The contribution of MBA study to managers’ work has been increasingly questioned, in particular the relevance of the curriculum and the transfer of MBA knowledge and skills into practice. However, emerging processual understandings of practice emphasize management as a relational activity and manager development as a process of evolving a particular identity in relation to others. While these understandings enable a reassessment of the contributions of MBA study, they have so far offered unconsolidated theoretical tools and empirical evidence of manager-students’ identity-work is limited. This article makes both theoretical and empirical contributions using a case study of MBA manager-students to critically examine the relationality of management, the significance of identity in the respondent managers’ day-to-day practice, and the contribution of MBA study to identity-work. The findings contribute to resolving a key debate in the study of identity formation. The article concludes by developing implications for the redesign of MBA education to better enable manager-students’ identity formation.
Purpose – This article aims to review the changing demographics of employment and it proceeds to critically examine the existing literature on later-career workers’ experiences of training and development. Population ageing in developed economies has significant implications for workplace learning, given suggestions that most occupational learning for later-career workers occurs on-the-job within the workplace. The literature suggests that later-career workers receive very little formal occupational training. However, significant gaps are revealed in the existing research knowledge of the extent and nature of older workers learning particularly with regard to incidental learning in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative empirical investigation has been conducted among later-career managerial workers and the visual elicitation methodology adopted is detailed. Findings – The results of the investigation show how the later-career managers in question were learning extensively, albeit incidentally, from workplace challenges specifically those associated with their responsibilities and from interacting with their managers, teams and external stakeholders. Originality/value – The article draws conclusions for policymakers and those tasked with ensuring the continued learning and development of an ageing workforce.
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The goal of this exploratory empirical article is to analyse managers' beliefs about learning and their reports of enabling workplace learning for both individuals and teams. It aims to discuss the managers' rationales for prioritising development, detail the learning methods used and evaluate the types of outcomes which were targeted. Design/methodology/approach -A qualitative, case-study research design was adopted using two embedded units of analysis (local government administrations) and data were derived from photo-elicitation interviews. Findings -The diverse learning interventions that were reported are detailed and analysed in terms of learning for individuals and for groups and in terms of replicative and expansive learning outcomes.Research limitations/implication -The research was limited to manager respondents and to their reported developmental intentions, therefore implications for extending the research are proposed. Practical implications -The need for enhancing managers' awareness of their beliefs about learning and their capabilities for engendering non-formal learning through work practices is discussed. Originality/value -The article demonstrates that a broader range of methodologies were reportedly used by managers in enabling staff learning than has previously been shown. Moreover, that learning interventions were widely reported in a context of cuts and change questions the prevailing orthodoxy that development is sacrificed in times of cutbacks.
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