Life Skills

UNICEF (1997) recognizes several levels of Life Skills: Basic psychological and social skills (strongly shaped by cultural and social values); Situation-specific skills (e.g. negotiation, assertiveness, conflict resolution); Applied life skills (e.g., challenging gender roles or refusing drugs). for youth in the seventh through ninth grades. The training employs strategies that build students abilities to refuse the offer of drugs through improved assertiveness, decision making, and critical thinking skills. Opportunities to learn and practice these problemspecificskills are just one aspect of a broader instructional program that teaches more general Life Skills. Botvins intention in developing this program was to create a single prevention strategy that could effectively target multiple types of substance use behaviors (Botvin, G.,Baker, Renick, Filazolla, and Botvin,E., 1984). His conceptual framework is based in part on Jessors problem behavior model (1977, [as cited in Botvin, et al., 1984]), which recognizes that an interaction of social and personal factors facilitates the use of a variety of substances, including tobacco. Botvin conceptualized smoking as a socially learned behavior that results from the highly complex interaction of social and personal factors (Botvin,et al.,1984). Through interactive modules, his program offers students opportunities to socially learn skills to resist peer and media pressure to use substances like tobacco. Skills learned in the program include: assertiveness, critical thinking,decision making, and problem solving abilities. These skills boost protective factors in students, such as self-confidence,self-esteem, autonomy, and selfcontrol (Botvin, et al., 1995). Program materials include a teachers manual, a student guide, and a relaxation audiocassette tape. The students are actively involved in the educational process through a variety of experiential techniques such as discussion groups and presentations to peers. Botvins Life Skills Training has been implemented in different school settings,including urban schools serving a predominantly Hispanic population in New York City. The intervention has been adapted to target various populations ranging from public school students to high-risk youth incarcerated in juvenile detention centers. The program has also experimented with different program facilitators (teachers,older students, and investigators) showing impressive results at each location and with each type of facilitator,particularly with peer facilitators (Botvin, et al., 1995).

THE WHO LIFE SKILLS INITIATIVE

The World Health Organization promotes Life Skills school-based programs as a means to develop skills among young people that lead to healthy lifestyle choices and optimum physical, social, and psychological wellbeing. Depending on the culture, different specific abilities are emphasized.WHO considers the following Life Skills to be the most essential (WHO,1993): The ability to make decisions helps students assess their options and carefully consider the different consequences that can result from their choices. The ability to solve problems helps students find constructive solutions to their problems. This skill can significantly reduce anxiety. The capacity to think creatively is essential to decision making and problem solving. It enables students to explore all possible alternatives together with their consequences. It helps students look beyond their personal experience.
30 TOBACCO-FREE YOUTH

Studies show that teaching and learning these skills as a generic group of life skills is more effective in the prevention of harmful behavior than teaching the skills as isolated solutions to specific problems such as teen pregnancy or substance

abuse.
The capacity to think critically helps students objectively analyze available information along with their own experiences. It is this ability that helps students recognize the factors that influence their behavior, such as societal values, peer influence, and influence of the mass media.

The ability to communicate effectively helps students to express their feelings, needs, and ideas to othersverbally or otherwise. The ability to establish and maintain interpersonal relations helps students to interact positively with people whom they encounter daily,especially family members. Knowledge of self is the capacity of students to know who they are, what they want and do not want, and what does and does not please them.It also helps students recognize stressful situations. The capacity to feel empathy is the ability to imagine what life is like for another person in a very different situation.It helps students to understand and accept diversity, and it improves interpersonal relations between diverse individuals. The ability to handle emotions enables students to recognize their emotions and how they influence their behavior. It is especially important to learn how to handle difficult emotions such as violence and anger,which can negatively influence health. The ability to handle tension and stress is a simple recognition by students of the things in life causing them stress. With the Global School Health Initiative and the Health-Promoting Schools campaign, WHO has supported Life Skills activities through workshops, the development of materials, and the consultation with governmental and non governmental agencies interested in this approach to youth health and development (WHO, 1995 and 1998b).

LIFE SKILLS PROGRAMS IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Life Skills school-based programs have been implemented in several countries in the Region, including Chile, Colombia,Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Uruguay,Brazil, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean countries (World Bank / PAHO, 1999 February). In the Caribbean, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) operates a Health and Family Life Education project responsible for introducing Life Skills curricula in all preschool, primary,and secondary schools in participating Caribbean countries (UNICEF,1997). The Life Skills curricula address multiple health issues (WHO, in press). The CARICOM project is made up of partners representing UN agencies, the University of the West Indies, and ministries of education and of health. In 1996 in Costa Rica, the Latin American Network of Health Promoting Schools adopted Life Skills Education as one of its priorities for improving health education in the school curriculum reforms. A workshop on life skills education conducted at the time produced excellent feedback. In 1998 in Mexico, the Latin American Network of Health Promoting Schools reinforced the commitment made two years before and another workshop was offered to participants. Materials for the workshop included a translation of the WHO documents on Life Skills. The Ministries of Health and of Education of Colombia, with support from PAHO/WHO and other agencies,also developed a school-based Life Skills 31 LIFE SKILLS

Life Skills programs not only help prevent smoking among adolescents, they have the added value of improving student-teacher relations, academic performance, and school attendance rates.
program in response to high rates of mortality and morbidity associated with homicide and violence. The Colombian Life Skills program includes instructional materials and activities designed for grades four through nine (Bravo, Galvez, and Martinez, 1998). To date, the Life Skills program serves some eighty-five health-promoting schools in very poor urban areas in twenty Colombian cities, with participants totaling around 15,000 students (WHO, 1998; World Bank / PAHO, 1999 February). In situations such as these, where the Life Skills methodology is already being used and the infrastructure is adequate to support an expansion of the program, tobacco or substance use prevention could be easily incorporated into the Life Skills program.

Sharpen Your Study Habits with 5th Grade Life Skills

In fifth grade life skills (Mr. Rickbeil teaches the boys), students work together to learn the skills that will assist them as they progress at Trinity, and as they progress through life itself. Students will learn many study habits, as about half of the year is devoted to learning and applying good study habits. In addition, the class covers the topics of bullying, nutrition, and

family life as the year progresses into the spring. All of these topics are directed at making fifth grade boys into happy, self-aware, and successful students. Units in this class include: y y y y Study skills and habits Bullying prevention Nutrition Family Life

Highlights of this class include:

8 Core Life Proficiencies

In conjunction with providing health care degree programs, Life University is committed to delivering a health science education designed around a set of core proficiencies that advance personal integrity and provide the foundation for professional success, social contribution and cultural change. These proficiencies distinguish a Life University education.

Integrity and Citizenship

Integrity provides the underpinning for the responsible exercise of our rights and responsibilities as human beings. Integrity leads to empowerment and excellence, while a lack of integrity results in mediocrity.In conjunction with providing health care degree programs, Life University is committed to delivering a health science education designed around a set of core proficiencies that advance personal integrity and provide the foundation for professional success, social contribution and cultural change. These proficiencies distinguish a Life University education.

Leadership and Entrepreneurship

Extensive research available today outlines the hallmarks of effective leadership. Life University draws on this body of knowledge and teaches students in all our health science programs how to apply it in an entrepreneurial setting to build a successful business or organization.

Learning Theory/Critical Thinking

Life University engages students in critical thinking by teaching them how to gather meaningful data, synthesize new information with existing knowledge, think independently and search for practical application of their knowledge in professional practice and daily life. We exhort our students to not only learn skills, but to become innovators who contribute positively to their communities.

Contemporary Scientific Paradigms

For thousands of years and especially since Sir Isaac Newton, humankinds scientific understanding of the functioning of the universe has been based largely on a mechanistic model. Contemporary quantum physics opens the door to a much more vitalistic understanding of human dynamics. Life

University will expose our students to the implications of these models especially as they apply to research in our health science programs.

Philosophy of Human Existence and Health Care Policy

Health care systems evolve from health care philosophies. Although our most institutionalized systems today revolve around a mechanistic view of health, Life University sees value in a vitalistic view of human function. With a growing body of evidence to support vitalistic concepts in the health care milieu, Life University will help spearhead changes that will revolutionize our nations approach to health care and health care education. Our faculty will clearly identify these key issues for students and teach them how to evaluate new information and direct professional dialogues that will lead to new health care policy.

Communication and Relationship Theory/Skills

An ability to communicate effectively and the capacity for building relationships with others are critical factors in personal, business and life success. These skills can be developed. Life University challenges its students to develop and utilize the skills of effective listening, empathy, interpersonal skills and public speaking to create clear communications and foster meaningful professional relationships with members of the public, patients, colleagues, and key opinion leaders.

Belief Systems and Performance

Life University exposes its students to a range of contemporary intellectual approaches and technologies that will help them reach higher levels of performance and professional success. Students will learn criteria by which to judge the usefulness of certain technologies and their applicability to their learning styles.

Integrative Change
Because change is one of the few constants in todays professional environments, an educated person must learn how to evaluate, plan for, and effectively use the element of change to impact controlled differences in the world. Life University exposes students to tested theories and concepts to help them evaluate their usefulness. Students will also learn how people integrate and accept new philosophies and skills for communicating new concepts of health care.

Direct Social Work Practice : Theory and Skills (7TH 06 - Old Edition)
by Dean H. Hepworth

Comment on this title and you could win free books! Synopses & Reviews Table of Contents Comment on this title and you could win free books!
ISBN13: 9780534644581 ISBN10: 0534644589 Condition: Student Owned All Product Details

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Synopses & Reviews

Please note that used books may not include additional media (study guides, CDs, DVDs, solutions manuals, etc.) as described in the publisher comments.
Publisher Comments:

Through proven learning experiences that are as close to real-life practice as can be obtained from a book, DIRECT SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: THEORY AND SKILLS prepares social work students for effective work in the field. Many of the case examples are drawn from social work practitioners as well as the authors' own practice situations. Long praised for its appropriate level of rigor, the book integrates the major theories and skills that direct social work practitioners need to understand and master--thus giving the book its reputation as the classic source for helping students learn direct practice skills. Consisting of four parts, the book begins by identifying the mission of social work, its values, and knowledge base. The authors then differentiate generalist from direct practice and explore roles of direct practitioners. Common elements amongst diverse theorists are then examined while key intervention strategies and various client population and practice settings are presented. Specifically, Part One provides the foundational/values and knowledge base material; Part Two is devoted to the beginning phase of the helping process; Part Three addresses the middle phase (goal attainment strategies), discussing four intervention approaches; and Part Four clarifies the termination phase of direct practice.

Synopsis:

Through proven learning experiences that are as close to real-life practice as can be obtained from a book, DIRECT SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: THEORY AND SKILLS prepares social work students for effective work in the field. Many of the case examples are drawn from social work practitioners as well as the authors' own practice situations. Long praised for its appropriate level of rigor, the book integrates the major theories and skills that direct social work practitioners need to understand and master--thus giving the book its reputation as the classic source for helping students learn direct practice skills. Consisting of four parts, the book begins by identifying the mission of social work, its values, and knowledge base. The authors then differentiate generalist from direct practice and explore roles of direct practitioners. Common elements amongst diverse theorists are then examined while key intervention strategies and various client population and practice settings are presented. Specifically, Part One provides the foundational/values and knowledge base material; Part Two is devoted to the beginning phase of the helping process; Part Three addresses the middle phase (goal attainment strategies), discussing four intervention approaches; and Part Four clarifies the termination phase of direct practice.
Synopsis:

Packed with examples, illustrations, and proven learning experiences from the field, DIRECT SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: THEORY AND SKILLS, Eighth Edition prepares social work students for effective real-world practice. Incorporating many case examples from social work practitioners as well as the authors' personal experiences, the book integrates the major theories and skills that direct social work practitioners need to understand and master?earning the book its reputation as the classic source for helping students learn direct practice skills.
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About the Author

Highly respected social work educators, Dean Hepworth and Jo Ann Larsen originally defined how direct practice should be taught.Ronald Rooney is a Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota. A practitioner in child welfare, community mental health, and school social work, Dr. Rooney is also the author of STRATEGIES FOR WORK WITH INVOLUNTARY CLIENTS. He was the 2004 winner of the Academic Leadership Award of the College of Human Ecology, University of Minnesota.Glenda Dewberry Rooney is a Professor, Department of Social Work, Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she teaches

graduate and undergraduate practice methods, as well as macro practice courses in organizations and administration. Now a full co-author, Dr. Rooney was a contributing author to the Sixth Edition of DIRECT SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: THEORY AND SKILLS. Her extensive experience as a trainer and consultant includes working with agencies concerned with children, youth and families, and community based research.Kim Strom-Gottfried?also a contributor to the Sixth Edition of DIRECT SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE and now a full co-author?is a Professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work where she teaches in the areas of direct practice, communities and organizations, and human resource management. Dr. Strom-Gottfried's scholarly interests involve ethics, managed care, and social work education. She provides training and consultation and research related to private practice, ethics, and managed care.Highly respected social work educators, Jo Ann Larsen and Dean Hepworth originally defined how direct practice should be taught.
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Table of Contents
PART I: INTRODUCTION. 1. The Challenges of Social Work. 2. Direct Practice: Domain, Philosophy, and Roles. 3. Overview of the Helping Process. 4. Operationalizing the Cardinal Social Work Values. PART II: EXPLORING, ASSESSING, AND PLANNING. 5. Building Blocks of Communication: Communicating with Empathy and Authenticity. 6. Verbal Following, Exploring, and Focusing Skills. 7. Eliminating Counterproductive Communication Patterns. 8. Assessment: Exploring and Understanding Problems and Strengths. 9. Assessment: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Environmental Factors. 10. Assessing Family Functioning in Diverse Family and Cultural Contexts. 11. Forming and Assessing Social Work Groups. 12. Developing Goals and Formulating a Contract. PART III: THE CHANGE-ORIENTED PHASE. 13. Planning and Implementing Change-Oriented Strategies. 14. Developing Resources, Organizing, Planning, and Advocacy as Intervention Strategies. 15. Enhancing Family Relationships. 16. Intervening in Social Work Groups. 17. Additive Empathy, Interpretation, and Confrontation. 18. Managing Barriers to Change. PART IV: THE TERMINATION PHASE. 19. The Final Phase: Evaluation and Termination

Six Important Managerial Skills For Successful Leadership

By Barbara White

Article Word Count: 456 [View Summary] Comments (1)

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A mark of a good leader is to be able to provide consistent motivation to his team encouraging them to attain excellence and quality in their performance. A good leader is always looking for ways to improve production and standards. Here are six management skills you can develop as a leader in working to create a quality effective team. 1. Observation This is an important aspect that often gets neglected due the demands on a leader's time and schedule. Observation and regular visits to the work environment are a priority and should be scheduled into the calendar. Observing employees at work, the procedures, interaction and work flow is foundational to implementing adjustments to improve results. To have credibility, a leader needs to be seen and be known to be up to date with what is happening in the work place. 2. Monitor Employee Performance Employee performance needs to be monitored in mutually accepted ways. Policies and procedures need to be clear. Conferencing should be on a regular basis and not just when there is a problem. Assessments and evaluations should not be merely all formality or viewed a necessary paperwork to be done and filed away. Individual and group conferencing should be undertaken not only to monitor performance, but with the expectation of on going professional development and support. There should be frequent encouragement and clear criteria for on going goals both for the group and individual. 3. Implementation of Professional Development Programs A good leader evaluates weaknesses and provides training and development strategies to strengthen the weaker skills in the team. 4. Demonstrates Working Knowledge and Expertise Good leadership comes from a place of strong knowledge and experience of the production and process leading to results. If a leader does not possess all the expertise and knowledge personally, then regular consultations with experts involved in the departments should be held. This is important in order to maintain an accurate and informed overall picture. 5. Good Decision Making Good leadership is characterized by the ability to make good decisions. A leader considers all the different factors before making a decision. Clear firm decisions, combined with the willingness and flexibility to adapt and adjust decisions when necessary, create confidence in the leadership. 6. Ability to Conduct and Evaluate Research

On going review and research is vital in order to keep on the cutting edge in business. While managing the present to ensure on going excellence in product and performance, a good leader is also able to look towards the future. Conducting and evaluating research is an important way of planning and being prepared for the future. Excellent leadership is always pro active rather than reactive. By developing these six managerial skills builds a solid foundation for success. Barbara White, is a speaker and trainer in Leadership Skills. For more Leadership articles Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barbara_White

The Maslow Theory of Motivation also known as "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" model was developed between 1943-1954, and first widely published in "Motivation and Personality" in 1954. Starting from the premise that each human being is motivated by needs that are inborn, presumably as a result of tens of thousands of years of evolution, here is the hierarchy in ascending order: (1) Physiological needs These are the very basic needs such as air, water, food, sleep, sex, etc. When these are not satisfied we may feel sickness, irritation, pain, discomfort, etc. These feelings motivate us to alleviate them as soon as possible to establish homeostasis. Once they are alleviated, we may think about other things. (2) Safety needs These have to do with establishing stability and consistency in a chaotic world. These needs are mostly psychological in nature. We need the security of a home and family. However, if a family is dysfunction, i.e., an abused child - cannot move to the next level as she is continuously fearful for her safety. Love and a sense of belonging are postponed until she feel safe. (3) Love and needs of belonging Humans have [in varying degrees of intensity] a strong desire to affiliate by joining groups such as societies, clubs, professional associations, churches and religious groups etc. There is a universal need to feel love and acceptance by others. (4) Self-Esteem needs There are essentially two types of esteem needs: self-esteem resulting from competence or mastery of a task; and the esteem and good opinion of other people. (5) The need for self-actualisation

Maslow theory of motivation proposes that people who have all their "lower order" needs met progress towards the fulfilment their potential. Typically this can include the pursuit of knowledge, peace, esthetic experiences, self-fulfillment, oneness with God, nirvana, enlightenment etc. So ultimately this is all to do with the desire for self transcendence. A paradigm shift that forms the basis for good leadership and successful change management The Maslow theory of motivation brought a new face to the study of human behaviour. Maslow was inspired by greatness in the minds of others, and his own special contribution to the field of motivational psychology led to the creation of the concept of Humanistic Psychology. Most psychologists prior to Maslow had focused on the mentally ill and the abnormal. In complete contrast the Maslow theory of motivation investigated and attempted to define positive mental health. In so doing, he instigated a paradigm shift via Humanistic Psychology - predicated on the belief that humans are not simply blindly reacting to situations, but trying to accomplish something greater. This new approach represented in the Maslow theory of motivation became the source of many new and different therapies, all grounded in the belief that people possess the inner resources for growth and healing and that the point of therapy is to help remove obstacles to individuals' achieving them. It also forms the basis of much current understanding of what constitutes good leadership and forms a major foundation of prevailing models and theories of successful change management. The most fundamental value of this theory is to emphasise and remind those of us involved in leading and managing change of the complexity and multi-facted nature of human needs and motivational drives. Closely aligned to that observation is the difficult realisation that people have transcendent needs and aspirations as well as the more prosaic needs of survival and "pay and rations". See here for the full change management implications of the: " Maslow Theory of Motivation " I invite you to take advantage of this FREE download: Starting the Change Process " Find out the 3 main reasons for the 70% failure rate of all step change initiatives and how to avoid it. This FREE 29 page document offers a brief introduction to some of the key themes and key points that you need to consider in starting the change process. Stephen Warrilow, based in Bristol, works with companies across the UK providing specialist support to directors delivery significant change initiatives. Stephen has 25 years cross sector experience with 100+ companies in mid range corporate, larger SME and corporate environments. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stephen_Warrilow

Managerial action skills in business education: missing link or misplaced emphasis?

SAM Advanced Management Journal, Summer, 1992 by Appa Rao Korukonda y y
1 2

y y y y y y y y y y y

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 Next

Historically, them has been a tension between two fundamental orientations to business education: analytical detachment vs. practical relevance. This tension can be traced to a controversy between academics and practitioners regarding their respective roles in shaping the goals of a formal education in business. Without question, such a tension is inevitable, necessary, and to some extent, healthy. This tension, which initially surfaced in the form of a polarization of thought on the basic emphasis and mission of business schools, has, over the years, declined in intensity as the arguments for practical relevance gained ground. An offshoot of this has been that a skill component has gradually assumed a momentum and permanence of its own in management education. Unfortunately, however, the emphasis on managerial action skills has resulted in a preoccupation with pedagogy and a remarkable bankruptcy of thought on such fundamental questions as the effects of a skill bias on basic assumptions regarding the nature of management, management theory, and management education. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining some fundamental questions, issues, and dilemmas implicit in an action skill approach to management education. The thrust of the article will be to examine (a) the present niche of the "action skill movement" and some issues and questions regarding how it can be explored further and better, and (b) potential redirections for the future. I will argue that a basic concern in an action skill focus is to ensure that it does not effectively restrict the scope of management education to that of training in management trade. In support of this argument, I shall attempt to pull together evidence -- theoretical, empirical and metaphorical -- from different streams of literature to suggest that there is an emerging commonality of thought about the broader task of management in today's turbulent environments, which an action skill approach fails to address adequately. I will argue that this is a task to which it must, of necessity, turn if it is to maintain its relevance to management thought, research, and theory. The article will conclude with a discussion of the implications and potential directions for the future. Action Skills: The Background The terms action and skill are both loaded. Action is practical; it produces results; it makes things work; it makes things happen. In a career spanning more than a decade in the public sector, I can recall countless occasions where action rather than idle thinking (somehow idle seemed to go well with thinking in the practitioner world) was proposed as the solution to a variety of problems ranging from employee morale to equipment failure. Likewise the case with skills. As a mere label, it seems to impute positive qualities to any activity. A cartoon showing a mother bragging about the TV watching skills of her young son captures this mode of thought. If this is so, imagine the explosion of suggestiveness and desirability that can be created by combining these words: actions and skills. To examine intelligently the need for an action skill focus, it is important to consider first, the nature of a formal program of instruction in management, and second, the nature of the contribution, if any, that an action skill component

might make. Before we can do that, some appreciation of the origin, logic, and context of the action skill movement is in order. Philosophers such as Dewey have argued for a fundamental transition in our approach to education from the theoretical to the pragmatic. Not surprisingly, the basic approach to management education came under a similar attack in the early 1970s for the inadequate attention given to practical managerial skills. At the forefront of this criticism is Livingston's classic paper, The Myth of the Well-Educated Manager," in which he chastised formal management education programs -academic as well as industry-sponsored -- for their failure to "develop explicitly the traits, knowledge, and skills that are essential to career success and leadership in any business organization" (Livingston, 1971: 79). Commenting on the lack of correlation between scholastic accomplishment and business success of a large sample of Harvard Business School graduates, Livingston asserted that "... many crucial managerial tasks are not taught in management education programs but are left to be learned on the job, where few managers ever master them because no one teaches them how." He did not have any qualms about going so far as to label managers' education as "miseducation that inhibits their ability to learn from their experience." Criticism of business programs has been pervasive and has come from every angle: too analytical, not analytical enough, too theoretical, too case-oriented, too broad or too narrow. Moreover serious questions have recently been raised about the value of the MBA degree. In the wake of the Black Monday stock market crash, many business school recruiters were quoted as having to "convince prospects of the value of the M.B.A. itself" (Mitchell, 1988). McGill, while noting that the "proliferation of MBAs is not the cause of the poor performance of the economy," states that "persistent belief in the value of the MBA has certainly contributed to what is wrong with American management. The myth of the MBA distorts the way problems are perceived and actions are conceived." (1988: 75). Quality standards in the conventional MBA program have also been the target of severe criticism. Deficiencies in a number of areas such as admission criteria, rigor in coursework, academic training of the faculty, and professional relevance have been cited as some of the reasons for the decline in quality. Academia has been singularly and somewhat surprisingly united in its response to this growing tide of criticism. The experiential movement of the early 60's and 70's clearly represents one such response. Over the last fifteen years or so, we have been witnessing a deluge of other approaches such as Executive MBA programs, Management Development Seminars, Executive-in-Residence programs, and workshops for managerial skill development. Whetten and Cameron's (1984) book, Developing Management Skills and the AACSB Educational Outcome Project (AACSB, 1987) highlight how action skills fit into this overall trend. Education, Training, and Development Differentiation among the terms education, training, and development will aid in exploring the implications of an action skill component. I will draw on Hunt's (1991) discussion of these terms: "Management education is the acquisition of a broad range of conceptual knowledge and skills in a formal classroom context in degree-granting institutions. Management development is any process whereby managerial knowledge and skills are attained from noncredit programs or on-the-job experiences. Management training is a subset of management development and designates training that is positionally and organizationally specific to those already functioning as managers/leaders." As can be seen, an applications focus is most evident in management training whereas cognition forms the core of management education. This raises a question concerning the roles of cognition and conceptual knowledge in acquiring managerial skills. Adams and Garraty (1960) address this issue succinctly, if somewhat provocatively: "Lecturing a soldier on the nomenclature of the rifle will not teach him to use it in combat. Acquainting a high school youth with the theory of internal combustion engines will not make him a good automobile mechanic. Teaching an executive the 'principles' of administration will not make him an effective leader of men. The method of training has to be adjusted to the end in view.

The process of education must be coordinated with its goal. To 'produce' a man of action different methods may have to be employed than to 'produce' a man of thought" (emphasis added). There are two problems with the above argument. First is the assumption that it is possible to produce practical managerial skills by adjusting the program of instruction. Is this valid? Is it not possible that management involves more than skills that can be learned in a classroom or in a training session? Second is an implicit normative statement of the goals of formal education, for example, that it is more appropriate to produce automobile mechanics than men who can understand internal combustion. I have major problems with this position. Let me illustrate my argument with an analogy. The task of an education in automobile engineering is to prepare the students to design better automobiles, understand theories of internal combustion, transmission, and suspension systems, and -- yes -- to prepare them to think about "the automobile" in the abstract. If becoming an auto mechanic or auto-body repairman were the goal, I would argue that a vocational or trade school was more appropriate, rather than a school of engineering. Granted that a graduate in automobile engineering might not be able to repair his car as efficiently as a trained mechanic, but does that mean his education was inadequate? The broader question is: Is that what automobile engineering is all about -- repairing a car? A discipline such as mathematics can hardly engage in academic vs. practitioner issues. In a discipline such as management, however, it would be naive not to recognize or understand the impact of these issues in shaping the goals of a formal education in management. At one extreme, diffusion theorists explain the role of academics in terms of the flow of information, empirical principles, and knowledge in general (Barley, Meyer & Gash, 1988; Dunbar, 1983). Political theorists, on the other hand, maintain that the practitioners' control over critical resources shapes the direction of academic activity (Clegg & Dunkerley, 1980; Watson, 1980). We can probably say that a zone of agreement lies somewhere between these two extremes -- a zone in an eternal state of imbalance. The emergence of an action skill focus in management courses in general can be understood as the result of an implicit agreement between academics and practitioners. Action skills cannot and will not assure effective performance of a managerial job. If they could, management would boil down to a trade, and there might not be anything worthwhile -- at least from a practitioner's point of view -- to learn from formal management education. In that case, one wonders whether the goals of practitioners might not be better served by substituting formal management education with vocational training or with an apprenticeship under successful managers. This is a point which Koontz (1961, 1964) made in his articles on the "management theory jungle." Fry and Pasmore (1983: 283) aptly capture the essence of this argument: "The most important problems executives face defy specific definition or have no solutions, or they would already have been solved by others." It is thus legitimate to wonder whether it is possible to impart, let alone incorporate, all managerial skills in a formal program of instruction. This is the one reason why practitioners -- despite complaints about lack of relevance to management practice -- still find it necessary to rely on formal business programs. This is the one reason why a surgeon needs a formal medical education in addition to skills in suturing and in using a scalpel. What Skills? Using the time interval for learning/performing and the degree of behavioral specificity as the two dimensions, Waters (1980) has made a systematic attempt to classify managerial skills. Reviewing this typology is helpful as it highlights the drive towards trade as opposed to education. Waters' matrix is presented in Figure 1. Long Interval

Context Skills (e.g., goal setting, work planning, time management)

Wisdom (e.g., Charisma, entrepreneurship, strategy formulation)

Behaviorally Specific

Behaviorally Nonspecific

Practice Skills (e.g., active listening, report writing, public speaking, selfassertiveness)

Insight Skills (e.g., empathizing, coping with ambiguity, dealing with authority, bargaining, negotiation)

Short Interval

Figure 1: Managerial Skills Framework (Waters, 1980) Waters points out that initial training efforts should be focused on practice skills. Although this might be true for an employee development program, it appears that action skill courses in academic settings have allowed themselves to be similarly constrained in their focus. This would defeat the purpose of conducting the courses in an academic as opposed to an employment context. In fact, I would argue that practice skills should not form the core of any action skill course, because they are narrow and specific enough to be acquired in short workshops on skill development. I would argue that they do not deserve academic credit in a formal business education program. Attempts to impose formal theory and research on these skills can even run counter to the acquisition of them. So where does that leave us? What is the appropriate and legitimate niche for an action skill component in business education? This question gives rise to a number of issues and dilemmas, and it is to a discussion of these that we now tur Waters' typology is but one attempt to classify managerial skills. If we look at other studies of managerial skills, several other controversies arise as to the exact type of skills that can be legitimately incorporated into an action skill program. First I need to clarify that I am using the term "action skills" in a broad sense and am not restricting it to hands-on, or behaviorally specific, or to short-term or long-term skills. My use of the term is based on the theme of liberation of the term itself, and this is a theme that will be developed later in the article using the metaphor of psychic prison. With this point in mind, let us now turn to a discussion of these issues and dilemmas: Effective vs. Fast-tracking Skills.

The classical view of management consisting of the five Fayolian functions (planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling) has been subjected to sustained scrutiny since the pioneering work of Mintzberg (1973) and Kotter (1982). Based on an observation of 44 managers from different levels across different organizations, Luthans (1988) suggests that the activities of managers can be understood in terms of four activities: (1) communication, (2) traditional management, (3) networking, and (4) human resource management. Using this scheme on a different sample of 248 managers, Luthans found that while networking activities (such as socializing and politicing) were important predictors of success, they made very little -- in fact the least -- contribution to a manager's effectiveness. On the contrary, communication and human resource management activities were found to make the largest contribution to managerial effectiveness. Luthans thus makes a distinction between successful managers the fast-trackers, or those who rise quickly up the corporate ladder and effective managers (solid performers in terms of the quality and quantity of the job done, satisfaction and commitment of subordinates). He points out that, contrary to what textbooks and bestsellers might say, social and political skills -- as opposed to hard performance skills -- are rewarded in real organizations. While the solution lies in changing this reward system, it is questionable whether the business schools can do it. The more immediate dilemma is: Do we continue to focus on the thankless performance-related management skills? Or do we in academia owe it to our students also to teach them skills such as networking and political savvy that will make them successful (though not necessarily effective) in their jobs? Where do our obligations lie -- to the corporations that exert some degree of control over our resources or to our students? Skill vs. Will. Do our skill courses nurture a will to manage? This is often assumed away or taken for granted in action skills programs, yet there is evidence to show that they can make a contribution in this area. Based on his measurement of six attributes of managerial motivation (favorable attitude toward authority, desire to compete, assertive motivation, desire to exercise power, desire for a distinctive position, and a sense of responsibility) for over 15 years among business managers and business students, Miner (1973) observed that young people of the 1970s seemed to show a steady disenchantment with management. This prompted him to warn that unless corrective steps were taken, the mid-1980s would experience a major constraint on corporate growth directly attributable to the lack of individuals with the crucial will to manage. Given today's rate of admissions in MBA programs, Miner's arguments about the lack of managerial motivation might be dismissed. According to one estimate, more than 70,000 MBA's are churned out in the U.S. every year, and Robert K. Jaedicke, Dean of the Stanford Business School, was quoted as saying: "If you look at the growth rate over the past 25 years, you could come to the conclusion that everybody in the United States will have an MBA degree by the year 2010" (Business Month, 1988: 75). Unfortunately, neither the rate of admissions into MBA programs nor the race for the corporate fast track is an indication of legitimate aspiration to become a manager. It is of particular concern now that narcissism and greed among business graduates seem to be at an all-time high. Dewey (1988: 75) minces no words when he states, "These kids |business graduates~ are smart. But I'd as soon take a python to bed as hire one. He'd suck my brains, memorize my Rolodex and use my telephone to find some other guy who'd pay him twice the money." Is it not incumbent upon our academic programs to inculcate the crucial will to manage to which Miner refers? Blind Leading the Blind. A common belief is that, in a skill course, the instructor must possess the skills that are the focus of the course. This argument is highly appealing especially when reinforced with a negative example, such as a swimming coach who cannot swim. Koontz voiced this concern quite vehemently: "In looking around the faculties of our business, management and public administration schools, both undergraduate and graduate, practicing executives are impressed with the number of bright but inexperienced faculty members who are teaching management or some aspect of it. It seems to me like having professors in medical schools teaching surgery without ever having operated on a patient" (Koontz, 1980: 176). Bradford (1983), in a similar vein, underscores the need for an instructor of a skill course to have the ability to enact that skill in addition to possessing knowledge about the skill. Waters (1980) similarly makes a distinction between two different kinds

of learning of behaviors relating to management process: a cognitive understanding of the behavior and an actual ability to perform that behavior. Two key issues are involved here. First, whether the first type of learning (cognitive understanding) is a necessary prerequisite to the second type of learning (ability). One might be an expert swimmer without a cognitive understanding of the process of swimming or the principles of flotation. Does this mean we should focus more on the acquisition of skills and less on cognitive understanding? If so, what is the role of an instructor? What this line of argument boils down to is that the coach has to be better at playing the game than the members of his team. If so, what can be done to make sure our faculty acquire, renew, or hone these skills? Some possible solutions lie in innovative concepts in business education such as the Management Clinic (Badawy, 1976) and Decision Theater (Roach, 1986). At the same time, our doctoral programs should incorporate skill enactment as a formal pan of the curriculum. This will inevitably expand course requirements and program times, but if any corrective measures are needed, the problem should be addressed at the source. The second issue is whether we are missing the boat in arguing for possession of skills on the part of the instructors? Would a facility for nurturing the acquisition of skills be a better criterion for the instructors? Defining management as what managers do seems circular and devoid of definitional clarity. It is no better than defining physics as what physicists do (Korukonda, 1984; Korukonda & Hunt, 1987). Yet, as Koontz (1980: 179) has pointed out, some management scholars "have long emphasized an arbitrary boundary of management knowledge -- the theory underlying the managerial job in terms of what managers do." As he points out, "... there is science and there is art, ... there is knowledge and there is practice" (Koontz, 1980: 181). Similarly, there is theory and there is research and there is skill. With this in mind, some examination of the literature on the nature of managerial work might help us review the relevance of and perhaps suggest redirections for, the action skills component of business education. A review of recent literature suggests that managerial work, in contrast to earlier studies, is being described in increasingly abstruse and abstract terms such as vision, organizational culture, management of meaning, and games of language. Central to these recurring and consistent themes is the inescapable conclusion that "executive work is mostly talk" (Jonas, Fry & Srivastva, 1989: 205). This emerging recognition and awareness, I must emphasize, is not intended in any derogatory sense, but rather to highlight some converging trends in the literature. Also, a growing interest in the intuitive, nonrational, symbolic, mythical, and ritual aspects of management is clearly evident in the literature. Agor (1984: 26), for example, argues that "Women have learned to develop their native intuitive ability more than men because historically they had to learn how to manipulate men in positions of power." If this is indeed so, are skill courses on the intuitive aspects of management perhaps better taught by women? Or maybe we need to observe women managers more and try to understand how their intuitive management styles manifest themselves. These are important issues to be addressed by any systematic skill programs. As Morgan (1986: 199) points out, "Human beings have a knack of getting trapped in webs of their own creation." The metaphor of psychic prison is a powerful tool for analyzing various traps such as group think and favored modes of thinking. All too often we find instructors, courses, and even textbooks issuing a disingenuous disclaimer: "Let there be no illusions. This course will not make you a better manager. It can only help you think like a manager." All the evidence indicates that there is no such thing as "thinking like a manager." In fact, such an assumption could be fatal to a managerial career, considering that effective management does indeed call for the capacity to engage in altered modes of thinking. Leo presents a similar argument in his discussion of the pitfalls of what he calls Management Think. He argues that "Productive Structured Efficient Thinking" (PSET for short), the mode of thought usually encouraged by companies, can lead to rigid,

hardened, and routine thinking patterns. Rather, what is called for is a willingness to "try out new thinking patterns and look at possibilities in new ways" (Leo, 1984: 44). Williams (1982: 3), in a similar vein, points out: "In reality top executives are prisoners -- prisoners of their situation, of their subordinates and yes, even of their own knowledge and attitudes." Unfortunately, one single mode of thinking has been traditionally emphasized in business schools and business organizations: the rational, linear, productive, logical, and efficient. Several alternative patterns could be explored, for example, the lateral, playful, reflexive, holistic, and creative modes (Miller, 1974; Rehder & Porter, 1983). Litzinger and Schaefer (1986) suggest a manager should be "transcendentally wise ... not certain with the certainty of mathematical formulas, but sure with the sureness of judgment seasoned by experience." Such transcendental skills, rooted in Taoism, paradox and creativity, cannot be explained by, much less be programmed into, any formal method of instruction. The psychic prison metaphor is useful in two ways: first, in taking a critical look at the so-called cognitive courses and examining how an action skill course might provide an escape route from some of the psychic prisons that these courses tend to create -- at least for those willing to try it; second, the metaphor should be useful, in a self-recursive manner, in liberating the action skill movement itself from such prisons (structured sets of exercises, for example) and constrained modes of thought. Theoretical Boundaries Much of the myth and disillusionment surrounding skill courses can be attributed to a lack of appreciation of their theoretical boundaries. An example will help make this point clear. Gasser (1987), in her review of Agor's work, laments the fact that the author offers only wise, vague, and general suggestions and fails to provide little concrete help in developing and using intuition in management. How unreasonable can one be! A faint suggestion, or a vague hint is perhaps all we can hope for. It appears not only unrealistic and unreasonable, but illogical and inconsistent to demand more rigor from a skill program than what is theoretically possible. There is an inherent contradiction in trying to structure what is essentially an unstructured process. If we decide to set apart an hour every day to "do nothing," then does "doing nothing" not boil down to yet another "thing to do?" (Korukonda, 1986). It thus appears that we need to recognize theoretical boundary conditions for action skills -- especially those designed to facilitate intuitive, nonrational thinking patterns (or, for that matter, those designed to break out of any set thinking patterns). Some Lessons from the Experiential Movement

One way to put it is that action skills are to the 80's what the experiential movement was to the early 60's and 70's. As Bradford (1983) has pointed out, the experiential movement was seriously limited in its potential. What contributed to this? Some analysis, albeit on a post hoc basis, might help the action skills movement to learn whatever lessons history has to offer. The answer is to be sought in the niche that the experiential movement has carved out for itself. In general, the content of management courses can be classified into three parts. The first part, consisting of tool subjects such as accountancy, statistical method, and operations research, can be "taught in a conventional manner because there is a body of knowledge to be learned" (Brown, 1971: 2, emphasis added). The second part constitutes the study of psychology and behavior of individuals and groups. The body of knowledge here, although not exact in the same sense as the hard sciences, still has enough theoretical and conceptual content to allow conventional teaching. It is in the third part that the experiential movement has tried to carve out a niche for itself and failed. This part, to quote Brown (1971: 2), "... is the subject of

attempts to teach by discussion group, playing business games, case studies, etc. Emphasis is placed on putting students in a situation where they can learn from each other rather than from a teacher. This is a covert acknowledgment of the feeling that the student already knows more then the teacher has to teach and that managerial experience has not been sufficiently analyzed for its underlying theories to be made explicit." Brown has argued strongly that such analysis is needed if there is a body of knowledge to be taught. Preoccupation with the process of the exercises and games has preempted any disciplined and systematic attempt to conduct the kind of analysis Brown refers to. This is one major contributor to the downfall of the experiential movement. Second is the underlying epistemological assumption that this subject matter is inherently not amenable to systematic study and analysis. The danger of this assumption is that it could be self-reinforcing. For example, the very fact that it is the subject of simulation games and experiential exercises could be used as evidence to argue that it is inherently atheoretical. Conclusion In a broad sense, the action skill movement in business education can be seen as an attempt to integrate management training with formal management education. How can we achieve this without disrupting the natural division of labor between scholarship and training, between education and vocational training? To this end, it is possible to present some potential redirections for the action skills movement, based on the foregoing discussion. irst, there appears a clear need for a broader definition of action skills. In the turbulent and "wicked" environments of today, to borrow a phrase from Mitroff, complexity, inter-connectedness, and change are the rule rather than the exception. As Mintzberg (1976) and Kotter (1982) have argued, the environments of today call for managers who are capable of engaging in "holistic, relational, gestalt thinking." Thus, if a managerial skill course is to impart any managerial skills at all, it is necessary to emphasize flexibility (rather than structure) and learning to learn (rather than learning). Second, action skills ought to be directed at liberating, rather than constraining, modes of thought. Using a case of example, Argyris (1982) strongly argues for altering counterproductive behavior that is deeply ingrained. He argues that theories-in-use are so deeply ingrained that we are hardly aware of them and of how they contradict with our espoused theories. Such an awareness is important, however, and "fortunately for the health of our organizations, possible" (Argyris, 1982: 5, emphasis added). The point again reinforces the need for a manager to liberate himself from his own psychic prison. Preoccupied with the development of structured exercises, with putting together theory and exercise, and passionately dedicated to developing "objective" measures of outcome assessment, the action skill movement has, unfortunately, not given much thought and attention to this area. Third, intuition and right brain skills need to be emphasized. The writing on the wall is large and clear. Agor (1984, 1988) discusses use of intuition and right brain skills to manage organizations of the future and argues that "this skill is going to become more valuable in the future.... Management education programs are beginning to create courses to develop this ability further. It also appears probable that the research findings could lead to a major restructuring of management education in the next decade appropriate to the organizational environments now emerging" (Agor, 1984: 54). Rehder and Porter (1983) call for a "creative MBA" to achieve a balance between the left brain skills of logic and deductive analysis and the right brain skills of holistic and creative synthesis. Litzinger and Schaefer (1986) similarly propose the notion of "Transcendent Management" -- an ability to reject preconceived ideas, plans, analysis, and theory in order to manage spontaneously, without being "spontaneously foolish." This is possible by nurturing a supple, transcendental intelligence, "a certain kind of intelligence living as much in the limbs as in the brain." This is central to the principle of holographic design where the whole is built into the parts. Such a notion is also consistent with the use of the brain metaphor to improve capacities for flexibility, resilience, and organizational intelligence (Morgan, Fourth, we need to explore alternatives to action skill courses where academic credit need not be an issue. To illustrate this argument, let us take a look at McGill's (1988) criticism as to whether MBA programs prepare MBAs to do anything. He states: "Eighty-six percent of CEOs polled by Louis Harris & Associates agree that 'business schools teach students a lot about management but not much about what it takes to run a company.' What it takes to run a company goes beyond managing information to managing people and managing things. At no time in their education are MBAs given

responsibility for directing and evaluating the work of others. Without this responsibility, MBAs have no experience in managing people" (McGill, 1988: 78, emphasis added). How can we realistically make an MBA student responsible for the work of others? The work that takes place, or should take place, in an academic environment is learning. How can we make one student responsible for the learning of another? It is not possible within an academic system designed to facilitate, nurture, and reward individual learning. Even in courses such as Business Policy, where team projects are assigned with the expectation of equal contribution, we sometimes run into problems, complaints, and squabbles. To assign responsibility for the work of others in a classroom learning environment is to impose an artificial system of hierarchy. While this is clearly not possible, alternatives do exist. Internships are one such alternative. In fact, in some situations internships offer the only viable solution. For example, an internship can ideally meet the need for developing some sense of "responsibility for directing and evaluating the work of others" with a real job, real responsibility and real people. Although their impact on subsequent academic performance is not established (Knechel & Snowball, 1987), internships are one way to "get that necessary practical experience while ... in school.... .... |Internships are~ the common remedy that doctors have been prescribing for medical students for centuries" (Head, 1978: 15, emphasis in the original). Also, an innovative and exotic concept in business education such as the Management Clinic, referred to earlier, could be a potential alternative to traditional action skill courses. The concept of a Management Clinic (Badawy, 1976) is based on the metaphor of a teaching hospital. "The Management Clinic divides clinical faculty into task forces and uses actual business organizations as 'patients' for treatment. An elaborate faculty-executive exchange program is established. The students, serving as 'residents,' are assigned to teams working under the supervision of the clinical professor and the executive of the 'patient' company" (Roach, 1986: 73). While these do not exhaust all possibilities, they provide a good starting point for a fundamental and much needed redirection in the managerial action skills movement. References AACSB (1987) Outcome Measurement Project: Phase III Report. St. Louis: American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. Adams, W., & Garraty, J. A. (1960) "Is the World our Campus?" East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. Agor, W. H. (1988) "Finding and Developing Intuitive Managers." Training and Development Journal, March, 68-70. Agor, W. H. (1984) Using intuition to manage organizations in the future. Business Horizons, July-August, 49-54. Argyris, C. (1982) The executive mind and double-loop learning. Organizational Dynamics, Autumn, 5-22. Badawy, M. K. (1976) "The Management Clinic: Meeting the Challenge of Relevancy in Management Education. "Academy of Management Review. October, 129-133. Barley, S. R., Meyer, G. W., & Gash, D.C. (1988) "Cultures of Culture: Academics, Practitioners and the Pragmatics of Normative Control." Administrative Science Quarterly, 33, 24-60. Bradford, D. L. (1983) "Some Potential Problems With the Teaching of Managerial Competencies." EXCHANGE: The Organizational Behavior Teaching Journal, 8(2), 45-49. Brown, W. (1971) "Organization and Science." In W. Brown & E. Jaques (Eds.), Glacier Project Papers: 1-28. London: Heineman. Business Month (1988) "Attack of the Biz Kids," December: 75.

Clegg, S., & Dunkerley, D. (1980) Organization, Class, and Control. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Dewey, N. (1988) quoted in: McGill, M. E. (1988) "Attack of the Biz Kids." Business Month, December 75-78. Dunbar, R. L. M. (1983) "Toward an Applied Administrative Science." Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 129-144.

The Management Sciences and Managerial Skills

1. Richard Whitley 1. Manchester Business Schoool, University of Manchester, U.K.

Abstract
The management sciences are similar to other vocationally oriented research fields, such as the engineering and bio-medical sciences, in their combination of collegiately controlled research and claims to improve practical skills. Their dependence upon labour market valuations of these skills and openness to non-scientific audiences reduce the degree of theoretical integration of research results and the power of particular intellectual elites to control research goals and priorities. Their influence on the definition and certification of managerial skills has, however, been less than in engineering and medicine for three main reasons. First, managers' tasks and jobs are largely determined by employers and practitioners do not control the selection and definition of problems. Second, the phenomena and systems they study are variable and include current managerial practices. Third, managerial skills are highly interdependent and vary according to organizational structures and policies. Their standardization around discrete areas of knowledge which help to resolve discrete sets of problems is therefore improbable. These points are briefly illustrated by a comparison of operations research with accounting research.