CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Management of small manufacturing enterprises in Nigeria dates back to pre-colonial
times. The country was then known for the manufacturing of hides and skin, calabash, foot wears,
traditional wears and so on. These industries generated much of the internal and foreign exchange
that sustained our economy. However, since independence and particularly the Nigeria civil war,
things have changed (Eneh, 2005:8). It has been said that Micro/cottage, small and medium scale
enterprises serve as the engine of economic development of any developing nation and that
statistics show about 3 out of 4 of these industries die every year in Nigeria. Little wonder, 9 out
of 10 persons, who wishes to go into business in Nigeria, do not eventually get to start. Thus, on
daily basis, more enterprises die off than those that spring up. Most surviving enterprises hardly
outlive their founders (Eneh, 2005: 9).
Even the government-owned enterprises had not fared better. To survive, the educational
and health institutions were usually given annual subventions. In fact, statutory corporations,
public companies and parastatals were worse off when it came to survival and growth. Hence, the
government was relinquishing those statutory corporations, and state-owned companies and
parastatals to private sector in systematic deregulation programme, or outright liquidation, as in
recent cases of Nigerian Sugar Company Limited, Basita and Nigerian Paper Mills (Ile, 2003: 8).
Very few statutory corporations and state-owned companies and parastatals as well as
private-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were sustained in South-East Nigeria,
described as “Nigeria’s home of business minds”.
Yet, the zone formed most part of the former
Eastern Region whose economy was once adjudged the fastest growing and industrializing
economy in the world in the early 1960s. SMEs in Nigeria had myriad of problems militating
against their establishment, survival and growth (Eneh, 2005:7). Since the emergence of human
capital theory, the idea of investing in human beings as a form of capital has fuelled growing
interest in workplace learning theory and practice (Bond and Garick, 1999:11). The burgeoning
literature on workplace learning organizational learning and the learning organization is evidence
of this growing interest in making workplace an effective learning environments (Billet,
2004:312). Moreover, there are numerous descriptive accounts of organizations striving to
become learning oriented (Senge, 2000:200). Why has learning at and through work become so
important? Many commentators argue that learning has became increasingly important to the
survival of organizations (Marsick and Watkins, 1999:400). Agris (2001:200) argues that the
importance of learning is primarily because of the need for organizations to respond to rapid and
continuous change in the organization’s external environment.
To survive, organizations must monitor their external environments, anticipate, and adapt
to continual change (Marquardt, 1996:412). Implementation of change initiatives in organizations,
such as the introduction of new technology, products or processes, usually require the acquisition
