ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the process of training and management development in Chinese state-owned enterprises. It provides an eye-witness account of how training is perceived and implemented under a flux of economic reforms. The provision of training to all employees and the development of managers seem to be the main prerequisites for the enhancement of economic reforms in China's fast growing economy. The Chinese approach to training and management development is characterised by a clear emphasis on quantity rather than quality and on input rather than outcome, and by a lack of transparency in setting priorities. The Chinese government wanted to provide low cost national training programmes that could reach all the masses and could reduce the risk of their managers being too exposed to western influences. It was observed that the Chinese officials who were involved in the United Nations Development Programme were very much concerned about ideological and political implications of sending their managers to study abroad.
