The terms proactive and reactive are frequently used to describe managers. This paper examines the proactive-reactive behaviour patterns of 16 top-level managers and compares their behaviour patterns with conceptual views from the literature. The usefulness of the proactive-reactive dichotomy is evaluated and issues are raised concerning the proactive-reactive label. It is concluded that the dichotomy is overly simplistic for describing complex managerial behaviour and a more complex model is proposed for examining the proactive dimension.

Experience of a middle management training project in Egypt highlights the importance of interorganisational issues in planning and implementing management training projects in developing countries. The initial recognition of local interorganisational networks, identifying key organisations and their representative personnel, and actively working with networks from the perspective of planned interorganisational development activities (IOD) will ensure maximum local environmental support for a project.

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Most organised development efforts in developing countries have historically focused on health care, food sufficiency, infrastructure, or technical and vocational training. However, the need to enhance concurrently managerial and organisational capabilities has been increasingly recognised. This is currently being addressed in many developing countries through formal management development projects sponsored both locally and by such external agencies as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank, among others. As interest grows in effectively accomplishing planned management development in such settings, and as the magnitude of resource commitments to development projects increases from local and international sources, there is a corresponding need for guidelines on how to do these development activities well in the settings of third world countries. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a comprehensive design for management and organisation development that incorporates learning from the author's experiences with a three‐year middle management training project conducted in Egypt.