Training for development management: Reflections on social know‐how as a scientific and technological system

Abstract

This paper explores the linkages between development, “appropriate” administrative technology and the training of development managers. In so doing, it traces the intimate relationships between development administration, conceptual paradigms and administrative know‐how as a scientific and technological system. Orthodoxy, neo‐orthodoxy and critical paradigms are discussed and a number of elements to reformulate a development administration paradigm are considered. Based upon this discussion the paper concludes with a tentative outline identifying training needs for development managers and a number of observations about such training: its “appropriatness”, professionalisation and the issue of international cooperation.

Editor's introduction: Administrative heritage, morality and challenges in the sub‐continent since the British Raj

“…Naturally, some public servants wishing not to be left behind, eagerly join the race. Then everyone laments the sorry state of government and expresses helplessness in the face of moral decay (Dwivedi, 1985). How, then, can a moral and accountable development administration be achieved?…”

“…Most studies of public administration in developing countries have stressed the viewpoint that the band of officials who have been brought up and trained in the colonial administrative culture, wedded to the Weberian characteristics of hierarchy, status and rigidity in adherence to rules, and concerned mainly with the enforcement of law and order and collection of revenues, are quite unfit to perform the duties expected in the changed situation of an administration geared to the task of development (Nef and Dwivedi, 1985). As the government is the main institution through which development goals are to be accomplished in the changing, turbulent and unstable political environment of a democratic framework in the Third World, it is thought desirable that the officials engaged in developmental work should be the kind who 'emphasize results, rather than procedures, teamwork rather than hierarchy and status, flexibility and decentralization rather than control and authority.…”

The evaluation of a multiyear management development program in a third world setting

“…Numerous reasons have been cited for these poor results. In many instances, development projects have neglected to include training as a necessary activity to support these efforts (Nef and Dwivedi, 1985). On other occasions, training and development projects have focused on nongovernmental sectors.…”