ABSTRACT
With the dismantling of communism in eastern Europe, former socialist countries have undergone and will continue to undergo rapid and radical changes to virtually all aspects of their societal economy with the specific objective of modernizing their countries to catch up with those of the industrialized west. While these countries have implemented policies to facilitate the transfer of technology from the west, including the liberalization of domestic and foreign trade, the efforts made by these countries to rapidly industrialize their economies have met with difficulties and setbacks. Many factors can affect the progress of these modernization efforts. It is our contention here that unless these countries devote greater attention to harnessing and developing the human resources in their enterprises, they will continue to experience frustrations and delays in their industrialization programs. After all, technology and capital are all managed by people (Tung, 1994). Without an adequate supply of highly skilled and educated labor, and in the absence of effective policies and practices to manage and develop these human resources, rapid and significant advances in the economic, industrial and technological sectors cannot take hold.
