The Development of General Managers: Some New Zealand Evidence
The transition of functional specialists into general managers is recognised as a priority area for management education. This article is concerned with those factors and events which general managers themselves regard as having been the main influences on their careers. It addresses the following questions: what skills do general managers acquire as they develop, how are these acquired and how important is management education in this process? The findings should be of interest to aspiring general managers and those charged with identifying and grooming these managers.
How “General” are your General Managers?
In 1984 the authors conducted a survey of general managers in Christchurch, New Zealand, to learn how they approached their work. The managers were asked to respond to a questionnaire listing ten different facets of managerial work. The methodology and findings are presented in this article in the hope that they may be useful to other groups of general managers. The questionnaire will enable managers to identify areas of their work which they may under‐or over‐emphasise. This in turn may reflect potential development needs, or suggest different ways in which the work can be handled.
The Effective Negotiator — Part I: The Behaviour of Successful Negotiators
Very few studies have investigated what actually goes on face‐to‐face during a negotiation. Two reasons account for this lack of published research. Firstly, real negotiators are understandably reluctant to let a researcher watch them at work. Such research requires the consent of both negotiating parties and constitutes a constraint on a delicate situation. The second reason for the poverty of research in this area is lack of methodology. Until recently there were few techniques available which allowed an observer to collect data on the behaviour of negotiators without the use of cumbersome and unacceptable methods such as questionnaires.