Difficult Management Training: Will it Fly in the USA?

Building on the work of Berlew and Hall (1966),who found significant positive relationships between the difficulty of first jobs and later managerial success, this study of graduating seniors in business administration explores the attitudes of business graduates toward difficult training characterized by qualified trainee failures. Murkison (1986) reported positive relationships between training in which high attrition rates occured and later success in administrative positions, but no work has been found that determines the willingness of recent college graduates to undergo such training experiences. It appears that we need an answer to this question since there are now articles appearing in the popular (Black 1988) and business press (Phalon 1987) having to do with difficult managerial training. The ever‐present Japanese seem to have a head start here according to Waldman (1988).A successful effort to develop a reliable scale to measure predisposition toward difficult training is reported. Results of this study indicate that willingness levels are higher for males, persons with higher grades in college, and for those whose hometowns are very small or very large. Directions for future research are proposed.