Moving to More Difficult Concepts in Management Education

Management education focuses on the development of business gurus that seek to run companies for greater expansion and profit. These programs often talk about management skills, people skills, business skills, finance, and many other primary functions of a manager. A paper by Waddock & Lozano (2013) helps us think beyond primary knowledge and into concepts like reflective practices that develop awareness, systems thinking, and ethical values. 

Reflection is a process of understanding oneself in a context of events. Those who are reflective think about the business, its impact, and themselves and can understand events. This understanding leads to better management practices in the future. 

Students that develop reflective thinking are more thoughtful about how business practices impact others around them. Without reflection decisions can be limited and self-interested and such thinking has led to major calamity not only for businesses but also stakeholders. 

A higher order concept called systems thinking should also be developed in students. Systems thinking takes time to develop and master. It is a process of understanding how the pieces create an entire system and how that system operates in the market. 

Systems’ thinking is particularly important in international businesses where supply chains, information networks, social networks, and processes have a larger impact. Each of the pieces fits within the whole of the operation and needs to be well thought out. 

Finally, understanding and implementing ethical values in businesses. The use of unethical practices not only damages commerce but also the reputation of the business and the effective management of people. Students should be aware of ethical considerations when making choices. 

Management students often do well grasping the basic business conceptions offered in any course. They may have more difficulty understand the more complex issues associated with reflection, systems thinking and ethic. The concepts require many connections between the various concepts of business and greater societal responsibility. It may be wise to introduce these concepts in the undergraduate level and try and connect them tighter in the graduate level. 

Waddock, S. & Lozano, J. (2013). Developing more holistic management education: lessons learned from two programs. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12 (2).

Developing Strategy through the Creative Process

Creativity is an important component of strategic thinking. Those who are able to imagine and think through varying scenarios are capable of predicting the end game.  Research by Larson and Angus helps shed light on the process of creative learning and its association with developing critical strategies (2011). This learning can start in high school and move into the early college years. Creative learning may continue through one’s lifetime.

The development of agency is an important tool for achieving goals and ensuring the ability to move through a changing environment.  Projects in young adulthood and early college can help to develop the mental faculty of seeing projects to their completion as well as thinking creatively about solving problems. Education should have a level of creative faculty to develop these skills to match concrete content learning.

Agency skills also develop the ability to have executive control over one’s own thoughts, learn new cognitive tools, develop creative problem solving, learn the action skills to achieve goals and move into higher order thinking. These skills and abilities further create a platform for strategic thinking.  Without the ability to think creatively, it is doubtful that new methods and paths will be found.

Programs often use the “arc of work” approach which includes the concepts of planning, monitoring, adjusting existing plans and receiving feedback. When projects span of a period of weeks and months it requires students to be reflective of their creative process. When the situation changes the students can find ways of adapting to those changes. It is this thinking about and reflection on methods that helps students find new ways to complete their projects in meaningful ways.

When people are engaged in projects and own the results they invest themselves into the process more deeply. It is an investment that helps create higher order thinking and strategic planning. The creation of a long-term project helps to connect the many different work methods and strategies students use to navigate their environment. It helps solidify successful methods from unsuccessful ones.  They are likely to use these later in their working life.

The researchers used 11 different programs to assess the results of subject creative process. They worked back into the creative process and conducted in-depth research to assess how such projects foster creative strategic thinking.  A few years later, they interviewed the participants again to create a longitudinal approach. They looked at artistic programs, social activism, media arts, political action, and leadership programs. An in-depth review of plans, thought processes, and perceptions were particularly important.

The participants reported that they learned how to mobilize their efforts and regulate their time. They gained the long-term perspective that allowed them to create strategies to complete their projects. Their plans were broken down into action steps. Steps are seen as sequential actions that lead to project completion. 

Most remarkably, participants learned that strategic thinking requires the ability to adjust with changing circumstances, understand how others respond, and think through the alternatives, and have backup plans. They were able to think through how human systems operate and what cognitive models others use to respond to their various actions. Most importantly, they were able to transfer the skills learned to other areas in life including prediction of events and determining alternative actions.

The report connects the concepts of creative thinking and analytic analysis to determine the potential scenarios.  The authors come to a definition of strategic thinking as ‘Use of advanced executive skills to anticipate possible scenarios in the steps to achieving goals and to formulate flexible courses of action that take these possibilities into account.’’ Strategy is a process of first envisioning the possibilities and then systematically thinking through the likely outcomes of results. It is both a freethinking and analytical process where possibilities are explored and the most likely ones chosen. When the environment changes, so does the strategies.

Larson, R. & Angus, R. (2011). Adolescents’ development of skills for agency in youth programs: learning to think strategically. Child Development, 82 (1). 

The Importance of Higher Education in Life Development

It is always motivational and an exciting event to see students realizing their dreams by graduating from college. For some it is a life-long struggle while others make their way with ease. However, each comes hoping to achieve something in their lives and find new opportunities. To many, these opportunities come through education which further helps prepare them to understand the complex nature of working life in the Internet Age. 

As the nation seeks to compete on a global level it is important to ensure that students are prepared to not only take careers but also advance within their relevant fields. One of the ways people can do this is to continue their education so that they can either update their skills or advance their knowledge on particular topics. Those who have not received a formal higher education may experience additional financial difficulties in life as they are pushed into a highly competitive and lower wage market.

Higher education is more than just making money. It is also part of gaining a wider understanding of the world in which we live. There is a balance between learning specific skills for quick application in the workplace and still having a broad enough education to adjust those skills when times change. It is the concept of specialist versus generalist wherein specialized skills have practical utility but may lose that utility when fields have fundamentally changed.  Strong businesses often have a mix of specialists and generalists to encourage efficiency and adaptability.

Higher education also provides an opportunity to build the fundamental building blocks to higher order thinking. Each piece of information creates a framework for understanding the world. Certainly, one can gain that knowledge by simply having a library card and being an avid learner. They can also learn it through trial and error throughout their lives. However, the Socratic method of teaching affords an opportunity to have people challenge assumptions about those beliefs so that they can create more logical vantage points of life. College often affords the opportunity to find a guide to developing higher order critical thinking. What would the world be like without Nietzsche, Kant, Freud, Spinoza, Einstein, and other great thinkers? Perhaps society would be half of what it is today.

The inspirational speaker this year was a well known actor that helped to celebrate and create enthusiasm for student successes. LaVar Barton was involved in a number of important artistic endeavors such as playing Kunta Kinte in the 1977 ABC series roots as well as Lt. Commander Geordi la Forge in Star trek the Next Generation. He was the host in the PBS children’s program called Reading Rainbow. His work in Roots was one of the most important shows that helped people change the way they view each other. 

When and if you are ready to go to college think about what you want to do, which schools offer the programs you desire, and make sure you are ready for the commitment. It may just change your life.

You may be interested in the graduation video below:

Biography

Beale, L. (1987). Researching tv roots a decade later. Sun Sentinel. Retrieved May 22^nd, 2013 from  PQSD

Levar Burton

Forbes: Generalist vs. Specialist