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As a key component of a World Bank‐financed Administrative Reform Programme, the Government of Jamaica began a phased implementation of performance Budgeting in 1985–86. Under the leadership of the Finance Ministry's Budget Division. Just under 70 per cent of the Government's 50 appropriation units will have applied performance budgeting during the 1988/89 financial year. The remaining units are scheduled for conversion in 1989–90. Expressing the Government's determination to establish productivity‐oriented managerial environments throughout its administrative service, 1,000 front line supervisors have been assigned the basic responsibility for the formulation and execution of performance budgets. These “cost centre managers”, most of whom had no responsibility for budgeting in the traditional system, are going through a management skills development programme, embracing classroom instruction, practice and on‐the‐job technical assistance. Significant institutional changes are also involved including: (1) the reorientation of the Budget Division, (2) the development of Ministry budget functions, (3) the reorganisation of accounting practices to provide required support for performance budgeting, (4) the development of management services support for cost centre managers and, (5) the establishment of productivity‐oriented training programmes.

The traditional public library met the needs of its patrons by circulating books, holding story hours, and providing readers' advisory and reference services. Today, public libraries circulate art work and garden tools, provide disco dancing and college courses, and (in New York State) help their users find jobs through library‐based Job Information Centers.

Few studies address the gender of small business owners (SBO) and those that do report inconsistent results. These inconsistencies are related to a controversy regarding gender differences in management: Are men and women managers similar or different and why? Four theories address this question: evolutionary, psychoanalytic, social role, and social construction. The purpose of the paper is to test the contradictory predictions derived from these four theories in the case of men and women SBO in Israel.

A sample of 101 Israeli SBO responded to a specially designed questionnaire.

All four theories received some support. The findings that men SBO described themselves as more motivated by status and were more concerned with competition support evolutionary theory. The findings that the most SBO were first born and had fathers who were business owners support psychoanalytic theory. The findings that more women SBO did not serve in the army whereas more men were commanders support social role theory. However, the most overwhelming support was for social construction theory. In every aspect studied, gender similarities were far greater than the differences: in demographic characteristics, characteristics of work and of business, and motivation for starting it.

Future studies will need to replicate these findings with larger samples, other types of businesses, and different cultures.

For the training and support of women and men SBO.

The paper is theory‐driven focuses on a widely debated topic (gender differences in management) in the context of a particular group (SBO) and a particular culture (Israel).