Publications

Managing careers in large organisations looks at the changing context of career development, processes for managing careers and career development roles and organisational capability.

Organisations are now placing heavy emphasis on the role of the manager as coach, and on the workplace as a learning environment. This report contains a literature review of ideas about managers as developers of others, presents the IES research findings, including a framework for managers, and relates some of the narrative accounts collected.

The purpose of this document is to try to bring together the existing literature on secondments, so that the process can be accurately defined, its usage assessed, and lessons learnt. What is clear is that the subject is, so far, largely ignored by the academic research community and so the information available is drawn primarily from case study examples.

This paper presents a small selection of a large volume of data collected in a study that investigated the behaviour of managers who are good at developing other people in the workplace. It was conducted in four major UK organisations.

The paper covers: the growing role of the line manager in development; managers as career developers; managers as mentors and coaches for staff; the business importance of managers as developers; developing the competency to develop others; barriers to staff development; and relation to management theories and formal frameworks.

Just what is the evidence for a positive effect of management and leadership on national, organisational or individual performance?

Despite the relative lack of empirical work about survivor syndrome, there seems little doubt of its existence, and the challenges it poses not only to the HR function, but also the organisation as a whole. Strategies for tackling such an issue are highly organisation-specific, but there are several overriding themes and considerations that may help inform approaches to current, and future, organisational change.

The third in IES' 'Choices' series, this study followed a cohort of 1998 university/college of higher education applicants. In 1998, 'Making the Right Choice' explored information, advice and choices about HE. In 2000, 'Right Choice'? looked at the outcomes of individuals' choices in terms of the HE experience. This study continues to map choices and how they evolve over time.

The Employer Training Pilots (ETP) were established in six Learning and Skills Council areas in September 2002, aiming to provide training to a first level 2 qualification, or in basic skills for employees. They were successful in getting a substantial numbers of employers involved in training their low-skilled employees to achieve qualifications. Employers and learners expressed high levels of satisfaction with their experience of the pilots.

This publication was authored by Becci Newton before she joined IES.