Job analysis and self-exploration in the framework of manager
development course
by: Shelly Roymesher Super-Pharm
Amnon Katz Gaya Organizational Development
In management development courses, there is an often heard demand for practical
"tools". Initially, it would seem that such a demand matches the purposeful
atmosphere that characterizes many organizations. Nevertheless, in training senior
managers there is a need to research and observe deep problems and dilemmas and
to develop participant's self and social awareness.
Today's managers are expected to lead and coordinate different personnel from
varying professions and to manage multi-profession teams. Executives should,
therefore, be familiar with alternative ways of arrangement to motivate people, to
insert influence and to deal with resistance. This also means that the manager is
required to have richer skills of influencing and leading.
The critical processes for the organization's success are, nowadays, cutting the
organization horizontally which is involving different disciplines and professionals.
Therefore, managers are required to lead and prompt process across the entire
organization while creating maximum cooperation from all sides, usually done without
formal authority or clear role definition.
In organizations, as in any other human environment, there are latent processes
which influence job interface, employee motivation and business outcomes. A
manager that is aware and sensitive to such processes can act in order to minimize
their negative impacts, can make decisions out of a deeper and wider understanding
of the organization, and can advance the organization's achievements.
Such complex and latent managerial processes cannot be learned using only
theoretical learning. There is a necessity in the experiential learning in order to
understand and internalize these processes. Experiential learning in laboratory
settings, which includes of interpersonal, group and organizational situations, acts as
practice and assists in deepening the existing knowledge and in exposing the covert
knowledge, and its translation into action.
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As a part of a series of management development courses, in the company of SuperPharm, we are dealing with self-exploration and its role in the work relationships, in
an attempt to discover reciprocity between the self and the role. Participants will
examine the link between hidden process, presumptions, and the way in which they
fill their role in an organization.
The course itself lasts for one year and includes of professional meetings (marketing,
business thinking, project management etc) and meetings for development of
managerial skills. The managerial development of skills workshops are given by the
Human Resources Manager and an external administrator. Participants for the
course are chosen from the reserve managers in the company, following an internal
evaluation.
During each course, we attend to the development of awareness and to role analysis
such that there are three different interventions that deepen self-exploration. In the
article (and in the meeting) we will explain the three and then focus on the role
analysis workshop.
As mentioned, there are three main interventions which allow deepening from
different perspectives:
External feedback following evaluation center – the feedback gives the participant
the entire picture of his managerial abilities while focusing on his/her strengths as
well as the aspects that need improvement. It is important to emphasize that in this
stage the participant has passed the "assortment phase" and the feedback is a basis
for learning and developing which, we think, is a part of a "molding feedback center"
that allows the participant to learn about him/herself in an experiential way that gives
detailed feedback.
Role analysis – personal work is carried out in small groups about the link between
the role in the family of origin and the way the participants fulfill their organizational
roles. Being in a small group allows exposure of hidden content which influence the
participant's conduct as a manager and allows him/her to better understand the
underlying reasons for his/her actions.
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Profound group feedback (after out-door workshop) – the group feedback deals
with the way which the participants manage and with the types of interactions that
they create. The group feedback focuses on feelings and impressions which the
manager creates in others as a manager, a leader and a co-worker.
These three experiences allow the participants, at the end of the process, to get a
professional diagnosis about their function as managers, to expose hidden processes
and presumptions that influence their conduct and to learn about the way they are
perceived by others and what feelings they create in others when they are leading
people and tasks.
The role analysis workshop
The course opens with two consecutive days of workshop. The work is conducted in
small groups (up to 7 participants), which requires separation of the group into two.
In the framework of the workshop, there are three roles; presenter, interviewer, and
participants:
Presenter: the presenter presents what he/she prepared ahead of time (see
appendix): the role description, dilemmas, and the organizational connection of the
role. The duration of the presentation is 10-15 minutes. Following this time, the
presenter responds to questions which the interviewer or the group might ask.
Interviewer: his job is to help in developing an understanding of topics related to the
role and the presented dilemmas. The interviewer should clarify the material which
the presenter presented and should manage the interaction between the participants
and the presenter.
Following the presentation of the presenter, the interviewer has 15 minutes in order
to clarify with the presenter any topic that came up during his/her presentation, which
is related to the role and/or the organization.
At this stage, the presenter is listening while the interviewer coordinates and guides
the discussion between the participants. He/she clarifies any assumptions or
comments surrounding the presentation.
In session 1 – the administrator acts as the interviewer in order to clarify the role of
the interviewer and to act as a model guideline. In light of this, in the first meeting,
one of the participants will not have the chance to experience this important and
significant role.
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Participants: the participant's task is to work with the material which is presented by
the presenter in collaboration with the interviewer. This is in order to describe,
expand and explain the experience of the presenter in that role and to test
assumptions about hidden processes. The participants use their experience and
knowledge about the organization in order to develop assumptions that contribute to
the understanding of the role dilemmas of the presenter and the organization.
The general structure of the workshop:
The workshop includes the same amount of working session as there are
participants in a group. The duration of each working session is 1 hour and 15
minutes. In the beginning, there is an introductory stage which clarifies the working
procedure and the different roles. The order of the presenters and the interviewers is
set in this introductory stage according to the participant's choice.
In each working session, one participant presents his role to the group (see
appendix) while another participant acts as the interviewer. The rest of the
participants are the participating audience.
The last 15 minutes of each session are dedicated to reviewing of the process. The
purpose of the review is to examine revealed and hidden processes in the group
process, to examine the roles that were created in the group and to learn about the
interactive process between the group process, which is occurring in the here and
now, and the role. The assumption is that the review is helpful in looking at group
processes and better understanding the presented material and the organizational
processes that are central to the company of Super-Pharm.
Discussion:
The role analysis workshop provides a number of challenges, for the organization, for
the participants and for the administrators, due to the initial resistance such content
spurs and due to the question of relevance in dealing with this content in developing
managerial thinking. Human Recourse managers sometimes worry that the workshop
will be perceived as threatening, invasive, and lacking contribution to managerial
skills. The question of relevance and contribution is frequently asked by participants
in the primary stages of the workshop.
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In the first stage, the workshop supervisors should contain and accept the resistance
of the participants while remaining loyal to the workshop's principles, in order to allow
the group to relate the personal relevance of the conversation to their every day
managerial dilemmas and to content that is related to the understanding of the
managerial role.
Another instructive dilemma that occurs, especially in the initial stages of the
workshop is that participants struggle to fulfill their role as the interviewer which
requires sensitivity and procedural thinking. The question is whether to save the
situation and the group or to allow internal forces to act and promote the process.
The answer to this question is complicated but in general we have learned that
closely following the model by retaining the role of the interviewer, participants have
significant learning and eventually the internal forces were found which compensated
for the lack of decoding.
According to most participants, this model allowed them meaningful personal
learning through real insight into their organizational dilemmas, understandings, and
learning that will stay with them for a long time in their roles as managers.
We are certain that the success of such a process depends upon choosing suitable
and mature participants, the organization's readiness to accept upon itself a deep
and dynamic model, in the Human Resources' and the supervisors' ability to contain
difficulties and resistance which may arise during the workshop, and upon
preparation of the participants for the experience. Under these conditions, such an
experience provides the participants with practical tools that will allow them to
analyze interpersonal and organizational situations and to make decisions out of selfawareness and a deep understanding of revealed and hidden organizational
processes.
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Appendix
Preparatory paper for role analysis workshop
After reading the attached document, you are asked to prepare, in writing for the
following topics.
Attention! You will be asked to present, verbally, the following topics during the
workshop.
Guidelines for presenting the topics at the workshop:

Describe, in a few words, your formal role in the organization.

A major or central dilemma/wandering in your current role.

A personal experience of leadership influence, either you as the influence
or the one being influenced.

Describe any memory that comes to mind while writing these, which is
related to another role from the world of business or outside of it.

Describe the formal and informal role in family of origin.

Describe, using a metaphor, your current role in the organization.
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