MANAGEMENT SUPPORT PROGRAMME

Aim: To build capacity amongst District Managers, Hospital CEOs, and District and Hospital Human Resources managers.

Project objectives are to enable these managers to:

1. Take a different and wider approach to day-to-day and strategic problem solving

2. Build confidence in dealing with difficult issues
3. Develop good listening and presentation skills
4. Increase their knowledge of human resource management and systems
5. Better understand the complexities of District and Hospital management
6. Improve relationships with management and medical colleagues
7. Improve their understanding of and develop skills of team work
8. Better understand and improve the management of change .
9. Better understand and develop leadership behaviours

The programme is limited to managers employed in Area 3 of KZN, in the Umkhanyakude, Uthungulu and Zululand districts. Forty-five managers are currently participating in the programme.

The programme centers around a technique called action learning, which is a continuous programme of learning and reflection that happens in "sets" of colleagues (typically 5 in a set). The theory behind the technique of action learning was originally developed by Prof Reg Revans during the 1950s and 60s in the UK. His theory and work was advanced in the USA by Pfeiffer and Jones (1977) who enabled managers engaged in management and personnel development to learn in ways which directly involved them, rather than through the traditional method of teaching or "up front" training.

There are currently 9 sets in operation – 3 in each district. The sets work on real issues, with the intention of solving previously "unsolvable" issues that are all associated with the recruitment and retention of professional staff in rural hospitals. The voluntary participants in the sets learn with and from each other and take forward an important issue with the support of the other members in the set. It is a reflective and collaborative process which recognises the social context of the set members, and also helps members of the sets to overcome the tendency to be passive in dealing with very complex work related issues. It aims to benefit both the individual and the organisation.

Sets meet at regular intervals in venues chosen by them, and which are conducive to uninterrupted discussions. All sets are facilitated by skilled and experienced facilitators, who fully understand the action learning techniques.