Bad Management and its Consequences in a Problematic European Union Member

Eduardo Tomé (High Institute for Social Service, Portugal)

Abstract: This paper analyses the Portuguese current economic situation, and points out to the decisive importance of management decisions, in order to explain the present state of affairs and to win over the massive challenges that lie ahead. The main conclusion is that, investments in training, education and skills can help Portugal to achieve success in trade. Evidence of that was obtained applying three simple economic models to statistical data on around 30 exporter economic sectors, related to the years from 1989 to 2001 (see section 4). That basic idea will be completed with three others that reinforce it: (1) the Portuguese future economic evolution will depend heavily on its external record (see section 3), (2) bad management caused Portugal to have traditionally low levels of education, skills and training (see section 3), (3) a new skills management attitude will be needed focusing in the importance of education, skills and training as real success factors (see section 5). The findings presented are somewhat preliminary, and may be extended and deepened by further and more detailed research (see section 7).

Keywords: Portugal, education, exports, skills management, training

Categories: K.4