Back in 1958, Box Office Magazine ran an article on, Kansas City based, Commonwealth Theatres’ (bought by United Artists in 1991) “Management College”. The twenty week program was designed to train management candidates from the ground up; providing industry newcomers with a crash course in everything needed to operate a movie theatre and filling in the gaps/refreshing the skill-sets of those who had been promoted from within. Over the course of their studies, the “students” spent time at theatres of varying sizes/business levels and worked with “resident instructors” in all positions; from janitorial/maintenance, to floor staff, to projection, and eventually management. In addition to hands on work, there was also a great deal of study and classroom time interspersed throughout Commonwealth’s program. According to the article, the end result was a greater retention rate and higher quality managers who excelled at their positions.
These formal education programs remained somewhat standard with larger chains up until the past decade or two. Back when I first became a manager in the mid 1990’s, the company I worked for not only had new managers go through a similar schedule (theirs lasted six months), they also ran a continuing education program, which involved quarterly field classes for all managers and an intensive two week residence academy for those who showed general management potential. However, with ever shrinking payroll budgets, most chains eventually phased out “management colleges”, “academies”, and long-term formal instruction. Today’s education programs tend to focus on brief, computer based, virtual “modules” and “learn as you go” on the job training. From my observation, the end result of this shift has been a far lower retention rate and managers with increasingly limited skill-sets.
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