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This article examines the relationship between career system and ability developmentof candidates for next generation business managers. Two research questionsare set, and they are as follows; 1) Are there abilities unique to business managersthose are irrelevant to any specific function and those are not expected byIntellectual Skills Theory? If they are, then their contents and development processshould be identified. 2) Do the candidates pursue their specialists' careers with wideranging careers or develop their generalists' one through multi-functional jobs experiencesamong which there is no complementarity, or both of the two exist? An interviewresearch on the relationship between the learning contents through the 22candidates' careers in a large electronic component company and opportunities tolearn is conducted for the purpose of finding the answers to the two research questions.The results are as follows; The 129 learning contents are found and almost twothirds of the contents are abilities irrelevant to a specific function such as managerialone in spite of their wide range careers within one or two functions. Identified managerialabilities are for coordinating with other departments, understanding situationsof entirety of their firm, judging based on their firm's strength and weakness, andbearing trust from other employees and networks within their firm. The process ofmastering management abilities identified in this research is analogical learning basedon comparison that is triggered by difference recognition to their work triggered bya personnel move. And this process is not expected by Intellectual Skills Theory.Then the concurrent learning hypothesis is proposed that recognition of differencetriggers by a personnel move encourages two types of learning. One of those iscause-effect learning that develops uncertainty processing ability unique to a specificjob which is supposed by Intellectual Skills Theory, and the other is analogical learningbased on comparison between the two jobs that a personnel move brings in thatis not relevant to any specific function. |
