South Africa is facing a serious shortage in management skills, said Professor Eon Smit, director of the University of Stellenbosch’s Business School, at an address to business leaders at the Hull University Business School in the United Kingdom.
Smit, who is an advisory board member of Hull University Business School, said: ”Both the public and private sphere in South Africa suffer under management shortages. In some public departments the situation is serious, while in the private sector some cracks are appearing in the wall, which, without high-level intervention, may exponentially exacerbate.”
Smit said good laws were passed in South Africa, but their execution in the public and semi-public ÂÂservice was threatened by many new-generation managers finding it hard to cope.
He said these managers are operating in a context of crime and corruption, the proposed disbanding of the Scorpions, an education system in disarray, a military that threatens to take its grievances to the street and an electricity provider that is unable to deliver because of bad ÂÂplanning.
He said in corporate South Africa the picture is less bleak. Companies still delivered goods and services, they created wealth and contributed to a strongly growing GDP.
”This has been achieved despite a significant outflow of managers, artisans and professional people from the country — Finweek reports a shortage of 68 000 engineers and artisans — which has widened the management span of those remaining and has led to a decrease in average age and experience, generating a secondary demand for training and coaching.
”This trend is supported by the newly created management needs of enterprises that arise from black economic empowerment,” said Smit.
He warned that some cracks are appearing owing to the expectations held of and the pressure exerted on managers — many newly appointed. The signs of the cracks are evident in the newspaper reports on mismanagement, fraud, corruption and poor customer service.
”The shortage of managerial skills not only shackles the capabilities of large firms, but also inhibits the efficiency of micro, small and medium sized enterprises, which many see as the growth engine of the future, but where many owners and managers fall short of any post-secondary education.”
Smit proposes the following short-term measures:
• The general recognition that management is a profession and that, although it is not regulated by a code of conduct or a professional body, it does require well-defined theoretical and practical competencies at different managerial levels.
• The instilling of the principle that a management position serves the general good and is not for the explicit and private welfare of the incumbent.
• The establishment of a focused private-public funding drive to alleviate the immediate short-term effects of the shortage of managers by training programmes delivered by those with a proven capacity.