TABLE OF CONTENTS In Chapter 8, we looked briefly at the organizational skills needed by owner-managers, the need to be able to organize others, to organize their own time and prioritize their work, and to be able to delegate work to others. We also mentioned the broad range of business skills that owner-managers need, especially in the early stages of the business. However, when it comes to self-development, owner-managers are often their own worst enemies, frequently putting the short-term needs and pressures of work ahead of the need to enhance their own management capabilities and competence. There is also a core of owner-managers who are blind to their own shortcomings and do not even recognize that there is a need for self-development for themselves or their staff. Unit A3 of the Revised Business Development Standards requires owner-managers to review and evaluate their own personal skills, and particularly those that will be needed to manage an expanding business.
In the early stages of a business when money is tight, owner-managers will pay for staff to attend short (and preferably inexpensive) courses to acquire essential skills, but staff development in general tends to be kept to the affordable minimum. This is because it is regarded as being either not absolutely essential or a necessary evil which just adds to overhead costs and takes up valuable working time.
Much research has been carried out into the barriers that affect the uptake of training in small firms, and the findings...
