Title: Training International Managers
Editor: Alan Melkman and John Trotman
Publisher: Gower
ISBN: 0566086301
Price: £55.00
Reviewer: Jonathan Senior

The notion that the world is getting smaller - always using fast web connections, different technologies being flung together and today’s novelty being tomorrow’s standard - is the background to this useful book by obvious heavyweight consultants, Melkman and Trotman.

The book starts with a quick tour through models of cultural diversity and the familiar “Honey and Mumford” learning styles, and continues with chapters concerning a different aspect of training - the client perspective, conducting the training needs analysis and preparing and evaluating training.

All are pretty standard, but importantly flavoured with an international aspect; including sections which are specific to the international market such as the use of English as a second language and the economics of international training.

One helpful feature was the consistent use of “just suppose” boxes at the start of each chapter, where the authors invite you to put yourself in the shoes of someone facing a particular problem or difficulty.

Although the layout is consistently good with each section having a “challenge”, the “meat”, a summary and action points, some sections are a little short and on a couple of occasions I found myself checking to see if I had turned two pages by accident.

Useful weblinks, tables and templates to extract are peppered throughout, and the bite sized nature of the book makes it easy to “dip into”. This makes it a useful addition to anyone’s bookshelf.

Review ratings:

• Overall 4


• Helpfulness 4


• Layout 4


• Value for money 3


• Suitability for professional level Directors, Managers, Consultants


• Would you recommend it? Yes – I have no aspirations to conduct international training but I would suspect that I will find myself leafing through it in the future.