Management may be the last major profession where practitioners acquire their
skills, standards, and values principally through on-the-job training. The majority of
current managers in industry, government, education, and public services learned to do
managerial work by whatever means their particular organization provided. Often this
involved mentoring, sometimes a training course in management or supervision, but more
often the new manager was left to figure it out on his or her own. Sometimes this
worked well, if an organization was well run and the novice was able to imitate sound
practice. It worked even better if an organization was systematic about transmitting
knowledge about managerial practices and behavior (e.g., MacDonalds or Motorola).
Too often the new manager was left uninitiated and uninstructed in an organization where
managerial practice was not particularly good. Naturally many individuals in such
circumstances will learn bad habits.