Identity Matters: Learning and Managing at the Frontline.
Drawing on data collected in a national evaluation, this paper explores the contribution of Frontline Management Initiative (FMI) to the practice of management learning in selected enterprises in Australia. (A competence-based management development strategy, FMI places learning in an organization and links management performance to the achievement of business outcomes.) Initially, some discourses on management and learning are presented as background to this exploration. The argument is made that "identity work" is central to FMI. Excerpts from participants' accounts indicate managers not only learn to manage by means of acquiring or demonstrating skills, but also by negotiating particular types of identity for themselves with respect to managing, e.g. business manager, strategic manager, and "high performing manager." Managers are also shown to assume certain kinds of social roles proposed for them in standards set for achieving competency in front line management, although some participants in the program are shown extending these roles and indicating that front line management can be conceived and practiced in a variety of ways. In analyzing these participants' accounts of the FMI, the authors say that what emerges is a more complex image of managers actively exploring the indistinctness of their role boundaries and constructing various identity positions, including business manager, strategic manager, coach, educator, learning leader, professional developer, and organizational developer. (Contains 10 references.) (YLB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Identity matters: learning and managing at the frontline Dianne Mulcahy Department of Education Policy and Management, University of Melbourne, Victoria U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office et Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 26..This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY 1 TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) The last two decades have witnessed a number of initiatives in vocational education and training aimed at developing more flexible systems of learning, offering greater choice to employers and more arguably employees, in relation to the what, how and where of learning. The Frontline Management Initiative (FM0 is one such initiative. A competence-based management development strategy, the FMI places learning within an organisation. It could be considered a critical site for cultivating ideas of lifelong learning and translating these ideas into practice. Drawing on data collected as part of a national evaluation study, this paper explores the contribution of the FMI to the practice of management learning in selected enterprises. Initially, some discourses of management and learning are presented as background to this exploration. The argument is made that 'identity work' is central to the FMI. Managers not only learn to manage by means of acquiring or demonstrating skills, but also to negotiate particular types of identity with respect to managing eg business manager, strategic manager, and 'high performing manager'. In other words, they assume certain kinds of social roles; the roles that are proposed for them in the standards set for achieving competency in frontline management. Some participants in the program however, appear to extend these roles, indicating that frontline management can be conceived and practised in a variety of ways. In analysing these participants' accounts of the FMI, what emerges is a more complex image of managers actively exploring the indistinctness of their role boundaries and constructing various identity positions, including business manager, strategic manager, coach, educator, learning leader, professional developer and organisational developer. The Frontline Management Initiative: 'new model management' The last decade has witnessed the growth of new concepts and practices in management and management development in organisations. Managers are increasingly encouraged to take more responsibility for development; both the development of individuals and the development of the organisation. Work is increasingly organised around projects and teams and organisational decisions are made in these teams. The 'new model manager' is taken to be more a coach than a cop; able to implement management practices which build teams, provide leadership, 'empower' workers and harness their knowledge and creativity. The Frontline Management Initiative (FMI) originated as an initiative of Enterprising Nation or, more commonly, the Karpin Report (Karpin 1995). This report identified an urgent need to upgrade the leadership skills of Australian frontline management. A frontline manager is a person who is responsible for the coordination of the work of others. Frontline managers oversee the actual doing of work: they 'are people who really know the work and are in a position to take something of an overview, to reflect on how things are being done' (Suchman 2000, p 3). They are typically staff
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