Wholistic Management Education (WME): Theorizing the Contextualized Applicability of Transformative Learning in Management Education Discourse

Abstract

Traditional management education discourse is in crisis. It does not prepare students to face real world complexities and challenges because it is devoid of context and historicity and localness. It focuses narrowly on the means and not ends of managing and organizing. To address these glaring and gaping fissures between concepts and reality. This paper utilizes Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning approach in management education so that the future managers are on course for individual transformation. Later developments in the transformative learning theory connecting it with extra-rational thinking, multiple ways of knowing and critically evaluating social dynamics are also incorporated so that the individual transformation leads to more broader collective transformation. The discursive interplay between texts, actions and discourses are captured in the proposed Wholistic Management Education (WME) model. The model’s validity and its relation with Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis are briefly discussed along with future research directions.

An Examination of the Rational Model in Business Education in the Greater Bay Area (Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau) for Curriculum Revision and Development Aimed at Improving Graduates’ Employability Potential

“…What is significant for the Greater Bay Area is whether or not this system of decision-making is relevant and useful for the regional businesses, or if it is a model that is out of date or in need of a new paradigm such as a blended approach with intuitive decision-making. When a basic comprehension of rational model's applicability in eastern tertiary business education is gained, an outline can be developed to narrow the focus of skills, topics, and teaching methods needed in the Greater Bay Area higher education institutions seeking to produce new business graduates with greater employability and effectiveness for regional goals (Darwish, Singh, & Wood, 2016;Mazza, & Quattrone, 2017;Spender, 2018;Yazdani, Murad, & Shuja, 2017). The key aim in this regard is the establishment of a clear comprehension of the successes of the rationale model in western economies and serving as a cornerstone of business education, which is then examined as either a critical component for eastern business curriculum development, or a dead issue that can be supplanted and advance eastern curricula beyond archaic notions of business education.…”