The Karpin Task Force reviewed private sector management, although many of the findings are transferable to the public sector.
The Task Force based its report on a substantial research program (one of the biggest in Australia). The program included local researchers from top organisations (eg AGSM, Boston Consulting Group, Coopers and Lybrand) and international researchers of high repute (eg Rand Corporation). There was also about ten thousand firms, organisations and individuals consulted over the three years of the project, both in Australia and overseas, including institutions, companies and managers recognised as being leading edge in management development (eg General Motors Saturn Corporation, Motorola, NEC, Samsung, Lufthansa, BP International, Harvard, MIT, INSEAD, and a host of experts and managers from the small business area).
In addition, a number of comprehensive surveys of Australia’s customers both national and international (particularly in Asia) were carried out to determine perceptions of the effectiveness of Australia’s managers compared with those of our major competitor countries, from the customer’s point of view. The review also considered how other countries similar to Australia in economic development terms are dealing strategically with management performance issues.
The major finding was that the best of Australia’s managers and enterprises are equivalent to the best in the world, but there are too few of them - there is a long tail of poor performers trailing out behind the front runners. The problem exists in both the large and small business sectors, although with international pressures and more staff resources, big business has been more active in addressing issues of management improvement than has small business.
In summary, the Report found that skills limitations amongst managers constitutes one more restraint on firm and industry productivity, and that efforts to address productivity of workers will not ‘fix’ workplace productivity unless they are accompanied by efforts to improve management performance. In short, management reform is placed squarely in the basket of workplace and microeconomic reform.
The Report found that in general, while Australian managers have acknowledged strengths, they also have distinct weaknesses, and that these tend to cluster in those areas which are most critical for the successful manager and business profile for the 21st century. These areas include leadership including teamwork and empowerment, people skills including management of a diverse workforce, strategic skills, a learning focus, and international orientation.
In short, Australian managers have strong functional skills (business efficiency and technical skills) but lack cross-functional, strategic and corporate skills. They have depth but lack breadth.
Underlying reasons for the problem were identified as the slow development of a competitive outlook produced by the history of protectionism in Australia, and an education culture (in the formal education system, in firms and among managers themselves) which gives limited attention to the personal and integrative skills that are critical to successful human resource management today and in the future.
The answer, according to the Task Force, is a comprehensive push in the area of management development and training at all levels and in all sectors, along with development of an enterprising culture.
In particular, mechanisms are needed to