التطوير الذاتي منهجا لتدريب القيادات الأمنية في العالم العربي

Abstract EN

The aim of this paper is to introduce the concept of self-Develop-ment as an approach for training security leaderships in the Arab World.

Self-Development means that individuals take the primary responsibility for choosing when and how to learn.

This implies the freedom of the individual to choose not to develop particular skills, knowledge or career directions at the interest of others.

Such freedom, of course, carries with it the responsibility for the consequences of such choices.

Self-Development approach emerged as an idea in training in 1980s and continued in 1990s as a response to the limitations of the earlier idea of "systematic training" which focuses on training and the training process rather than the learner and the learning process as self-development approach does.

Thus, in the 1990s there can be few training and development programs that do not include at least a selfdevelopment element in their design and delivery.

The adaptation of self-development in the Arab World has a substantial list of specific benefits for security agencies.

Among these benefits are: (i) an increase in the capacity of individuals to learn; (ii) a reduction in the frustration of being exposed to inefficient learning processes; (iii) an increase in motivation to learn; (iv) development of learning opportunities well beyond formally created situations; (v) a multiplier effect for managers in their developmental relationship with their subordinates; (vi) the better identification of the role of learning in an effective managerial behavior, for example in problem-solving or teamwork; (vii) the development of more effective behavior in relation to the crucial subject of change.

In order to apply the self-development approach in any organization, including security agencies, there are three dimensions that should be focused on.

These dimensions are: individual, organization and developer.

In every dimension we have stressed certain steps that should be followed if we want to guarantee successful application of the self-development approach in our security agencies.

Finally, we would like to indicate here that the application of the self-development approach in our organizations has its own problems.

Among these problem are: first, the idea of self-development had a wide range of meanings-from correspondence courses to T.groups, from self-improvement to self-actualization.

Secondly, we do not always know what some of our own learning needs are and that sometimes these can only be spotted by other people.

Last, we expect to face a strong resistance during the application of this approach, specially from those who believe in the traditional way of training.

However, the existence of such problems should not hinder us from trying to apply it to our security agencies, because we believe it represents an additional trend to the training strategy either for individuals or for their organizations.