Strategic Marketing of Training Initiatives in Underdeveloped Countries: The Case of Swaziland

International training and use of technical assistance are growing in underdeveloped nations today as never before. In part, this escalation is due to a number of factors, e.g., the demise of the Soviet Union, increased emphasis on democracy and self-governance, and the unrelenting move toward the globalization of ideas and progressive administrative practices. Alufohai indicates that political and business leaders in Africa must continue in the global push for high standards and professionalism, as they seek creative and flexible ways of managing organizations (1). Otherwise, they face the risk of losing the opportunity to meet acceptable universal standards. The new focus is on actively involved leadership, linking human capital to measurable productivity outcomes, and programs that result in the continuous improvement of goods and/or services provided to customers, clients, or citizens. Calls for assistance from American and Western European experts occur almost daily to aid underdeveloped nations in effectively addressing many nagging social and environmental problems. Sharing ideas and successful methodologies that can be replicated in underdeveloped governments is commendable. The hope is that by bringing in technical assistance programs and strategies, these efforts will result in mitigating frequent persistent administrative and managerial problems (e.g., program inefficiency, high policy failure rates, internal fraud, corruption, and mismanagement). It is a great honor to be selected to share expertise with government officials and their civil service personnel in an underdeveloped setting. The trainer must certainly have the skills, knowledge, ability, and talent to assist these nations' officials. Such ability is clearly necessary to introduce ideas that effectively lead to change. These skills are a necessary condition, but they are not likely to be a sufficient condition if the desired maximum benefits are to be realized. In these special settings, understanding the local culture and associated organizational norms places a significant impact on training outcomes (2). Gaining the attention and participation from targeted officials and managers will require the skillful use of marketing strategies. Thus, the problem identified here is that the context surrounding the training is as important, and possibly more so, than the program content offered. An understanding of the significance of context is critical. In some instances expatriate managers and consultants form negative attitudes concerning the abilities of their African colleagues (3). Attitudes may be more associated with the trainer's misunderstanding of indigenous values and culture rather than the trainees' cognitive abilities. This work posits eight marketing strategies that can be employed to enhance training effectiveness in underdeveloped nations. This is an aspect of academic training oftentimes misunderstood when American and Western European public administration consultants provide training and technical assistance in "third and fourth world" settings. The eight strategies articulated here are based upon ten months of training and technical consulting experiences provided to the Kingdom of Swaziland government while serving as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in 1998 and 1999 with that nation's leading management and public administration training institute. These strategies are presented as "food for thought" for individuals who may be traveling to similar cultural settings to provide training and technical assistance. One caveat to these recommendations, however, is that one always must be vigilant to the special aspects of the culture where he/she will be interacting. What holds true in Swaziland may not necessarily be completely replicated in another setting. Nonetheless, the strategies presented here will encourage trainers to think beyond the content of knowledge that they wish to present. They will gain greater cognizance of the importance that context, especially local culture, plays in successfully introducing meaningful programs resulting in innovative change and increased program and policy successes. …