision statement outlines how the business wants to be and how it may wish to the environment in which it operates to be in the future. Moreover, it is a source of inspiration to the manager and the workers in the enterprise. Training managers on the appropriately shared beliefs of the enterprise improve its performance. Values are the shared beliefs among the stakeholders and are useful in driving the culture and priorities of stakeholders and also provide a framework for decision making. Lastly, the strategies comprise the goals which the syndicate strives to achieve and the means of arriving at them.
Reference
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Burke, R. (2013). Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Locke, R. M. (2013). The promise and limits of private power: Promoting labor standards in a global economy. Cambridge University Press.
Rosemann, M., & vom Brocke, J. (2015). The six core elements of business process management. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 105-122). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Van Merriënboer, J. J. (2013). Training complex cognitive skills: A four-component instructional design model for technical training. Educational Technology.
