Purpose: To advance understanding about the way endogenous knowledge on mangrove swamp rice (MSR) farming is transmitted, reinvented and negotiated between generations and highlight the implications this has for R4D. Design/Methodology/Approach: Long-term qualitative research using an ethnographic approach, technography and biographies of farmers.…

The purpose of this study is to describe how the learning process is based on the value of "Gotong royong" which occurs in the MSMEs community in order to face the challenges of high competition in the current era of globalization. Gotong royong is a principle of reciprocity. It means that it does not aim to get money or other materials…

Recent research has established that small firms tend to develop and acquire the skills they need in different ways to those employed by larger organisations. More specifically, due to certain characteristics inherent to their small size, small firms generally display greater informality in their learning processes. As such, it is now broadly…

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how participants learn in small business advisory programmes and to explore the impact of these learning programmes on the development of reflective learning dispositions in participants. The research involves two case studies of small business advisory programmes in Queensland, a state of Australia. One…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how owner-managers of small businesses can learn in peer networks to improve their management skills. It aims to offer a new way of understanding owner-managers' learning as part of a social process, by highlighting the complex, interactive relationship that exists between the owner-manager, his or…

This paper explores the role that action learning might play in micro and small enterprise development. It is divided into two parts. The first part focuses upon the distinctive characteristics of smallness and ownership and their implication for management development processes in the owner managed firm. In particular the impact of personal…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to argue that action learning (AL) may provide a means of successfully developing small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach: The literature around SME learning suggests a number of processes are important for SME learning which similarity, it is argued, are encompassed in AL. AL may…

A major obstacle to the diffusion of management development learning technologies from Higher Education Institutions to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is a lack of understanding about how SME learners learn. This article examines the nature of learning in SMEs and considers the incidence of informal support for informal learning.…

Australian vocational education policy emphasizes training over learning. Eight case studies of small businesses reveal that they make limited use of structured training; learning varied by educational level of staff and characteristics of the business. A more holistic view of how knowledge is acquired in business is called for. (SK)

Discussion of training needs of small businesses highlights a training package based on an expert system that was developed in England. Learning styles are discussed, computer-based training (CBT) packages are described, the position audit process is explained, and the value of prototyping is discussed. (LRW)

An exploratory investigation into training and learning in small businesses in Australia was conducted to identify issues surrounding training and learning and issues relating to the research methodology. Data were collected from a review of the literature, case studies of six small enterprises, and a review of two case studies conducted…

Surveys of 233 employees and 217 supervisors from 95 small Dutch companies identified total number of jobs held, average time in each, and the learning value of job functions. It appeared that it was not experience as such that predicted the development of expertise, but the allocation of different job assignments. (Contains 42 references.) (SK)

Understanding how learning for small businesses should best proceed constitutes a worthwhile, yet challenging, pedagogic project. In order to maintain their viability, small businesses need to be able to respond to new practices and tasks. Yet small businesses seem neither attracted to nor to value the kinds of taught courses that are the standard…

Purpose: The environment provided by an organisation to facilitate learning and create knowledge has been defined as the shared organisational context. The value to an organisation of knowledge created by the shared organisational context is called intellectual capital, of which one key component is relational capital. The purpose of this paper is…

This document contains four symposium papers on adult learning in the workplace. "The Relationship between Workplace Learning and Employee Satisfaction in Small Businesses" (Robert W. Rowden, Shamsuddin Ahmad) reports the results of a study of the nature and extent of HRD, level of job satisfaction among workers, and correlation between…