Training across boundaries: promoting international small enterprise development

Abstract

The growing worldwide emphasis on decentralized private sector provision of infrastructure projects and urban services in developing countries has been reflected in a need to deliver training and other assistance to large numbers of nascent small enterprises. However, the target group is hard to identify and harder still to reach, being dispersed over a variety of business activities in various sub‐sectors, and based in a range of countries with their own cultures and traditions. Thus the trainer is faced with a dilemma. Some aspects of small enterprise development are common and widely replicable, which means that expenditure on developing high quality material and systems could be spread over numerous technical co‐operation projects, but others are both sector and culture specific. Describes experience which points to the advantages of internationally applicable programmes and systems which can be supplemented with locally‐based material to meet the special needs of particular sectors and national cultures. If the people cannot adapt themselves to the methods, then the methods must be adapted to the people. This is the whole crux of the matter. (Schumacher, 1974).

Citation

Miles, D. (1995), "Training across boundaries: promoting international small enterprise development", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 39-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb008395