Relaciones con otros actores e influencia en el desenlace de los conflictos

The following summary of key issues can be made from the DTI Case Study:

Recent and current developments in DTI management training have largely been the result of impetus from general

government initiatives aimed at bringing about efficiency and increasing value for money in the British Civil Service, in particular, the Next Steps (1988) etc. Such initiatives have affected other British Civil Service Departments elsewhere equally and the response to them is not therefore be regarded as exceptional.

The 1988 Efficiency Unit Scrutiny was instrumental in bringing about consciousness as regards value for money, and led to the current plan to distribute the training budget to the

different parts. But the search for value for money has also brought about a necessity to reorganise themselves and improve their service.

The Next Steps Initiative acted as an impetus for change, as the OMCS's plan to ask Departments to look at their training

inspired the conducting of a training review, which led to the move towards a more organisational approach to training, and to the beginning of competence-based training. An ongoing review was a follow-up of the earlier review as a basis for management training and one of the activities was the

A move towards an organisational approach to training through the introduction of training based on training needs analysis and the introduction of competence-based training, as well as the ongoing reorganisation of the training function (including the planned decentralisation of the training budget) are among the most significant developments in the DTI management

training. Management courses for the DTI EO, SEO and HEO grades have also been developed.

However, even the latter are not fully structured, especially since attendance on them is a result of individual effort and desire to go on them rather than a mandatory and coherent

management development programme for all the officers in those grades, as is the case in Customs.

Also, most of the management training is still conducted without appropriate needs analysis, and is conducted in a context where the departmental vision and culture are not clearly articulated and established. Compared to the U.K. Customs Department, the level of top management commitment to a change process that involves the development of structured management training is still ambiguous.

Compared to Customs and Inland Revenue, this lack of a well- developed, structured management programme in the DTI can be seen as reflecting the lack of an extra powerful trigger in the DTI to improve the service, or failure to translate the many triggers in a manner that would have led to management

solutions involving radical management change and a structured management training programme to support that change. This may have led to limited progress in the area of management

development.

It can be concluded that structured management training can be used as evidence of there having been a major trigger for

change in the organisation and that, conversely, its absence can be seen as the absence of such a trigger and/or the lack of commitment of top managers to introducing appropriate change process where such impetus for change has occurred.

It was also clear from the findings in the DTI that a series of conditions are necessary to bring about structured .

management training. These include:

1. the interpretation of a trigger as a problem needing management solutions which include management

training;

2. the existence of a clear organisational vision; the actual undertaking of a change programme;

3. the provision of the facilitating personnel management and development mechanisms such as a policy which links personnel management and development with

training and personal and organisational development, an appraisal system and a line management that

facilitates the identification of appropriate develop­ ment plans and continuous evaluation of these plans; 4. a suitable cultural environment that enables sharing

of ideas and exploitation of learning acquired; 5. a well developed management cadre to manage and

sustain the change.

6. a strong expression of commitment to the change process by articulation of vision and provision of

resources, and overseeing the change.

The DTI findings show that it is the interplay of these factors that enables the development of a good structured

management training programme the existence of which should be an indicator for change as well as a change facilitator.

8 . 8 Need for a New Model to Reflect the Observations Made in the DTI Case Study

The above findings reveal the need for a model for understanding the development of structured management training in the civil service that incorporates certain

conditions necessary for the development of structured management training in the civil service observed in DTI

Figure 17

Features observed in the DTI Case Study that need to be incorporated in a model for understanding the development of

structured management training in the civil service. • The trigger itself (e.g Next Steps) stipulating

training as a requirement or as important

• Top management commitment to achieving management change and to using training as part of the change strategy

• Role of line management involvement and line management training

• Role of organisational and training reviews • Importance of political pressure for change

• Important role of central government initiatives • Important role of central institutions

• Important role of institutional and training reviews and implementation of appropriate outcomes

• The piecemeal development of structured management training

As will be seen in the next chapters, some of the conditions observed in the Case Study, as well as in the earlier Case Studies, are also evident in the Uganda Case Studies. The fact that similar observations are not made in every Case shows how difficult it is to develop all the features of structured

management training and how this is itself a gradual process. It also shows, in the light of the varying levels of

achievement of structured management training, that some of the conditions, for example the role of central government in bringing about change and improvement (i.e. in providing the necessary triggers for change) the level of commitment of top managers in the organisation to implementing management

solutions that involve a training strategy, together with the availability of resources to achieve the changes both in

Some of these observations are supported also by findings from the fieldwork in the three organisations studied in the

CHAPTER NINE

MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE UGANDAN MINISTRY OF