Executives switch roles to learn

Press, 7 August 1982, Page 21

Executives switch roles to learn

Some of the country's leading executives have been reviewing their behaviour towards other people with the help of video recorders in Christchurch during the week. They were in the final days of the Institute of Management's four-week. $3OOO---head advanced-manage-ment course at the Commodore Motor Inn. The executives were taken for the last subject in the course, “management in a changing society” by a husband and wife from Hawaii. Dr Irwin Rubin and Ms Nancy Holmes. Dr Rubin is a former faculty member of the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is an associ- , ate professor of the graduate school of business of the University of Hawaii. He is the principal of a Boston firm specialising in “executive development, organisational diagnosis and team development.” Ms Holmes is a specialist in stress management, and is a former assistant director of the continuing education programme in public health at the University of Hawaii. The 31 executives taking the course did preliminary reading on the subject and brought with them questionnaires filled in by spouses and work associates. After discussions at the course, the executives then formed, teams, varying in size from two to about eight to practise roles simulating business situations. The executives analysed their behaviour after watching video replays and with comments from their group members, Dr Rubin, Ms Holmes, and -Mr Reg Garters, manager of the Canterbury division of the institute and the course organiser. The teaching helped the participants to see-how they were influencing people “right now,” and then taught them to vary their behaviour according to the needs of the situation said Dr Rubin. There was no attempt to change personality.

I- "We facilitate rather than |- teach,” said Dr Rubin of the simulation groups. e The emphasis was on 3 teaching executives how to - influence rather than manipulate. 1 The participants were not • taught that an authoritarian - approach was wrong: but - that there was a time and ■ purpose for each of the many management styles. Indeed i some of the participants ! were given the skill to use an 1 authoritarian approach when it was appropriate. ; However, the over-all ap- ’ proach used was the opposite of the old-fashioned, highly structured formalised man1 agement style complete with • charts and formal responses to as many occurrences ' as possible, said Dr Rub- ! in. ■ “That was the appropriate ; style for the 19205.” He trained as an electrical engineer before studying organisational psychology. He has written a number of papers and books; and has done a considerable amount of research on group work in health care. Though also helping with the role work, Ms Holmes has been able to give the course participants some tips on how to spot stress excess, and how to manage it. Stress, or tension, was not instrinsically bad; for example, bored people perhaps needed to be under more stress. But it was important to realise when a person was suffering from too much tension.

Counter-measures such as muscle-relaxing exercises, exercise generally, visualising feeling relaxed and how to improve nutrition and rest could then be taught.