National Aviation University, Ukraine

The role of a line manager in staff development

In my thesis I will tell you about the staff development in a company, I will disclose the role of a line manager, his responsibilities in regards to staff development. I will also bring to the benefits and disadvantages of line manager’s role in staff development.

The aim of my work is to show the importance of such a responsibility of a line manager as staff development.

In this thesis I separate line manager from managers of other levels, so called managers with indirect reports. And saying manager I mean concretely line manager, sometimes also called staff manager which has direct reports only. And it is his responsibility (supported by HR) to implement company strategy of staff development by setting/ supporting individual development plans.

The active role of the line manager - is an important element in the system of personnel development. In the same way as the rest of the elements (labor, the principles of staff respect, clear strategy, problem solving culture ,system of quality management and others ) active leader is a MUST for development. After all, if the leader is not interested in changes, is not interested in improvements, in training his staff, then the employee will develop only the skills and knowledge that they considered useful for themselves. And if the company has no need in these skills – the employee will go to another company.

Under the main responsibilities of a staff manager in regards professional development are:

1. The manager should help employees to see and develop their value to the enterprise. But unfortunately, not every employee can understand its own value to the company, understand his, may be at first glance, small role in the overall result. In this case, the manager must take on the task of explaining how does the work of a particular person affect the overall performance of a company, how does the value, which the company brings in the form of its products to the consumer , is created by the particular actions of an employee. To do this, the line manager must clearly understand the logic of the companies processes: to know exactly what value it creates; to know how does the process of value creation flows, the role his department in the value stream, which part of the value it creates, and what role in all these processes plays a particular employee.

2. The manager must know the problems of employees. The easiest way to interest staff in their development -is to show them how their personal interests are related to the interests of the company. Line manager must have a good understanding of the issues and concerns (problems) of his employees - if the employee does not know how to solve a particular problem, the manager, which has more knowledge and experience, can find a solution. With the knowledge of problems of employees, the line manager is able to determine the path of development, which will be useful for both the employee and the company as a whole.

3. The manager should set goals that challenge the abilities of its employees. The line manager should always seek new challenges, set new goals. Of course, once the team has reached the previous goal, the manager must give subordinates the opportunity to enjoy the moment. But the next day the manager must turn them back to the work again and show new heights. As soon as a manager stops the process improvement and staff improvement, at this very moment the company begins to lose competition.

4. The leader must keep a balance of delegated authority and responsibility. Delegation of authority is a complex issue for many managers. Many managers who were previously technicians, for example, suffer from the syndrome of "I can do better": they are afraid to delegate work to subordinates.

However, it is necessary to delegate the authority to do the work and make decisions, as well as the responsibility for the results of these decisions, because otherwise the manager will have to do everything himself, and it is excluded and in regards of staff development the employee will never learn to take decisions and responsibilities for results of his decisions.

5. The manager must with the own example show the drive for a further development. A leader who stands up for the continuous development of staff, but does not engage in self-development, cannot achieve anything from his subordinates, they will unconsciously copy his model of behavior. The manager must with the own example show the drive for continuous development, to participate in trainings, seminars, meet new management approaches and encourage his subordinates to follow him - to continue to develop and grow in their knowledge and skills throughout his life.

The role of team manager is complex and challenging. Sure, there are many advantages of involving line manager in staff development. The same time, there can be a number of disadvantages in making line managers responsible for HR-related decisions and functions.

The benefits are:

· line manager is closer to their staff;

· line manager has a better knowledge of certain areas because line manager usually deals with day to day bases and shares certain work load with his team;

· line managers provides better feedbacks then the HR manager because line managers has the hand on approach and observing at their staff directly;

· line managers can identify the needs and wants from staff without certain barriers, for example, staff may be scared of asking the HR manager because the question may seen to be outrages;

The disadvantages are:

· It could easily come to the conflict of interest between two line managers while share the resources for staff development. In such case HR department has better overview and planning possibilities; Managers are understandably committed to the success of their individual areas of responsibility and may not have the same high-level view of the organization and its needs as the HR function does;

· line manager is closer to their staff therefore there is a risk of personal likes and dislikes;

· line manager might have lack of skills (soft skills or special knowledge) comparing to HR department. This can be particularly important in areas related to legal and regulatory requirements. Often people are promoted to the line manager because of gut business knowledge but not staff managing skills. When the HR function is devolved to line managers it will receive a generalized focus because the manager is focused on both the efficient running of the department as well as the management of the department's human resources;

· line manager might feel himself split between employer and employee role;

· staff development is just a secondary responsibility of line managers and there is a risk that manager will tend to focus more on his primary business assignments and has no time for secondary responsibilities.