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The quality of management is the greatest single determinant of industrial performance. Its impact is felt as much in the social as in the economic sphere, in terms of the quality of life in an organisation as in profitability. Given the much publicised shortcomings of industrial relations which are damaging to industry and to the economy, the case for ensuring that managers are adequately trained is not merely compelling, but almost self‐evident.

In recent years managerial work has changed considerably, largely because the organisational, economic and technological context in which it is conducted has changed beyond recognition. Organisations have been delayered; new work organisation concepts have been developed; organisations have been subjected to a host of managerial fads; the scale of IT‐enabled home‐based working has increased; the variety of communication channels that managers have had to cope with has increased; and globalisation has created a more competitive environment where businesses have had to become leaner, more flexible and adaptable. The consequences of this are that the skills and “capabilities” that managers need to be effective have change radically. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of these changes and to assess the implications of management development and education programmes.

Reports that most organizations see training and development as the province of the human resource department. Proposes that responsibility for this should be placed in the hands of the line manager. Investigates how the responsibility for training and development can be successfully transferred to the line manager. Concludes with a series of key learning points which help in the implementation of this strategy.

This article examines the process of setting up a contract between the training manager and the training consultant. It argues that the potential for the training event, that is the subject of the contract, to be ineffective, is great. Consequently the process has to be well managed by the training manager. It lays out eight steps in the contracting process that the training manager should observe to have a greater chance of success. These are: check the consultant′s credentials; clearly specify your needs; ensure a fit with your organisation; arrange for written programme details; make clear evaluation arrangements; monitor newly appointed consultants; give clear feedback to the consultant; be prepared to answer awkward questions.

The idea that learning is a natural human activity which takes place in a relatively non‐contrived way as part of everyday life has, in the author's experience, been lost when one considers the present state of training and development in many modern organisations. While it is accepted that some contrivance of the learning activity is necessary in order to make it more effective, there has been something of an obsession amongst trainers and consultants to come up with new methods and approaches, rather than concentrating on helping people to learn. Furthermore, the training function has tended not to emphasise the important role that the line manager plays in the development activity within the modern organisation. This may have arisen because the training function wanted to demonstrate ownership and establish a power base within the organisation; however, centralised ownership of training and development does not lend itself to the promotion and undertaking of non‐contrived on‐the‐job/natural development activities.

The purpose of this paper is to show that in many organizations training professionals and human resource leaders are under increasing pressure to use training to improve organizational performance, and yet, front‐line managers are often passive or even indifferent on the issue of properly training their workers. This paper will also discuss the key practices of high performance business leaders and how they use effective training practices to achieve superior results.

Over 2,000 managers, identified by their organizations as being “high performers”, were surveyed and the findings of this paper are based on a content analysis of both questionnaire and interview data.

The paper finds that results‐oriented leaders realized that training is critical to their success and must be handled with great care employing a systematic and disciplined process. This study revealed that results‐oriented leaders realized that properly training and educating their workers increased the likelihood of achieving high performance and that poorly trained workers can create a myriad of performance problems. The study showed that high performance leaders were doing the things necessary to develop their workers and to educate them about the bigger picture of their organization to enable them to make better decisions and be more engaged. The over‐arching finding concludes that high performance business leaders are actively engaged in the training and development process and that they do not abdicate that responsibility to others.

The findings of this paper make it clear that training and developing workers is a top priority for high performance managers who are serious about improving operational and organizational performance.

The present project concerned the assessment of senior and middle level managers′ training needs by self‐report questionnaire, and the link between such identified needs and managers′ preferences for training strategies. It was found that senior‐and middle‐level managers rated the degree of training they needed as less than their supervisors rated for their positions. Self‐reported training needs could be described by an overall general management dimension, whereas managers′ preferred training strategies were separate and specific. Managers′ preferred training strategies and attitudes towards training were not related to their training needs.

There are decades of research analyzing turnover in the hospitality industry and yet it remains nearly double other industries. Whereas previous studies have analyzed training and its impact on turnover, the purpose of this paper is to look at the direct relationship between training at the management level and how this impacts their direct employees’ turnover intentions.

This study utilized annual evaluation data from two luxury resorts in the southeast USA. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted which resulted in four factors: management style, manager/employee relations, manager training and employee turnover intentions. Multiple regression was utilized to assess these relationships between factors.

The analyses show that an employee’s perception of his or her manager was inversely related to turnover intentions. Additionally, it was found that management training and management style had a significant inverse relationship with employee turnover intentions. Finally, this study found that as manager training increases, employee turnover intentions decrease. This research indicates that if hotels invest in management training then there will be a reduction in employee turnover intention.

The sample consisted of only two luxury full service hotels in the southeastern USA. Both luxury hotels recruited a significant amount of employees from local universities; therefore, the workforce was more educated than other hotels. This study should be replicated across hotel types and throughout various locations.

This research has relevant implications for practitioners. General managers should analyze their training requirements and fiscal appropriations. This research finds that if hotels invest in management training then there will be a reduction in employee turnover. If managers had more training, this study indicates that employees would view their managers more favorably, feel closer to their managers and have less of a desire to leave the organization.

Extant research has shown that employee training programs impact employee turnover and that manager training programs impact manager turnover. This study extends that research by showing that these segments are not autonomous; manager training has a significant direct effect on employee turnover intention. This has not been studied in turnover intention literature suggests that this could be the missing variable in the body of turnover research.

Managers and human resource specialists often prefer a particular approach to the delivery of training and development above all others. Frequently, this approach is advocated as a blanket solution to a firm′s managerial problems with little consideration of other approaches. The strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches to management development are evaluated and their application for developing different levels of management in small and large companies is discussed.

Utilising data from 18 in‐depth case studies, this study seeks to explore training, development and human resource development (HRD) practices in European call centres. It aims to argue that the complexity and diversity of training, development and HRD practices is best understood by studying the multilayered contexts within which call centres operate. Call centres operate as open systems and training, development and HRD practices are influenced by environmental, strategic, organisational and temporal conditions.

The study utilised a range of research methods, including in‐depth interviews with multiple stakeholders, documentary analysis and observation. The study was conducted over a two‐year period.

The results indicate that normative models of HRD are not particularly valuable and that training, development and HRD in call centres is emergent and highly complex.

This study represents one of the first studies to investigate training and development and HRD practices and systems in European call centres.