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In this paper we are concerned with the question: what is it about management development programmes that determines what effect they have, in terms of the learning that people take away from them? This question, and our attempt to contribute to an answer to it, will be of interest to all those who are directly or indirectly concerned with designing such programmes (we use the term ‘management development programmes’ to denote any form of event intended to influence management performance through a learning process).

This paper is concerned with two questions: 1 What are the kinds of skills and other qualities in managers that contribute to managerial success and performance in various forms? 2 To what extent are these acquired by learning, and what are the sources of such learning? The aim is to propose and test a general framework or taxonomy describing what managers might need to learn, and to understand from where existing managers have acquired the skills and qualities they currently use. This further allows us to draw some conclusions about the part played by deliberate training and education activities, in comparison with ‘natural’ ones, in the development of managers. The paper considers and reports in turn on existing theories and research relevant to managerial qualities, a hypothetical model of such qualities, an empirical test of the models, and the results of a study of the sources involved in the acquisition of specific qualities contributing to successful management actions in a sample of managers.

For a number of years now, parties to management learning events (and we include learners as well as trainers!) have been involved in debates as to the “best” trainer styles—as defined by the type of relationships that can be established between trainer and learner. Our own ex‐perience has indicated that there is no single, best, “all‐purpose” trainer style, but that successful trainers are likely to be those:

We include this second contribution to show how complex some of the seemingly‐simple directives of the MSC can be when it comes to implementing them. The author shows how the MSC directives on Training Design are mutually incompatible. We present the article to show that some of the issues are at an advanced technical, rather than at the layman's, level.

In this two‐part article, we hope to communicate our enthusiasm for a simple proposition: that some areas of training activity can be better understood and more effectively carried out when consciously viewed from a marketing perspective.

Forms a part of a larger project aimed at developing a framework of managerial competence applicable to top teams in small – to medium‐sized enterprises in Northern Ireland. Reports on an investigation into the development of a process of “translation”, whereby cross‐company competence frameworks could be transformed into company‐specific frame‐works. A systematic, ten‐step translation process emerged, involving drawing out reactions to, and checking understanding of the generalizable frameworks, modifying framework items through additions, deletions, aggregation, disaggregation, and changes to the small print; identifying priorities; drawing out examples from practice; distinguishing actual from ideal; introducing a time dimension; challenging underlying reasoning and implications; and finally, checking the fit of the adapted frameworks. The developed translation process maintained the integrity of the generalizable frameworks while enabling full account to be taken of specific company differences. The process also served as a means of identifying individual team, and organization development issues, and laid the ground for the introduction of competence‐based management development initiatives.

Pricing and positioning strategies are of increasing strategic importance and are crucial to the long‐term competitiveness of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Following the introduction of the Single European Currency (referred to as the “Euro” throughout this paper), the paper suggests that there will be a major squeeze on price differentials between European Union (EU) member states, creating a danger that existing price‐based positioning strategies will be undermined. This “European pricing and positioning time bomb” will affect UK SMEs (as well as larger businesses) over their short‐term planning horizon, even if UK entry into the Euro is delayed indefinitely. Strategic responses to the Euro will be most effective if they are planned and implemented at the earliest possible time. This paper explores and analyses the findings from a small sample survey of export‐active, consumer goods manufacturing, Northampton SMEs, carried out in late 1997. The aim is to establish their existing pricing and positioning strategies for EU Europe, their preparedness at that time for the introduction of the Euro and the main forms which their pricing and positioning strategies for the Euro were then taking. The findings suggest that most of the SMEs surveyed were in the early stages of planning for the Euro, but that many had not yet fully grasped its strategic marketing significance. Three categories of current marketing postures are identified: price standardisation, price but not product differentiation, and price differentiation supported by product differentiation between EU markets. The paper concludes by evaluating the effectiveness of responses based on these three alternative categories to the new marketing environment in EU Europe that the Euro will create. A set of strategic recommendations is also made for SMEs’ pricing and positioning strategies in the Euro context.

Presents the research frame, methods and results of a study of top team competences in small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises sponsored by the Training and Employment Agency in Northern Ireland. Explores a “postulated” framework of competence using a modified version of repertory grid with 31 successful companies who have a working top team. The results confirmed the framework and give core competences at two linked levels: competence domains, areas of activity regarded as an important focus for performance excellence and competences, integrated sets of behaviour which can be directed towards successful goals achievement within competence domains. Validation of the results is given by the outcomes of follow‐up interviews and the comparison with other work. Holds that the results emphasize a radical insight into the notion of managerial competence in the smaller company.

Work on managerial competence has largely been characterized by being narrowly focused, fragmented and confusing in its terminology. Further, it has often failed to deal with issues of organizational specificity and the widely different contexts for managerial performance. Additionally, the work has mainly been located in and applied to lower level managers in the larger, often multinational organizations. Finally, the focus of much competence work has been on individual managers and has often taken little account of teamworking. Describes a contextually embedded framework of managerial competence which is targeted on top teams in small to medium‐sized enterprises. The framework identifies and distinguishes the key foci for clearly defining managerial competence, and beyond that, serves to locate existing competency frames in a single and coherent whole. The framework also explicitly recognizes organizational context as an important influence on ‐ indeed determinant of ‐ managerial competence in situ. Uses the concept of a lens of organizational competence to bridge environmental and organizational cultural variables with top team concerns and capabilities.

This monograph derives from a two‐part project undertaken for the Manpower Services Commission in 1984 and 1985. The first part of the project involved surveying the literature in order to establish the extent to which the subject of Learning to Learn had been covered and how much practical guidance was available to anyone wishing to help managers.