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A careful assessment can help determine if a class can be fit into a regular schedule without undue disruption. Most business management training courses charge fees for attendance, and many also levy a materials fee or require the purchase of reading material. This will give each employee an idea of when his or her most productive times were during the day, when the least productive times were, and in what areas time was wasted. Other time management training activities include experimental scheduling. This means each employee will analyze when he or she is most and least productive and schedule his or her day around those times.

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The best management training program is the one that teaches you specifically how to deal with different personalities within the workplace in order to create a more efficient and pleasant work environment. Top programs in the manager training field will also offer some sort of training on the quantitative aspects of management, such as proper accounting skills or interpreting a profit and loss statement. Good management training programs will be taught by professors who have significant experience in corporate training. Learning interpersonal skills and how to manage different personality types may seem trivial, but it makes all the difference between an average manager and an outstanding manager. An average manager does the bare minimum to ensure that his or her team completes the required work on time. The outstanding manager will have learned how to effectively communicate with and engage employees of all personality types including shy, reserved professionals and more outgoing and brazen trailblazers. You will learn how to properly manage such diverse personalities in the workplace from a good management training program. This training becomes particularly useful when you, as a manager, will be called upon to settle disputes that inevitably arise between employees Every manager needs to have at least a basic level understanding of business accounting and financial procedures. Learning how to interpret an accounting document or track the financial health of your division through time are both important management tools. The best management training program will offer some sort of mathematically based training so that you are not solely dependent on employees to analyze and evaluate critical financial documents. Such training will allow you to make calculated projections on your team's performance, statistics that higher level executives are quite fond of and favor. Instructors who can demonstrate experience training executives and managers is absolutely essential to a top management training program. Without this type of professor, you may not get the education you need in order to become a personable and effective manager for a

company. Experienced instructors who know exactly what a professional executive or manager needs in order to effectively lead a team are in high demand and should be the ones teaching your management training program of choice. If you choose a training program that is not taught by such a person you may miss learning skills critical to a manager, such as the nuts and bolts of corporate communication and negotiation tactics.
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TRAINING STRATEGY FOR LOWER AND MIDDLE MANAGEMENT: BRIEFING BY SAMDI http://www.pmg.org.za/minutes/20011002-training-strategy-lower-andmiddle-management-briefing-samdi Chairperson: Mr J Gomomo Documents handed out: Presentation on Training Strategy for Lower and Middle Management SUMMARY The South African Management Development Institute Director General and his deputy presented its strategy for training middle and lower management in the public sector. This came in the light of increasing concern by Cabinet about the effectiveness of these two levels in managing their respective areas. The presentation covered the problems that had been identified as well as SAMDIs programmes to address these, the objectives and goals of the Institute and other closely related issues. MINUTES Mr J Mokgoro, the Director General of the SA Management Development Institute (SAMDI), pointed out that SAMDI had been requested to make this presentation on training strategy for middle and lower management in the public sector by the Portfolio Committee following concerns from Cabinet. Several issues had been raised concerning the effectiveness of those two areas of management and these included the concern that Directors General were not spending sufficient time on strategic issues in the various departments. It appeared that tension existed between the strategic and operational management and this has been seen as a result of the low quality of management, especially at middle management level. This strategic and operational tension seems to be linked to the Public Service Act and Public Finance Management Act. He raised concern that promotion up the ladder is fast tracked and the depth of management experience is as such not developed. Mr Mokgoro noted that up to very recently, there was concern that although budgeting had improved, it was leading the planning process instead of the planning process leading the budgeting. He went on to add that strategic

priorities were identified at their recent strategic planning session. These priorities include, developing and implementing a cost recovery strategy; extending the SAMDIs services to local government; as well as accelerating middle and junior management staff. Ms M Bernard-Fryer, the Deputy D.G, presented the rationale for training middle and lower managers. She started off by saying that there is a tendency in the public sector to forget that middle managers are the implementers of policy, they are often the link between the senior and junior managers, but they are often the most neglected with regard to their own development. This training programme has been designed to equip this level of management. She pointed out that there were very few specialised training programmes like project and finance management, especially for the junior ranks. Thirdly she noted that gender representivity in the training programmes was prioritised. A quota was introduced so that any training programmes undertaken for government departments must include at least 50% women. Ms Bernard-Fryer informed the committee that for the SMS programme, if a trainee holds a three-year degree, this programme gives the individual a direct access route to a Masters Degree. She pointed out that the aim of the Human Resources Management Programme is to develop human resource management practitioners and managers who are skilled and competent in delivering quality service and advice. Regarding the issue of improving Service Delivery for operational managers, she noted that they had found that in some areas, skills for implementation and management of service delivery were lacking thus training in this regard was highly important. Discussion Mr M Sikakane (ANC) questioned the presenters on the issue of tensions brought about by PFMA and PSA. He wanted to know how the lack of quality in management brought about these tensions. Secondly on the issue of finance, he asked if the presenters were saying finance is a constraint on their activities. Mr J Modisenyane (ANC) wanted to be clarified on the usage of the concepts overstaffed and underemployed. Mr M de Camara (DP) wanted to know what kind of co-operation the Institute had received from the various national and provincial departments and what amounts had been made available for this purpose. Mr J Mokgoro responded to the first question and pointed out that regarding strategic and operational tension, this was an analysis from a study by the Forum for South African Directors-General (FOSAD). Managers are normally supposed to operate at strategic level but were forced to operate at an operational level due to legislation on the issue. On the issue of finance, he informed the committee that post-1994, functional

committees decided the amount and handed it over to the provinces. This meant that budgeting proceeded planning whereas it is supposed to be the other way around and as such whatever planning to be done was to be done within certain budgetary limits. On the issue of the usage of the concepts overstaffed and underemployed, he noted that the former referred in this context to having a lot of employees who are not sure of what their role is and therefore are not fully used, thus they are underemployed. On the issue of co-operation, Ms Bernard-Fryer responded by saying that generally all nine provinces and about 36 national departments were fully participating in the programme. In response to the budgeting she pointed out that it is quite difficult to pin-point a specific amount because of the various attendance patterns from the recipients. However an estimation of around R13 million was not far off. Mr T Abrahams (UDM) asked how the attrition rate in the senior ranks compared with the upward mobility of officials. The member asked a second question and wanted to know how bad are the ABET levels which the DDG had referred to Mr N Zulu (IFP) asked what the entrance requirements for the junior management programme were and also wanted to know if they regarded 3 and 4-year degrees in differently. Mr B Mthembu (ANC) commented on the issue of tensions and pointed out that perhaps the tension might be arising in policy interpretations and wanted to know SAMDIs comment on the issue. Mr M Maphalala (ANC) asked the presenters as to what programmes they had put in place to ensure that training programmes for disciplines like project management were sustainable. Ms C September (ANC) asked the presenters as to whether within this programme they had identified a workplace change manual as a way of encouraging change in the workplace. Secondly, she wanted to know more about the programme for training managers and what kind of institutions was the programme targeting and is parliament included in those targeted. Mr D Sithole (ANC) asked which was the problem - top management being overloaded or the lack of skills at this level. Secondly he also asked if the certificate programmes were the only links with higher qualifications and why would anyone want to do them instead of going straight to a higher qualification if they are not recognised as qualifications. Thirdly he also asked about the HRM training programme for women as to why is it focused solely on women, what happens to the men who work with them if they are not trained to work properly with women? Mr Mokgoro in responding to the first question on attrition rates pointed out that

he did not have precise figures on the attrition rate, but that one can say that South Africa has a younger job echelon which is very mobile because of better private sector opportunities and he went on to add that this is an issue which planners need to take into account when employing and training top level and even middle level managers. On the issue of tension, he noted that the tension is not between the Public Finance Management Act and the Public Service Act but rather between the individuals themselves when they have to perform duties between the two sectors. He went on to add that the point is that, skills or not, one has to concern themselves about planning of particular departments and units over an annual basis. On the issue of policy management and implementation, he noted that this needs further and more closely scrutinised arrangements. On the issue of project management training sustainability, he referred the MP to the certificate programme in Public Management as an example of a continuous training programme sustainable for a long period of time. On the issue of institutions targeted, he pointed out that a number of parastatals have their own training units and SAMDIs role here would be to consolidate on the knowledge already in place. However because they work on a cost recovery basis, they would also like to include the parastatals in their training programmes. On the issue of parliament, he pointed out that no arrangements are in place yet, but noted that they are in the process of setting up such arrangements with the Speaker. On the question of HR training programmes for women, he concurred with the MP that it is a serious consideration which needs to be addressed urgently and they would prioritise addressing it. On the ABET issue, Ms Bernard-Fryer informed the committee that literacy is adequate but functional literacy is the real problem. On the issue of the entry requirements of the junior qualification, she noted that with the new South African Qualifications Authority stipulations, a person with a std 6 or 4 can be admitted on the basis of work experience to the middle or even senior management training levels. She went on to add that the distinction between a 3 and 4 year degree was no longer relevant as entrance to level 7 (masters) is now accessible to a junior degree holder. On the issue of a workplace change manual, she pointed out that there is an impact study by external assessors to see if the training has made any changes to the workplace arrangements in terms of managerial capacities. Ms Mbulawa-Hans (ANC) noted that most of her questions had been answered as the other MPs had raised them. Mr R Baloyi (ANC) asked if there is anyway of tracking or re-evaluating the qualifications. Many people hold certificate programmes but seem not to have

grasped the competency adequately. Mr M Sikakane (ANC) commended the D.G on the issue of linking national practices to provincial and local government practices and expressed his happiness that the D.G had highlighted the issue. On the issue of the qualifications held by an individual, the DDG noted that SAMDI has a continuous evaluation programme and no longer issue certificates as a once-off sign of approval to the trainees.

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