Management Education and Small Business Development: An Exploratory Study of Small Firms in the U.K

MANAGEMENT EDUCATION AND SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF SMALL FIRMS IN THE U.K.(*) There has been considerable international interest in recent years in "the role of management training and development in the small firm and on the wider, but related, issue of education and training for entrepreneurship" (Gibb 1983). In Britain, this interest has stemmed, not solely from recognition of the importance of small firms to economic regeneration, as Gibb argues, but from a recognition of "the contribution that training and education might make to productivity and efficiency" (Gibb 1983). More recently, it has stemmed from a wider concern that, when compared with other leading industrial nations, management training in Britain is poorly developed (Institute of Manpower Studies 1984, Handy 1987). In the context of small business, this lack of emphasis on management training in the U.K. is manifest most clearly, perhaps, in a 1983 survey (Watkins 1983) of 231 owner-managers which reveals that: ...the firms surveyed were generally inward looking and had a rather limited time horizon. The owner-managers (and many other managers) were too close to the day-to-day problems of running an independent business to look positively outward into the environment to secure a more prosperous future. Given this, coupled with the narrow educational and experiential base on which most of the firms had been built, and the short-term, inward looking, information-oriented training subsequently undertaken [italics by Dr. Kirby], the most pressing development needs are arguably the cultivation of a better general environmental sensitivity, the skills to then construct a sound and coherent policy for the firm and the ability to communicate this fully within the organisation. Since then, much has been done to rectify the situation but, as Curran and Stanworth (1989) have recognized, the development has been largely "ad hoc" and under-resourced. Even so, a wide range of training support measures has been introduced in recent years to aid small firm growth and development, and to equip small firm owner-managers with the knowledge and skills necessary to manage their businesses more strategically. While training provision has not been confined to the public sector, the British Government has been the main instrument for change in this context, primarily through the Department of Education and Science's PICKUP Initiative (Professional, Industrial and Commercial Knowledge Updating Program) and the Employment Department's Training Agency (formerly the Manpower Services Commission). Intended to promote the concept of "Continuing Education," PICKUP serves to foster links between higher education and the world of work. Although there is no specific policy within PICKUP relating to small firms, several of the institutional initiatives have focused on identifying and matching the local training needs of small and medium enterprises, and the Department of Education and Science is currently sponsoring a national research investigation into the role of training in small firm growth and development. In contrast, the Training Agency has developed, in recent years, a broad (and, often, short-lived) portfolio of programs both to stimulate small firm formation (e.g., Business Enterprise Program) and small firm development (Private Enterprise Program, Firmstart, Growth Program, etc.) in addition to its more generic product, Business Growth Training. Both the provision and adoption of small business training within the U.K. is variable but, overall, it would seem that the adoption of training by small firms has been slower than might have been anticipated and that the effectiveness of training as a means of arresting decline and stimulating growth and development is, as a consequence, open to question. …