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As business moves through the decade of the eighties, it is worthwhile looking ahead to see the shape of management leadership as it will be needed during this decade.

Management writing has probably suffered more than any other part of literature from information pollution. The proliferation of reading that is available to most managers has had the interesting consequence, as I found when I asked ten colleagues at random, of putting books and to a lesser extent journals and magazines in the category of pictures on the wall. They are nice to be seen, rarely read, and occupy vacant space. They impress. The owner has a budget for books. That they become outdated and that many of them were not worth writing — or worth buying — in the first place is barely relevant. They establish status. They say something perhaps to others — he is the sort of person who tries to keep up to date (sic!). On a recent office bookshelf a Survey of Modern Knowledge dated 1921 had a prominent place. They also provide another bit of furniture in the spartan veneer of plasticated ferroconcrete and glass that make up modern offices.

The ranks of upper and middle managers of multinational business firms include more and more people whose native language is not that of their corporate home country. Two factors are largely responsible for this trend and its continuation: the desire of a growing number of companies to hire the best management talent available, irrespective of the potential candidates' nationality; and the pressure exerted by host countries to have an ever‐increasing number of their own nationals involved in decison‐making processes, even in expatriate companies. These influences have wide‐ranging implications, for they directly affect the communication processes and practices of multi‐nationals.

The subject of Management Development alone must be thought of as a misnomer in contemporary industrial society. Certainly for the future Human Resource Development probably better describes what the business must be about than simply Management Development. Having said that, however, there is an element of uniqueness attached to management development in the future, which separates it from its current activities of developing its human resources in order to make the maximum use of their contribution and capacity. It is this unique element for which there is a special need: that of developing in some people — call them success‐orientated managers — the finest qualities of leadership relevant to the work environment. This will bring real achievement to organisations, and reverse the trend away from the bureaucratic, self‐perpetuating and self‐protecting managers we know so well today.

In some ways the question of Management Development alone can be thought of as a misnomer even in contemporary industrial society, since in most respects business is concerned not just with the development of a few managers but with the many. Certainly for the future Human Resource Development probably better describes what the business world is about in this regard than simply management development. Having said that, however, there is an element of uniqueness attached to manager development in the future which separates it from its current activities of developing its human resources in order to make the maximum use of their contribution and capacity. It is this unique element which is the need and objective of developing some people — call them success‐orientated managers — who will be sought to exercise, in the very best sense of the word, the finest qualities of leadership in the work environment. This will bring real achievement to organisations and reverse the trend away from the bureaucratic, self‐perpetuating and self‐protecting managers we know so well today.

It has commonly been assumed that most managers are good at finding their successors. Indeed many managers would also claim that they are good not only at finding their own successors, but also at tracing the number of people who will provide the future top management of the business in which they are involved. Talent spotting is regarded as a management skill which, if not inherent in managers, is soon acquired and known by all successful ones. Like the ability to perform all the basic functions of management, it is accepted as a preprequisite of the definition of any successful manager. Indeed many managers would feel themselves to be rebuffed if it were to be suggested that there were some ways in which they were lacking in the adequacy to fulfil the task of successful potential assessment; and others will only reluctantly seek assistance in finding the answer to this particular problem, even when they are much more open‐minded about using and developing other managerial skills.

ABE offers the mature and well‐experienced manager the option of submitting a thesis when applying for membership. This option is not applicable as an easy way for students and licentiates to avoid sitting our examinations. To answer a query which we receive from time to time, it is not possible to present a diesis instead of sitting the examination in a specific subject.

Any reflection upon education and training for managers over the last twenty years must, at this point in time, be tinged with more than a small element of cynicism. That the world in which we live has changed dramatically is yesterday's news. The unavoidable fact is, however, that there have been significantly few changes in the training that we provide for our managers. The methodology has been refined, but the method remains very much the same. We may pretend differently; but in many instances we still realise, deep down, that we are in the entertainment business, albeit clothed in more sophisticated and palatable trappings.

Junior Education Minister Peter Brooke, speaking at the Conference of Registrars & Secretaries of UK Universities at Bradford, stressed the Government's firm hope that more young people would consider carefully the advantages of spending a year in worthwhile work or other experience between school and higher education, and said the Government intended to set up a seminar for representatives from education and industry to explore ways of encouraging more young people to take some time out between studies. He said the broadening of experience of potential students could have significant benefits:

Throughout personal and working life, problems arise. For example: