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This article is about the assessment of the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degrees that were developed in the UK in the 1990s. The article is based on a content analysis of the 16 DBA programmes in the UK at the end of 1999. It evaluates the assessment methods found against: the assessment of students’ achievement on traditional Doctor of Philosophy degrees (PhDs); the guidelines on the assessment of DBA candidates produced by the Association of British Business Schools; and the espoused intended learning outcomes of the DBA programmes themselves. The main conclusion is that there is a tension in the assessment methods employed by DBAs through their relationship with the traditional PhD. The tension is captured in the question: should programme developers follow the assessment methods of the “gold standard” PhD or should they use assessment methods that assess the learning outcomes of the DBA that distinguish it from the traditional PhD?

This article is about the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degrees that were developed in the UK during the 1990s. It looks at the range of programme structures, content and learning support used. The article is based on a content analysis of the 16 DBA programmes in the UK at the end of 1999. The main conclusion is that there is a tension in the form and function of DBAs through their relationship with the traditional PhD. The tension is captured in the question: To what extent do programme developers follow the design of the ’‘gold standard” PhD and to what extent do they design a programme aimed at meeting the learning outcomes of the DBA that distinguish it from a PhD?

The investigation reported here aims to: adapt existing recruitment theory to add to tools available to small business recruiters for job matching; provide job‐specific scoring methods to help employers in recruitment processes; and enhance the consideration of reasonable adjustment issues in the possible employment of disabled individuals.

A total of 32 interviews were conducted on‐site with managers to devise and test templates combining person specifications with job characteristics, based on managers' judgements of what is important. The methods devised and used are an original adaptation of repertory grid principles. Where there were disabled employees, indications of the employees' success and difficulty were elicited.

A simplified derivative of repertory grid method to give a combined abilities/tasks matrix was found usable and clarifying by respondents.

The investigation was confined to hotel and leisure small to medium‐sized enterprises in Sussex, UK. As they stand, the methods could be used in business sectors beyond the sector to which the research reported in this paper has been confined, but further work is needed on resource consequences, and on the implications for state benefits and related support in the case of disabled applicants.

Results of the analysis could be used almost immediately by a company: for future applicants, the company could make direct use of the completed matrix by scoring the applicant on the matrix variables, superimposing the applicant matrix on the requirements matrix, and calculating the percentage of desirable scores met.

The paper alerts small business employers to new dictates of the Disability Discrimination Act (2005) as it applies to learning disabilities. Then the “Learning to Work” project featured in the paper offers small business employers a set of approaches and methods for the identification of a learning‐disabled young adult candidate's training needs.

Interviews were carried out with 12 of the 52 companies in which the Breakaway‐supported employment service, operating from the Southdown Housing Association, has so far secured employment for people with learning disabilities.

Comments from employers in the survey represented predominantly very favourable experiences with the learning‐disabled individuals, mixed with some reservations about their need for additional training time, and their relative inflexibility in response to change of work routines.

The investigation was confined to SMEs in Sussex. As they stand, the methods could be used in different business sectors, but further research is planned on elicitation of candidates' personal constructs, resource modelling, and continuous training cycles.

Recognised supported employment models were used but significantly adapted. Some methods used in the paper were new.

The 1990s have seen the emergence and development of professional doctorates in the UK and, in particular, the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA). This article identifies the rationales offered for DBA programmes and their intended learning outcomes. Research findings are based on programme documentation produced by the 16 universities offering the DBAs in 1999. Analysis of these documents shows that these programmes have been designed to provide research‐based career development for experienced and senior professionals in management positions. Whereas the PhD is aimed at developing professional researchers, the DBA aims to develop researching professionals. Rather than viewing research as an end itself, the new DBAs have placed research at the service of the development of professional practice and the development of professional practitioners. The learning outcomes of the DBA programmes identified in this paper are appreciably broader than the intended learning outcomes of the traditional PhD in business/management.