Arnstein, William E.

Blumenthal, Philip L.

Lindberg, Roy A.

Toan, Arthur B., Jr.

Trentin, H. G.

English

eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi)

Management Services: A Magazine of Planning, Systems, and Controls Volume 6 Number 5 Article 1 9-1969 Management Services Forum William E. Arnstein Philip L. Blumenthal Roy A. Lindberg Arthur B. Toan Jr. H. G. Trentin Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/mgmtservices  Part of the Accounting Commons Recommended Citation Arnstein, William E.; Blumenthal, Philip L.; Lindberg, Roy A.; Toan, Arthur B. Jr.; and Trentin, H. G. (1969) "Management Services Forum," Management Services: A Magazine of Planning, Systems, and Controls: Vol. 6: No. 5, Article 1. Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/mgmtservices/vol6/iss5/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Archival Digital Accounting Collection at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Management Services: A Magazine of Planning, Systems, and Controls by an authorized editor of eGrove. For more information, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu. MANAGEMENT SERVICES FORUMIn our May-June issue we announced on page 9 that a panel of management services personnel from leading accounting firms would answer to the best of their ability questions from readers relating to any area in which they would like help—practice management, information development and utilization, computer selection and applications, client relationships. We also explained that correspondents would be kept anonymous. We have since decided that the identity of the individual firm replying would also be concealed.All correspondence is cleared through this office.The members of our panel, one or more of whom are responsible for the answers printed in this department, are: William E. Arnstein, Main Lafrentz & Co., New York; Philip L. Blumenthal, Geo. S. Olive & Co., Indianapolis, Ind.;  Roy A. Lindberg, J. H. Cohn & Company, Newark, N. J.;  Arthur B. Toan, Jr., Price Waterhouse & Co., New York;and H. G. Trentin, Arthur Andersen & Co., New York.We also said in our May-June issue that queries and answers of general interest would be printed in Management Services. Herewith one of our first inquiries and the reply from our panel.The EditorsGentlemen:Our computer installation is one that has grown by leaps and bounds  over the past several years. During that time we, like many others, have suffered our share of turn­over, rapid promotion within the operation and insufficient time to properly train the advancing op­erators in areas other than pure machine operating. The result of this rapid growth situation has been that we now have personnel in supervisory positions with little or no training in working with and handling people.In an effort to correct this prob­lem situation I would greatly ap­preciate any advice that you might care to render in three specific ways:1. What is the best way to  train these now relatively green supervisors?2. Disregarding the best way;  what is a good way to accom­plish this training in an on-the- job basis or in short sessions after or during the operating shifts?3. , What is the best way to  provide this training to a personbeing groomed for a supervisory slot on a continuing basis dur­ing his advancements through the operation?Your response to these questions will be most appreciated. They are prompted from what is an ob­vious need and from the reading of your invitation for questions on page 9 of the May-June 1969 issue of your magazine.Operations Manager Service CorporationThe writer is connected with the service corporation for a major American stock exchange.September-October, 1969 1 1Arnstein et al.: Management Services ForumPublished by eGr v , 1969. . . and the reply drafted by a member of the Management Services panelThe inquiry reproduced on the preceding page presents a number of the classical symptoms of com­puter management problems. The rapid growth, high turnover, lack of time for training, are common phenomena which may represent both cause and effect The three specific questions, in their content and in the sequence of their ap­pearance, suggest that the man­agement may do well to study not only the specific methods of train­ing supervisors but also the rela­tionship of the computer installa­tion to the overall management process of the organization.Factory analogyMany managements have been awed by the apparently complex technology of the computer and have failed to recognize that the computer is simply a machine which operates in a factory en­vironment, and will respond to time-proved industrial manage­ment techniques. The computer operating facility receives raw ma­terials (data), performs pre-con­ditioning operations (keypunching, etc.) and feeds the properly con­ditioned data into automatic ma­chines (computers) with product specifications (programs) provid­ed by a research and development (systems and programing) staff.Having recognized the operat­ing computer installation as essen­tially the equivalent of a factory, we are prepared to suggest, in re­sponse to Question 3, that the training of first line supervisory personnel can best be accomplished through the use of techniques de­veloped for industrial supervisors’ training generally.Traditionally the first line super­visor or foreman, both by exam­ple and by implementation of spe­cific on-the-job training programs,has been a key party in develop­ing the supervisory as well as the technical skills of employees. The weakness (in terms of supervisory training) of the inquirer’s present first line supervisors represents a serious gap in the personnel de­velopment cycle which must be closed.Use of programed textsAmong the training methods which may be employed are the re ­cently developed self-instructional or programed texts. These texts are specifically designed for self­study. Among titles of programed instruction listed in the extensive American Management Association Bookshelf Catalog are the fol­lowing: Basic Skills in Communi­cation, Constructive Discipline on the Job, Effective Interviewing for the Supervisor, On-the-job Train­ing, and How to Plan and Organize Work. Perusal of the brochures of one industrial education organiza­tion (Industrial Education Insti­tute) discloses the existence of one- day seminars with pertinent titles such as the following: Understand ­ing & Motivating Employees, Im­proving Supervisory Skills, Increas­ing the Supervisor’s Skill as a Trainer, Short Internal Schedul­ing, etc. Higher level supervisors and managers (and supervisors in the Systems Design and Computer Programing areas) may benefit ad­ditionally from some seminars spe­cificially oriented toward Manag­ing Data Processing Operations (AMA), Computer Operations Management (C-E-I-R Inc.), Com­puter Operations Management and Control (Brandon Systems Insti­tute), and others. Computer manu­facturers’ computer management seminars are generally directed at top management levels.We cannot stress too stronglythat the books and programed in­struction and seminars (which may, of necessity, be used as primary ele­ments of a program responsive to Question 2) are only tools for use in the development of a sound training and development program which will include both formal training and on-the-job training administered by qualified super­visors. Among the contents of the formal program, considerable em­phasis should be placed upon per­tinent management relationships within the organization. This es­sential part of the training pro­gram is unique for each organiza­tion and therefore must be tailor- made either by the organization or management advisors acting on its behalf.Management’s obligationsManagement must be aware of the importance of developing its human assets and must be prepared to commit sufficient resources on a continuing basis to accomplish the job. Training responsibility should be specifically assigned, a budget should be adopted and staffing levels and work schedules should be reviewed to ensure avail­ability of personnel to attend the designated training activities. The constraints implied in Question 2 should be eliminated at the earli­est possible time.Frequently, staff responsibility for training is assigned to the per­sonnel department where it is pos­sible to coordinate training needs with the equally important poli­cies governing recruitment, com­pensation, promotion and related employee evaluation techniques which can identify, and provide suitable incentives for, those with the combination of technical apti­tude and personal balance to be­come competent supervisors.2 Management Services2Management Services: A Magazine of Planning, Systems, and Controls, Vol. 6 [1969], No. 5, Art. 1https://egrove.olemiss.edu/mgmtservices/vol6/iss5/1

Management Services Forum

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Management Services Forum

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