ABSTRACT
It would seem that, for a range of different reasons, it remains problematic for external agencies and individuals to bring HRD interventions to small organisations and such difficulties continue to cause concern (Raper et al. 1997; Department of Trade and Industry (DTI/DfEE 2001). In spite of rhetorical recognition of the heterogeneity of small organisations, a substantial part of the difficulty relates to the important issue of how the world of a small organisation is constructed and comes to be valued. In particular, we would highlight the significant connection of the development and ongoing existence of small organisations and the identity of the owner-managers. In many respects, such managers view positively and value highly those activities that have brought them to their present position (Devins and Gold 2002). They also provide an indexical reference point of how learning has occurred and how external initiatives will be viewed. For example, many small organisations are unlikely to view positively HRD interventions which are based on generic and abstracted frameworks of how small organisations ought to learn and operate.
