Management Training in Third World Countries

The third world countries have had simultaneous focus of growth and development in industrial and social sector. In the third world countries both men and women are confronted with juxtaposition of the old and the new, the modern and the traditional and simultaneous new roles and systems. As such both get pulled and pushed between culturally determined responses of relationship and social structures and the new structures of tasks of formal organizations and functional relationships. This paper explores the issue of training with specific focus on women of Africa. Training programmes have focussed on traditional modes of training, viz. knowledge, attitudes and skills. However, there is need in training programmes to generate dynamicity, new action responses and new interfaces with people structure and the environment. It is also important that women look beyond the horizon for new role definitions of their social roles and systems and their formal managerial roles in organizations. New methodologies, management tools and techniques need to be evolved so that women learn to empower themselves to take active role in policies, influence strategies and be part of structure. This is possible by arriving at relevant definitions of organizations, structures, systems and the legitimacy of their roles in it.