WelcomeNew Perspectives

On Corporate Education

BMAF Annual Conference April 2009, Cardiff

Martin Reynolds and Jon SalkeldAshcroft International

Business School

Workshop Issues/ Questions

What trends are we seeing in changing organisational needs for education and training that business schools could/should respond to?

Where might be the key areas for innovation by business schools to increase employer engagement?

What barriers/challenges to business schools innovating their ‘employer engagement’ based work?

Business Schools Engaging Employers and Vice Versa

organisations needing to respond to new management challenges – need to innovate their practice

organisations expectations and needs to align education to their strategy

Many schools are responding to the ‘business school problem’ - relevance

Government agenda and funding

share of the spend on higher skills development less than 10% to universities

Ashcroft International Business School

Our ideas and views expressed today ……… reflects:

our vision ‘to be the UK’s leading practice based, international business school’

which shapes our thinking and point of view on the nature of management practice and learning

and is impacting implementation of our strategy to innovate our practice to management education - courses, research and faculty

…. inspiring innovativemanagement practice

The Future of Management

“ A paradigm can …. insulate the community from …. important problems …. because they cannot be stated in terms of the conceptual …. tools which the paradigm provides” Kuhn (1996 p7)

“I wrote books which implied that there had to be a right way to run our organisations ….. I was in the grip of the myth of science, the idea that everything, in theory, could be understood, predicted and, therefore, managed” Handy (1994 p17)

2007

The Problem with Business Schools

well - we have the same problem – even though business schools have been successful - Pfeffer and Fong (2002)!

business school teaching and research is often too theoretical and not focused upon problems that managers actually face

traditional educational model often disconnects the ‘MBA classroom’ from where management is practiced

we tend not to engage with the issue that the practice of management draws heavily upon ‘reflection on practice’

2004

The Notion of Praxis

… describes the activity of putting theoretical knowledge into practice

and

involves the process of managers engaging in conceptualising new meanings (knowledge) by learning from reflecting on practice - translating this learning into improved strategic actions

The Notion of Praxis

relevance to the context of management practice – uncertainty, organisational complexity and ambiguity, surprise, messiness etc etc

this tests the ‘management model’ taught in business schools and practiced in organisations

reflection on experience becomes a critical part of management practice and driving innovation in management practice

provides a possible focus for opportunities to innovate management education

A Learning Dynamic (model) – Managing Meaning and Managing Action

The Challenge of Aligning Meaning and Action in Practice …….

ManagingMeaning

ManagingAction

Action

Reflect onExperience

Academic Theories &Concepts

Reflection on Experience – PRAXIS

PracticeBased Theories inAction

InnovateThinking

Innovate Practice

1996

1995“We think in order to act … but we also act in order to think. We try things, and those experiments that work converge gradually into viable patterns and become strategies. This is the very essence of strategy as a learning process”. Mintzberg (1994)

Management Practice Innovation - Strategy Implementation

highlights the challenge of successfully integrating managing operations and managing strategy implementation in organisations

‘integration’ seen as priority area for innovating management practice – suggest a six stage systems approach

reviewing and learning seen as a key area of management practice eg meetings to ‘manage meaning’ by evaluating actions and strategic assumptions

2008

Case Study 1: Crawford

The Organisational Challenge

Aim – to develop and retain the emerging talent in the organisation

Tailored to organisational objectives Appropriate to professionally diverse &

geographically dispersed leaders Delivered within a constrained budget, yet able

to compete favourably with initiatives of the ‘bigger players’.

Complimentary to the objectives of the Crawford International Management Training Programme

An aid to retention. An aid to succession planning

Case Study 1: Crawford

The AIBS Solution

Crawford & AIBS MBA

Programme design reflects Crawford actual needs - mapping

Programme design provides added value beyond actual needs

Programme contextualisation worked through with Consultant & Crawford Training Director

Programme aimed at both UK and European managers

Programme location at Anglia Ruskin to create “reflective space”

Case Study 1: Crawford Co-design Orientation for AIBS staff Co-teaching AIBS practitioners as teaching staff Assessment by contextualised

assignment Tri-partite relationship Consultancy - follow-up of key issues Return on investment

Programme Innovation

Case Study 1: Crawford Crawford & AIBS MBA won the Insurance

Times “Training Programme of the Year Award 2008”

“Thank you for sharing your ideas with us. This is an imaginative way forward and we certainly have an interest in reviewing, for our own use, what you have developed” Dominic Burke, CEO, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group

“To have designed a programme with an academic and professional accreditation, yet with a tailored practical business emphasis, within budget is a significant achievement” Rita Maguire, HR Director, National Grid Wireless

Outcomes

Case Study 2: Barclays 0+3 Model

Organisation Need

innovate their talent development model to attract and retain high calibre graduates

competition and demographics

‘employment ready’ graduates

Case Study 2: Barclays 0+3 Model

Response

co-designed degree programme that involves 3 years working and studying in the work place

company recruits students

co-delivery by academics and management practitioners

solves the funding problem

Case Study 2: Barclays 0+3 Model

Success

graduate with degree plus 3 years work experience

done Job 1 - get Job 2

develops the practice based model

partnership working – education aligned to organisation needs

Case Study 3: The Regional Hospital

The Organisational Challenge

Aim – to develop and retain the middle/senior talent in the organisation

Strong disaffection with previous HE management programmes

Strong alignment to organisational goals HE qualification important but subsidiary

to developing greater organisational effectiveness

Maximum return on investment Appropriate to professionally diverse

leaders

Case Study 3: The Regional Hospital

The AIBS Solution

MA Leadership (work based)

Programme design highly project driven Academic content supports, not drives Programme structure: tactical, strategic,

contemporary Programme design worked through with

senior hospital staff & training director Programme location: regional hospital

Case Study 3: The Regional Hospital

Programme Innovation

Projects align with organisational & individual goals

Input from SMT & patients Strong line manager involvement Individual & group projects Assessments by presentation & question

panel Co-teaching Initial & end summits Surveys to measure return on investment

Workshop Issues/ Questions

What trends are we seeing in changing organisational needs for education and training that business schools could/should respond to?

Where might be the key areas for innovation by business schools to increase employer engagement?

What barriers/challenges to business schools innovating their ‘employer engagement’ based work?