Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources

T hrough the good offices of John P. Klus, University of Wisconsin, Conference Chairman of the First World Con ference on Continuing Engineering Education, held in Mexico City earlier this year, we are privileged to present this paper which was delivered to that Conference by a distinguished academic and senior business executive. While necessarily set in a United States context, the reader will soon recognise that its meanings are universal and the penetrating analyses and recommended courses of action are of great practical significance to all Australians con cerned with the vital field of continuing education, or with advanced education generally.

T his paper focuses on one dimension of the managerial role-the manager's ability to come to grips with change. The widespread adoption of open systems thinking requires the recognition of the sensitivity of the organisation to external forces beyond its direct control.

The theme of the paper is to explore the case for recognition of change aspects in management training and develop ment programs and to give explicit recognition to the needs of managers to be prepared to cope with the rapid build-up of change pressures. Thus account is taken of knowledge, skills and attitudes involved in coping with change, at the personal level.

Understanding human behaviour is our everyday job. But it continues to puzzle and confound us. Possibly because we are only human ourselves, or possibly because we lose touch with our sense of identity and our ability to under stand ourselves. It is presumptuous to seek to explain fully and rationalize the diverse changing attitudes of Western society to work and life styles. Given the limits of time and knowledge, I shall address a selected number of areas in an effort to shed a bit of light on what seems to be going on around us.

T HE Public Service of Victoria recruits about 500 Clerical Assistants each year, and in mid-1978 it introduced new selection procedures for these positions. These use a behaviourally-oriented test of specific job-related skills (developed within the Service) and an interview to develop a skills and preferences profile for each suitable applicant. The old selection procedure used only an interview to assess applicants 'skills — comparison of the results of the old and the new procedures shows that the interviews failed to select those with significantly greater job-related skills than those it rejected.

T his article outlines development of an innovative appraisal system reflecting recent trends and research findings. It should be of special value to practitioners developing or reviewing their own schemes .