The new managers are most often not prepared for their new position. They experience frustration with increased workload and in some cases they have no staff to do the work. One new manager said that when he was appointed he prepared a structure and identified the positions he required to manage specific areas. When he presented the plan to his manager the staff numbers were constrained and he was not allowed to appoint anyone. He explained this as follows:
It was just frustrating, and in my case, particularly so, maybe just to give you a high level structure of how we work. We have got roles for managers, in other words the middle managers, but there’s nobody there, literally nobody. That role is actually currently fulfilled by the technical specialist, so my technical specialists are sort of fulfilling that administrative part, then I expect them to actually do what they’re supposed to do, as chief engineers, and obviously when I came in, they basically said, look, you are expecting us to do these dual roles, and we just don’t have the time.
(P 4: 811_0039 PT.docx - 4:13 (54:65)
He had to realise the structure was incomplete and he would not be able to deliver all the work assigned to his department. He felt responsible nonetheless and expressed his discomfort in this way:
And, I was saying, I have already spoken with the GM, because that’s actually what I expressed to him on day one, to say, there is this dysfunctional structure, and I really would like those manager roles to actually be filled, for me to actually function properly.
(P 4: 811_0039 PT.docx - 4:13 (65:69) The conclusion is that there is an optimal level of challenge where a new manager can cope and there can be a case where the stretch is too much. One manager said that he grew with increased project responsibility as mentioned in chapter 4. Only one respondent of the 16 participants was formally prepared and assisted during the transition process. She said this about her preparation for her new role:
They put me for a programme, I think a six months programme, while I was acting, and then the appointment came in 2012, when they put the advert, and I applied and then I was appointed
(P 7: 811_0041 Xol.docx - 7:2 (30:30) Her training programme included much information on situations that can create difficulties for a new manager. The programme gave practical exercises on how to make presentations to senior management and how to deal with company politics. It also taught her how to write and present technical reports. The awareness she developed as part of this training was unique and valuable as she describes here:
How do deal with your, I can say, your stressors, your past, as some other people will have baggage from their past, and if you are in a management position, you will take that baggage to other people, which they don't deserve, so you need to know who you are, so they took us to some workshops.
(P 7: 811_0041 Xiw.docx - 7:2 (30:30) One new manager was formally assigned to the new position with a public introduction. In a rather unusual event a new manager was elected to the position through voting. She explains how this happened:
First of all, for me to act for the position, the engineering manager at that time was a little bit sceptical because of my age, and then he called me, and he said, are you really sure you want to take this? Is the team ready for you? …. I said, you can ask them. They can choose somebody else, if they want to choose somebody else, but you can call all of us, and then we agree who can act for the department. … And then, he actually called everybody. There was a voting system. .. … [And] they voted for me.
(P 7: 811_0041 Xzl.docx - 7:8 (200:202) The receiving manager prepared this new manager and he also prepared her team so that when the new manager was appointed she was appointed not just to fill a gap in the structure but she was ready to make the position her own and express her skills technically and managerially. Her experience was so unusual and her expression of confidence shone through the whole interview. She elaborated on her relationship with her team, her management style and how she insured her continued confidence in her new position.
I must say, I was blessed with a strong team, and dealing with the...because the younger ones, they wanted to prove that they can work on their own, so you give a person some system to run with it, and don’t try to micro manage …. Just tell them to give you the reports, and then because we had that engineering projects that we are working with, so our client was a project guy, so we would make sure that our deliverables from our side engineering to projects was done, so we will have weekly meetings to see the progress on our side.
(P 7: 811_0041 Xzl.docx - 7:8 (200:202)
She also elaborated on the context of her new appointment and highlighted her own situation in that environment by saying:
First of all, I believe we are in a project environment, and the problem with that environment is people who’ve got that age gap.
Either the people are very old or very young, in the project, so most of the people in their senior management is all that mix, so I’m young, and I’m mixed with the very experienced people, and for me, that was a first challenge. I was a little bit scared, but I was acting, that this girl just came here two years as a [technologist], after that was appointed and now is acting in a management position. ….. But, they only thing that helped me is because I know I’m in this programme, so I need to prove myself now, what I’m learning there. So much so that I’m learning, because even the person that was organising the programme was having those monthly presentations, come and see in the office, how are you doing? How are you coping? How can
(P 7: 811_0041 Zd.docx - 7:4 (72:78) The importance of some management training for all engineers in this project environment cannot be denied, as most engineers are expected to work on projects and the ability to jump in and hit the floor running is a skill not everyone is born with.
In comparison to the 15 new managers who were not prepared, this young manager was prepared for the project environment and was therefore able to be more productive as the evidence shows:
1- She had a strong team of young engineers who supported her enthusiastically,
2- She did not need to micro manage her team,
3- She just said what she needed and her team did the work, 4- She was used to working in projects
5- She knew how to manage the weekly deliverables.
The training preparation provided a common base for the new manager to engage confidently with her peers and subordinates and the project benefited from the ease of her transition. This shows that South African engineers experience similar situations to those identified by Hood (1990), Aucoin (2002) but that in most cases, the organisations do not provide the necessary preparation.