Decision making regarding employee access to training and development in medium-sized enterprises: A proposed study employing the Critical Incident Technique

Authors

Alan J. Coetzer, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Janice L. Redmond, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Document Type

Journal Article

Keywords

Critical incident technique, Small business Management, Employees Training of, Entrepreneurship Decision making

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Management / Small and Medium Enterprise Research Centre

RAS ID

12811

Comments

Coetzer, A. J., & Redmond, J. L. (2011). Decision making regarding employee access to training and development in medium-sized enterprises: A proposed study employing the Critical Incident Technique. Small enterprise research: the journal of SEAANZ, 18(2), 119-129. Available here

Abstract

This paper outlines a proposed study employing the critical incident technique aimed at uncovering factors influencing owner-managers' decisions when employees in medium-sized enterprises request access to external training and development opportunities. Employees in these enterprises form part of a 'disadvantaged' group within the workforce that receives less access to formal training and development than employees in large firms. The owner-manager's decisional role is critical when considering employee access to training and development. Unfortunately, there is scant research into factors affecting owner-managers' decisions regarding employee access to a requested development opportunity in medium-sized enterprises. To address this research gap, we intend to conduct semistructured interviews incorporating critical incidents with a sample of 20 owner-managers. We anticipate that the interviews will provide rich, nuanced and contextualized information on the decision-making role of owner-managers that can be analysed for key themes.

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