Republication of “Experiencing Management: A Comprehensive, ‘Hands-on’ Model for the Introductory Undergraduate Management Course”

Abstract

The introductory survey course in management, which, along with English and calculus, is one of the largest enrollment courses in higher education institutions, poses special problems for undergraduate students who have no significant fulltime work experience. Apart from the challenges of attention and motivation characteristic of large lecture courses, instructors in undergraduate management courses face particular problems concerning validity, content integration, and classroom norms that make it extraordinarily difficult to convey the realities of rank, rationalized specialization, and "systems integration" that govern behavior in organizational hierarchies (Young & Gilson, 1986-1987). The purpose of this article is to describe an experiential course designed to overcome the specific problems inherent in working with undergraduate students in introductory management courses. The article grew out of discussions among faculty at the 1988 Academy of Management meetings who shared deep concerns about the quality of undergraduate management education.

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).…”

Understanding Interactions in a Classroom-As-Organization Using Dynamic Network Analysis

“…Students in different groups must collaborate on interdependent tasks to accomplish the organization’s goals (Barry, 1990; Putzel, 1992; Putzel & Park, 2007). Most of the CAOs described in the literature are one-semester long courses, ranging from 3 to 6 credits (Dixon, 2011; McDonald et al, 2011; Miller, 2017; Sheehan et al, 2009).…”