Managers of small firms need to make sure that they have the right training to deal with their staff, it has been claimed.
According to Professor Cary Cooper of Lancaster University Management School, many SME owners start as entrepreneurs and do not have any training or experience of managing large groups of people.
This means that some firms might struggle to grow as ineffective management puts more pressure on the workforce, he stated.
Sean Taggart, managing director of the Albatross Group and a member of the government's ministerial advisory panel for leadership and management, agreed.
He said: "I think there are very few, if any, managers out there who are deliberately managing their business or their people badly; a lot of it is simply awareness, and what they need is to first of all recognise the benefit that good skills development and training can make to their bottom line."
A study by the Learning and Skills Council found that 167,000 managers survey are suffering from a skills gap. This leads to an increase in work for other staff members in more than half of cases.
