Around two fifths of organizations in the public and private sectors say that their line managers are not very effective in supporting learning and development according to a new survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. This contrast with the 74% of respondents who said that their line managers have taken on greater responsibility for learning and development activities during the past two years, and overwhelming agreement that line managers are critical to supporting learning and development.A lack of training for line managers, competing pressures and a need to align learning and development objectives with the wider organisationalstrategy are all reasons cited for this gap between theory and practice.

In the survey more than 90% of respondents said they believe that line managers are important or very important in supporting learning and development in their organizations, but only 12% feel that line managers take learning and development very seriously. Half of UK organisations only train a minority of line managers to support learning and development.

The survey also sought views on learning. On the job training and formal training courses are once again identified as the most effective form of learning. 73% of organisations expect their use of coaching by line managers to increase in the next few years. Efforts to develop a learning and development culture have been the biggest change in the past year in a fifth of organizations.

The survey is available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/surveys