Abstract

The key aim of this paper is to explore how specialists progress to become effective managers. In particular, the paper examines managerial escalator concept described by Rees and Porter (2008a, p. 5), and related concepts, namely, managerial deficit/gap, managerial hybrid and remedies to managerial gap. Further, the paper describes how interview was conducted by the researcher on two managers of Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company. The interview was meant to gather information that would enable the researcher to determine whether carrier progression of those managers has conformed to the managerial escalation model. The findings derived from the study indicate that carrier progression of the managers who were interviewed has conformed to managerial escalator model.

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction  4

2.0 The Concept of Management Escalator 4

3.0 Empirical Study Description  7

4.0 Findings  7

4.1 Findings of interview carried out on May  7

4.2 Findings of interview carried out on Mathew Strutt 10

5.1 Conclusion  11

6.1 References  12

7.1 Appendixe 1: Interview Schedule  13

8.0 Appendix 2: Contacts of the Managers  14

List of Figures

Figure 1.0 The Managerial Escalator 5

Figure 2.0 Richard May’s Carrier Progression Diagram   8

Figure 3.0 Strutt’s carrier progression

1.0 Introduction

Becoming an effective manager is a process that involves both formal and informal learning. Effective managers start as specialists and progress through acquiring managerial knowledge, skills and experience. Rees and Porter (2008a, p. 4) provide an explanation about how specialists progress to become effective managers using managerial escalation concept. Rees and Porter (2008a, p. 4) also explain managerial hybrid concept, managerial deficit/gap and remedial strategies for managerial deficit. The role of this paper is to explore whether carrier progression of two managers of Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company has conformed to the managerial escalator concept. Data from the respondents was collected using interview method. The paper starts with description of managerial escalator concept and related concepts. Further, the paper presents the strategy used to gather information from the respondents. Lastly, the paper presents findings derived from the interview process.

2.0 The Concept of Management Escalator

Managerial escalator is a concept that describes the process through which an employee climbs the ladder that eventually leads him or her to become an effective manager. According to Rees and Porter (2008a, p. 4), a worker who does not acquire supervisory skills may retain the initial position throughout his or her job career. However, a worker who acquires supervisory skills is likely to be promoted to higher statuses. The period for promotion can be one year and can also extend to five years. Also, a specialist may be promoted within the company where he/she acquires managerial skills or in a different company. As Rees and Porter (2008a, p. 4) explain, specialists who become effective managers engage in managerial activities, in addition to the specialist activities, throughout their careers. In addition to their specialist roles, specialists who become effective managers engage in supervisory activities such as leadership, staff supervision, resources planning, budgeting and prioritising. Thus, Rees and Porter (2008a, p. 5) argue that, as people acquire skills and experience through carrying out such supervisory activities, they attain an escalator type of progression and ultimately become effective managers. Rees and Porter (2008a, p. 5) use the following diagram to explain how specialists progress to become managers:

Figure 1.0 The Managerial Escalator

Source: Rees and Porter (2008, p. 5)

According to Rees and Porter (2012), the balance between specialist’s work and management is determined by the specialist’s position on the managerial escalator. As they specialists combine their work and managerial roles, they become managerial hybrids. Specialists become managerial hybrids from the initial point when they start gaining managerial skills. They acquire managerial skills in formal ways, through attending courses and seminars, as well as through informal ways, through engaging in managerial activities in organizational settings. The extent to which a specialist acquires managerial skills is also influenced by managerial gap. Managerial gap refers to the extent to which a specialist neglects managerial activities in favour of specialist activities. The higher the level of managerial gap, the less the specialist acquires managerial skills (Inman, O’Sullivan & Murton, 2014, p. 65).

Rees and Porter (2008b, p. 245) suggest that it is possible to determine a specialist who is incompetent in management by looking at insufficient management skills, such as inability to make effective decisions and understand their implications, inability to take a holistic approach where needed and inability to work as a team with other workers. As such, Rees and Porter (2005, p. 252) suggest four remedial strategies that can be used to deal with neglect of managerial roles among specialists, namely, selection, development, role definitions and monitoring. Role definition involves explaining the managerial roles to the specialists so that they differentiate them from specialist roles. Selection involves choosing the management skills that a specialist lacks and making plans to improve them. Development involves providing training opportunities to the specialists so that they gain the management skills they lack. Lastly, monitoring is the process of gathering information regarding the development progress of a specialist and providing assistance in case of need. The concepts described by Rees and Porter are relevant to the interviews conducted on the two managers of Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company. This is due to the fact that the interview schedule used for collecting data from the respondents contained questions that sought to understand how the respondents gained their managerial skills and their current positions on the managerial escalator. Before engaging in the data collection process, the researcher made the interviewees understand managerial escalator concept, managerial deficits/gaps and the available remedial strategies in order to facilitate their participation.

3.0 Empirical Study Description

In order to understand how specialists progress to become managers, the researcher conducted an empirical study on Richard May, the London Branch manager of Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Mathew Strutt, Stirling Group Rental Manager of the same company. The researcher adopted an exploratory research design since it would allow him to explore and gather new information about the managerial progression of the respondents (Cancelleri, 2007, p. 68). The researcher realized that managers are free and willing to give out personal information when they are out of their busy business activities. In this regard, the researcher decided to gather information from managers during their relaxing moments. Thus, the research was conducted as the two respondents were relaxing in a restaurant where they meet frequently in London. The researcher carried out face-to-face interviews on the respondents and filled open-ended in an interview schedule. Prior to conducting the research, the researcher explained to the respondents the extent to which the information they would give would be exposed. Also, the researcher sought for permission first from the respondents. The respondents were assured that their sensitive information would not be included in the study. The researcher gathered information about career progression of the respondents only.

4.0 Findings

During the interview process, the researcher found that May has a longer carrier profile than Strutt.

4.1 Findings of interview carried out on May

The following diagram presents information about carrier progression of May:

 

 

Figure 2.0 Richard May’s Carrier Progression Diagram

 

As indicated inn the above figure, May started working as a freelance photographer in 1998. The job coincided with his area of area of focus since he studied Photography at The Grove School. He progressed to become a member of corporate sales team at AXA PPP Healthcare. The job, as he explained, added his skills of interacting with people at workplace. His subsequent roles in the same organization added his team-working skills. Team-working skills are essential in management. He gained significant management skills when working as a management trainee assistant at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. He progressed to become an assistant manager and later promoted to the level of a branch manager in the same company. He later moved out of the company and was recruited back later as an assistant manager. He was quickly promoted to the current level of a branch manager. Despite the fact that May’s position fell at some point, he progressed slowly from a specialist in photography to the current position of a branch manager. In this regard, his progression from bottom to top highly conforms to the managerial escalator described by Rees and Porter (2008a, p. 5). May indicated that he has key management skills such as account management, recruiting, training, business development, sales management, public speaking, business management, and performance management.

4.2 Findings of interview carried out on Mathew Strutt

Figure 3.0 Strutt’s carrier progression profile

The interview findings indicated that Strutt has a much smaller profile than May. Strutt started his career in 1998 as a customer service worker for British airways. The job gave him important skills such as team-working and customer management. From customer management, Strutt was employed by Enterprise Rent-A-Car as area manager and ultimately, the current position as a group rental manager. He indicated during the interview that he has gained formal and informal management knowledge and skills such as branch operation, fleet management, operations management, employee engagement, staff retention, strategic planning, staff retention and business growth strategies. The researcher noted that Strutt took more time than May to get promotion, implying that his managerial gap was bigger. Despite this, his progression to the current management level conforms to the managerial escalator described by Rees and Porter (2008a, p. 5).

5.1 Conclusion

Overall, managerial escalator model explains how specialist progress and eventually become effective managers in organizations. After the process of progressing starts, an individual becomes a managerial hybrid. Managerial gap refers to the neglect of managerial skills in favour of specialist skills. Rees and Porter propose remedial strategies to managerial gap, namely, selection, role orientation, development and monitoring. The researcher collected data from two managers of Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company, namely May and Strutt. The aim of collecting the data was to determine whether their career progression conform to the managerial escalator. The findings derived from the study indicated that management progression of the two managers conform to the managerial escalator.

6.1 References

Cancelleri, J. P. (2007). An Exploratory Study of Leadership Perspectives of Bar Association

Presidents in the Commonwealth of Virginia. ProQuest, Abhor

Inman, M., O’Sullivan, N. & Murton, A. (2014). Unlocking Human Resource Management.

Routledge, New York

Rees, W. D. & Porter, C. (2005). “Results of a survey into how people become managers and the

management development implications.” Industrial & Commercial Training. Vol. 37, No. 5, pp. 252-258.

Rees, W. D. & Porter, C. (2008a). Skills of Management. South-Western/Cengage Learning,

London

Rees, W.D. & Porter, C. (2008b). The re-branding of management development as leadership

development and its dangers. Industrial and Commercial Training, p.242–247 Rees, W.D. (1984). Skills of Management (1st ed.). Croom Helm, London

Rees, W.D. & Porter, C. (2012). “Managerial Gap and how coaching can help.” International

Coaching Psychology Review, Vol. 7 No. 1, March 2012, The British Psychological Society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.1 Appendixe 1: Interview Schedule

1. Name of the respondent/manager………………………………………………………………………….

2.0 Jobs and positions held by the respondent, duration from beginning of career to date and management skills gained

	Job Description and position	Organization the manager worked for	Duration	Management skills gained
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

 

3. Any additional role or job done by the respondent/manager………………………………………….
4. The main course(s) done by the respondent/manager university/college………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
5. Name of the college/university in which the respondent studied……………………………………..

8.0 Appendix 2: Contacts of the Managers

The contact details of the managers interviewed are as follows:

Richard May

200 King Street
London, United Kingdom
+44 20 8563 7400

Mathew Strutt

Enterprise Rent-A-Car
4 Munro Road
Springkerse Ind Estate
Stirling FK7 7UU
Tel.: +44 01786-462666