A Threshold Concept in Managing: What Students in Introductory Management Courses Must Know

Abstract

In the field of management, a practice-theory gap has developed and consequently, management education has been criticized for being irrelevant to the needs of stakeholders. This article argues that introduction to management courses in higher education perpetuate this gap by not teaching what managers do. These courses fail to communicate well the threshold concept of managing as accomplishing results through other people. Understanding this threshold concept would give students clearer perspectives on the distinction between doing work and managing work in organizations-between being "one of the team" and "managing the team." Using a class exercise as exemplar, the author demonstrates the use of a set of debate questions in the form of contestable statements regarding doing and managing, which are argued by students in small groups in class before final resolution in a plenary session. Students emerge from these debating sessions with a clearer definition and understanding of the core work that managers actually do. Learners also become cognizant of the need for managers to have an appropriate balance between the amount of managing This article is part of the Special Issue "Introduction to Management Courses"

Contrasting 4 Year Outcomes Associated With Introduction to Management Courses

“…All five courses taking on the “knowing” perspective also incorporated the “doing” perspective. These five courses combining the “knowing” and “doing” perspectives covered the following topics: company design (Miller, 2017), a managing versus doing team exercise (Donovan, 2017), overview of business areas and entrepreneurship (Erickson et al, 2010), company design (Hendry et al, 2017), peer assessments in teams working on company analyses (Friedman et al, 2008); and applied the following assessments: anecdotal comments from students, faculty, and clients (Miller, 2017), student surveys (Donovan, 2017; Erickson et al, 2010), participant reflections (Hendry et al, 2017), and peer assessments (Friedman et al, 2008).…”

A More Relevant MBA: The Role of Across-the-Curriculum Delivery of Intercompetency Coursework in Aligning the Required Curriculum With Required Managerial Competencies

“…The problem lies in the perception that business schools are not imbibing their students with competencies related to what incumbent managers really do in the workplace, such as general management, leadership, and interpersonal skills that are required to be effective managers (Donovan, 2017; Mintzberg, 2015; Porter & McKibbin, 1988; Rubin & Dierdorff, 2009). The “main culprit” has been identified as a “less-than-relevant MBA curriculum” (Bennis & O’Toole, 2005, p. 96), and “current thinking appears to presume that a curricula redesign can fix the relevance issue” (Tan & Ko, 2019, p. 64).…”

“…Researchers studying the curriculum of MBA programs have argued that the “curriculum is deficient or contaminated in some significant way” (Rubin & Dierdorff, 2013, p. 128). This “practice-theory” gap, it has been argued, is propagated by the failure of introductory management courses (which are supposed to bridge this practice-theory gap) to help students develop a clear picture of what exactly it is that managers do (Christopher et al, 2017; Donovan, 2017). Ghoshal (2005) goes even further, claiming that many academic management theories are in fact detrimental to good management practices.…”

Threshold concepts in entrepreneurship – the entrepreneurs’ perspective

“…In recognising the threshold concepts in a subject area such as entrepreneurship, individuals appreciate how it is qualitatively different to other subjects areas and disciplines such as Management or Design (Donovan, 2017). A threshold concept can be a form of disciplinary property (Cousin, 2006) and offers a useful way of identifying and distinguishing a discipline, subject, profession or field of study.…”