SME management and leadership development: market reorientation

Over the last decade, research has been reported that appears to underline a mismatch between what is supplied by public sector support agencies in the form of small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) management and leadership development programmes and market needs and expectations. Thus, this paper analyses the underlying issues and progresses understanding through the use of a case study of a significant public sector support agency, along with a focus on one particular industry sector - that of tourism. Findings confirm views that historically there has been a degree of market failure, however, currently there is evidence of sound attempts to reorient from a supply-driven to a market-driven model of management development provision. Still to be fully addressed is the development of a cohesive framework that co-ordinates and facilitates management and leadership development as a lifelong learning. Thus, one of the contributions of this paper is the formulation of such a framework that could provide a reorienting model for SMEs.