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Managerial style as a function of adult development stage
Abstract
Contemporary assessments of management training efforts have generally found such efforts to be wanting, in failing to inculcate enduring changes in skills and capacities. Simultaneously, a variety of management theorists have pointed in the direction of cognitive complexity, sometimes described as "complicated understanding", as the key quality for successful managers. This study is concerned with the contribution that an explicitly developmental perspective can make to a better understanding of the dynamics of managing in an organizational setting. It draws on research conducted over the last two decades by a small group of researchers interested in the nexus of developmental psychology and management and aims to lend additional empirical support to those efforts. This study focuses on the work of developmental psychologist Robert Kegan, who has constructed a theory of stage-related progressions in the development of the self and personal meaning-making over the life course. Kegan's notion that our culture makes mental demands on us that can be understood in stage terms is applied here to the domain of management. The purpose was to explore the possible connections between essential managerial skills and the properties of developmental stages. Sixteen (16) managers in a mid-sized state agency formed the research sample. Each subject was assessed for both developmental stage and managerial stage. The results reported here suggest a strong correlation between stage-functioning and management style. The implications for further theory building and organizational reform in the service of fostering managerial success are discussed in detail.
Subject Area
Adult education|Continuing education|Management
Recommended Citation
Corbett, Ronald Philip, "Managerial style as a function of adult development stage" (1995). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9524691.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9524691