Management Development and Small Business Education : the Implications of Diversity

This article suggests that small business education in Britain is currently underdeveloped in relation to other areas of management education, par ticularly management development. Whilst such underdevelopment un doubtedly reflects the relative novelty of the UK 'small business boom', it is also, in part, a product of the oversimplified stereotype of the small business manager held by many trainers and educators. Research findings are presented to illustrate the real diversity of small firm managerial styles and, on the basis of this data, the implications and possibilities for new forms of small business management development are explored.