Business News of Tuesday, 15 March 2005

Source: GNA

Public sector managers urged to encourage staff development

Ho, March 15, GNA - Public Sector Managers have been urged to encourage their personnel to undertake courses in management and challenge them to apply the knowledge gained in solving practical problems.

This is because organisational success in today's world, whether private or public, is knowledge-based and business-driven. Dr Samuel Buame, Lecturer and Business Consultant, gave the advice when he led discussions on "Consultancy skills for Internal Consultants" as part of the quarterly Mandatory Continuing Professional Education (MCPE) programme of the Chartered Institute of Administration and Management Consultants (CIAMC), Ghana, in Ho on Saturday. The programme, which took place simultaneously throughout the country for members of the Institute, discussed two case studies on "Cadbury Schweppes - The Strategic Dilemma of Trebor Basset", and "Managing the Value".

Dr Buame said the developmental successes of countries such as Singapore have been built on the culture of learning and application of skills.

He observed that in Ghana, some managements do not seem to demonstrate the commitment to knowledge and skills acquisition among their personnel adding that and in cases where personnel initiate their own improvement they were not given the opportunity to apply such knowledge to problem solving and innovation.

Dr Buame said in some cases some managers took up training opportunities best suited for other core staff of their organisations. He said there were several factors that account for staff commitment to the goals of an institution or company; one of which is the opportunity for self-improvement in terms of acquisition of knowledge, opportunities for applying such knowledge and recognition of achievement.