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In recent years the use of formal, centralised training courses to promote the development of managers has been criticised by people such as Alistair Mant, Reginald Revans and Hawdon Hague. Mant calls for a drastic reappraisal of management education and training. He argues that, unless a coherent theory of management action and learning is developed, little real progress can be made. Revans advocates project‐based or action learning as an alternative to training courses, whilst Hague sees the individual coaching of managers as another possible solution to the problem of management training.

Successfully measuring effectiveness in management training and development can be a difficult task. Design of a valid measurement programme should include evaluation in key areas; including emotional reaction and knowledge gain measured after training interventions. Behavioural change and organisational impact measurements should be used on a longer time horizon to evaluate the progress and currency of the management development programme. Finally, research shows that maintaining a balance of the above measurements is the final key to success in measuring the effectiveness of management training and development.

A recent survey of major American firms confirms that the trend to increased management training is gaining momentum. Courses relating to strategic planning and implementation, particularly with regard to productivity and competitiveness, are increasing, and more courses are customised to company needs. Monitoring and measuring results are also more important. Training executives will have a higher profile in the corporate structure.

This paper aims to explore why organizations often focus little attention and resources on management training and provides a useful checklist of ways to close the managerial skills gap through training.

Seasoned managers (278) in rapidly changing organizations were surveyed on their experiences with management training.

A content analysis revealed the most frequently cited causes of why organizations fail to properly train their managers.

Generalization of these findings to non‐rapidly changing organizations may be limited.

Results indicate that organizations fail to properly train managers for a host of reasons. Many of failures to train are caused by misconceptions about training needs, the ability of managers to handle their own training or the value of training to the organization compared with other efforts. Lack of accountability and poor implementation are other key reasons cited for training failures.

The findings provide a useful list of the causes for ineffective training and the discussion focuses on ways to close the managerial skills gap.

Identifies major causes of the lack of managment training in India in order to evolve a viable strategy of management training. Financial constraint emerged as the single most critical factor responsible for the lack of management training in India. Discusses environmental conditions conducive to future training along with non‐trainers′ perceptions of the importance and benefits of skills. Finally, discusses the role Government can play in bringing non‐training organizations into the training fold.

Through better participant selection, organisations can make better use of their management training budget. Companies often waste money by training the wrong type of person or by not preparing them properly prior to training. A management development plan should be used to identify suitable individuals for training and the type of training needed. The performance problems of existing managers should be diagnosed to distinguish between ability and motivation problems. There should be increasing managerial accountability for proper participant selection. The participant's manager should support his participant by following up his efforts to implement the training. Participant accountability should be implemented as recognition of their having gained something from the management training programme. As a result of these strategies, programmes will be more effective from the trainer's and organisation's perspective. Participants will be more motivated and committed to developing themselves as managers.

A survey of 21 UK NGOs identified a number of interesting issues associated with management training activities within them. These issues include a dissatisfaction with management training, the mis‐match between stated organizational training needs and what training was in fact engaged in, the apparent lack both of a systematic approach to management training, or of learning from approaches to training in other sectors, and the role of evaluation. These findings lead to the observation that perhaps the purpose of management training within NGOs needs to be assessed within the framework of the donating public’s image of the sector.

This paper explores the benefits of effective management training and consequences of ineffective training programs.

Seasoned managers (278) working in rapidly changing organizations were surveyed on issues related to management training.

Content analyses revealed a number of specific benefits associated with management training. Conversely, managers identified a series of problems caused by ineffective management training.

Generalization of these findings to non‐rapidly changing organizations is unclear.

Findings suggest that the effectiveness of management training has a significant impact on managerial and organizational performance.

This paper voices the concerns and observations about managerial training from seasoned managers in rapidly changing organizations.

The UK foundry industry employs more people in management and supervision than any other skilled occupation. Almost one in three of these managers will have reached retirement age within the next ten years. If the industry hopes to recruit its future management from amongst its technologists and technicians there are not enough young people entering these occupations to provide an adequate supply of managers to replace those retiring. Very few managers and supervisors receive any training prior to their appointment into management. The development of new technology, the introduction of more and more legislation, the need to survive in a depressed and increasingly competitive market, the demand from customers for higher quality castings, the need to continue investment and modernisation at a time of high interest rates are just some of the factors which make the job of managing increasingly complex and time consuming.

A review of relevant literature shows that the effectiveness of management training in Arab countries is generally estimated to be low. It is argued that improving this effectiveness is impeded by negative attitudes towards training among Arab managers. While some of these attitudes are found to have cultural or bureaucratic origins, low training effectiveness may itself generate and sustain such attitudes. Some of the factors explaining this low effectiveness are: lack of rigorous need assessment, deficiencies in programme design and evaluation, excessive reliance on conventional techniques, inadequate training materials and the shortage of qualified trainers. Measures to rectify this situation are also recommended.