A labour market perspective on management training and development in Europe

Abstract

This paper uses recent survey data to undertake a comparative analysis of management development across six Western European countries. Unlike most studies that compare management development practices, we rely on an institutional labour market perspective to compare managerial skills development and training. We suggest that, while there are few differences in terms of the priority firms from different countries give to developing managers, the methods that are used and skill profiles can differ considerably. Furthermore, institutional change may also challenge some conventional views of how managers are being developed. We conclude by distinguishing four country systems that reflect a series of common characteristic strengths and weaknesses of national managerial training systems.

Keywords:

• Management development
• national systems
• managerial labour markets

Acknowledgements

This project has been carried out with the support of the European Community, the Leonardo da Vinci CVTS programme.

Notes

1  A Tukey test is a type of post hoc test that allows further comparison of sample means after undertaking an analysis of variance (ANOVA). For further discussion of post hoc tests, see Howell (1997) .

3  The degree to which firms offer a career structure to their employees was not included in the DFA because respondents use a different scale in their answers.