Evaluating the skills strategy through a Graduate Certificate in Management:an experiential learning theory approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how a UK business school is addressing the Government's skills strategy through its Graduate Certificate in Management, and to identify good practice and development needs and to clarify how the Graduate Certificate is adapting to the needs of Generation X and Millennial students. The paper also aims to test Kolb and Kolb's experiential learning theory (ELT) in a business school setting. Design/methodology/approach – A case study methodology was adopted. In order to get a cross-section of views and triangulate the data, three focus groups were held, supported by reading documentation about the programme of study. Findings – The skills strategy is not just an ambition for some business schools, but is already part of the curriculum. Generation X and the Millennials have more in common with the positive attitudes associated with older generations than stereotyped views might allow. ELT provides a useful theoretical framework for evaluating a programme of study and student attitudes. Research limitations/implications – The research findings from one case study are reported, limiting the generalisability of the study. Practical implications – Good practice and development needs are identified which support the implementation of the Government's skills strategy and address employer concerns about student skills. Originality/value – New empirical data are reported which supports the use of ELT in evaluating programmes of study and student attitudes to work.

International academic careers:personal reflections

University business schools are increasingly adopting an international outlook as they compete for students who are aiming for global careers. A natural consequence of university internationalization is the need to internationalize the academic workforce, resulting in increasing attention on, and recognition for, the academic with international teaching and research experience. Yet the effort and complexity involved in making an international academic transition is often overlooked. Academic institutions' efforts to recruit international academics often outpace their expertise and support in the inpatriation and orientation processes. Academics interested in international mobility may find it difficult to obtain helpful information prior to arrival in the new country and encounter problems in adjusting to their new job and surroundings. This paper presents personal experiences of a select group of academics who have moved between countries. Their reports illustrate differences in teaching loads, language, student behavior, recruitment and career-ladder issues across countries, as well as strategies they have used to adapt to their new surroundings. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

What do students really think? Understanding postgraduate students' perception of service quality

This paper explores the components of Service Quality in HE from the Business School Postgraduate student perspective. A six-dimensional scale measuring Service Quality is developed based on focus group and survey data. Our findings highlight that postgraduate students are highly outcome oriented; the award of a reputable degree to gain employment is more important than learning for life. Whilst developing employable graduates, Business Schools must not neglect the core service; teaching & learning. In the long-term this contributes to employability rates and the reputation of institutions. However, as student satisfaction is an increasingly paramount objective, balancing the core service and factors perceived as important by postgraduate students is key.

Organizations in time:history, theory, methods

Book review: Organizations in Time, edited by R Daniel Wadhwani and Marcelo Bucheli, Oxford University Press, 2014. The title of this edited volume is slightly misleading, as its various contributions explore the potential for more historical analysis in organization studies rather than addressing issues associated with time and organizing. Hopefully this will not distract from the important achievement of this volume—important especially for business historians—in further expanding and integrating business history into management and organization studies. The various contributions, elegantly tied together by R. Daniel Wadhwani and Marcelo Bucheli in their substantial introduction (which, by the way, presents a significant contribution in its own right), opens up new sets of questions, especially in terms of future methodological and theoretical developments in the field. This book also reflects the changing institutional location of business historians, who increasingly make their careers in business schools rather than history departments, especially in Europe, reopening old questions of history as a social science. There have been several calls to teach more history in business education, such as the Carnegie Foundation report (2011) that found undergraduate business education too narrow in focus and highlighted the need to integrate more liberal arts teaching into the curriculum. However, in the contemporary research-driven environment of business and management schools, historical understanding is unlikely to permeate the curriculum if historical analysis cannot first deliver significant theoretical contributions. This is the central theme around which this edited volume revolves, and it marks a milestone in this ongoing debate. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I should add that even though I did not contribute to this volume, I have coauthored with several of its contributors and view this book as central to my current research practice.)

Linking performance-related pay to a Business School's mission and objectives

This paper first analyses the Performance Related Pay (PRP) schemes developed from 1992/3 to 2002/3 in a large Business School in England and then the School’s mission and strategic objectives in that period. The PRP schemes changed to include more specific performance indicators and these were increasingly linked to the objectives. The School’s resources allocated to PRP increased from £44,000 in 1992/93 to £355,000 in 2002/3 and from 1.08% in 1995/96 to 2.37% of the School’s income in 2002/3. As well as examining the changing strategic objectives and PRP schemes, the paper charts the development of the School’s reputation and resources and the role which staff motivation via PRP played at different stages. The paper concludes that the PRP scheme was at its most effective when it was clearly linked with the School’s strategic objectives, but that the relationship between objectives and motivation may be more complex than apparent from this study. Although the PRP scheme under consideration also applies to academic related staff, this paper concentrates on the effect on academic staff.

Experiential learning:inspiring the business leaders of tomorrow

Purpose: The complex challenges of sustainable development and the need to embed these issues effectively into the education of future business leaders has never been more urgent. The purpose of this paper is to discuss different approaches taken by two UK signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Design/methodology/approach: The two approaches examined are: MSc Entrepreneurship students opting for placements with social enterprises; and MBA students undertaking workshops using "live" case studies. A content analysis of the experiences of students from their written reflective narratives is presented. This is supplemented by reflections of the facilitators and tutors. Findings: The analysis reveals that the opportunity to work with social entrepreneurs and/or "responsible" business professionals provides the business students with inspirational role models and positive social learning opportunities. Research limitations/implications: This paper suggests that experiential learning is an effective way of integrating ethics, responsibility and sustainability into the curriculum but the research draws on the experience of two schools. Further research is important to explore these findings in other contexts. Practical implications: The authors argue that direct exposure to a business culture (and/or behaviour) that is predicated upon ethical/social responsibility and sustainability is an effective means to embed these values in the curriculum. Originality/value: This paper contributes by drawing on social psychological research related to behaviour change to examine how experiential learning on traditional Business Masters programmes can provide students with the knowledge, motivation and skills to contribute positively to society, in a way that more traditional pedagogies cannot. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.