Provides a definition of the purpose and role of action learning (AL) in management education. Gives examples of programmes in a university business school strongly committed to action learning and outlines some of the benefits of this approach for individuals. Acknowledges that AL is less straightforward and more demanding than a traditional taught programme but potentially could achieve a much wider range of learning outcomes.
This article identifies the orientations to learning of a group of mature students, all practising managers, who were on part-time postgraduate management courses. The orientations to learning approach provided an effective framework for gaining insights into the complexities of learner motivations and how these influence learning behaviour. A social cognitive framework was used to analyse the processes by which orientations to learning develop, and this enabled a systematic investigation to be carried out of the meanings that managers made of their management education experience, as well as the significance that the learning outcomes from courses assumed in their professional and personal lives. The typology of orientations to learning reported here differs significantly from those found in earlier studies and provides some basis for a consideration of the elements which appear to be common to different sectors of the student population and those which are specific to a particular set of student characteristics. The findings also begin to establish a link between orientations to learning and different learning outcomes
Views management of the employment relationship from the perspective of the individual rather than that of the organization. Presents ideas on action available to individuals who want to thrive in organizations which have become less “people friendly” owing to increasing competition and technological change.
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