Building Functional Expertise Plan
There are many ways to build functional expertise within an organization. Select one of the key roles in building functional expertise, and prepare a two-year plan to build functional expertise of a newly hired manager.
Building Functional Expertise Plan Example
Functional expertise is defined as the skill, which is acquired through study, experience, and deliberate practice. This means that an individual does not necessarily need to have skills of the functional expert since they can obtain them through development. When properly developed, functional expertise has a massive contribution to the success of the organization and particularly when aligned with organizational strategy (Silzer & Dowell, 2009).
A newly hired manager will need functional skills that will help them to execute the position responsibilities effectively. Functional expertise is more effective if it is based on cross-function tasks (Smallwood & Ulrich, 2014). Therefore, the functional expertise plan for the newly hired manager should be based on various functional skills. A manager usually executes various tasks, thus a need to equip them with cross-functional expertise (Benson-Armer, Otto, & Webster, 2015). A function skills development plan, as illustrated below, will be needed to enable them to develop functional expertise through practice or on the job training.
| Management area/skills | Mechanism | Desired Outcomes |
| Individual development plan | Discussing personal interests and career goals with the manager. | Equip the manager with functional expertise skills in line with interests and career aspirations. |
| Communication | Provide the manager with a study and practice environment that is characterized by the expression of knowledge and ideas and exchange and conveyance of information. | Develop effective listening, speaking, negotiation, writing, discussion, and consultation skills. |
| Organization Management | Offer the manager with on-job practice to guide and direct employees in completing assignments and achieving the set goals. | Develop leadership skills to solve problems, resolve conflicts, supervise, make decisions, delegate, motivate, assume responsibility, give directions, strategize, set priorities, apply the policy, interpret policy, and organize. |
| Information Management | Put the manager on the on-job training that requires arranging and retrieving ideas, knowledge, and data. | Use numerical skills to solve problems
Record, organize, and manage information. Process data to meaningful information that can be used to make decisions. |
| Human Services | Providing an enabling environment for the manager to practice the social, mental, and physical needs of the people. | Apply interpersonal skills
Become sensitive to other people needs Apply knowledge of group dynamics. |
References
Benson-Armer, R., Otto, S.-S., & Webster, G. (2015, January 1). Building capabilities for performance. Retrieved from McKinsey Quarterly: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/building-capabilities-for-performance
Silzer, R., & Dowell, B. E. (2009). Strategy-Driven Talent Management: A Leadership Imperative. Pfeiffer.
Smallwood, N., & Ulrich, D. (2014). Capitalizing on Capabilities. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2004/06/capitalizing-on-capabilities