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A Case Study Of Action Learning In

A growing concern expressed by employers is the failure of universities to provide
students with the skill sets needed by modern industry and businesses (Hibbert, 2000).
Significantly, it has been suggested that the learning afforded an individual by an
MBA is of limited relevance to their current employer, being better suited for career
progression outside an existing workplace (David, 2000). The suggestion is that some
part-time MBAs, whilst useful for gaining new jobs, have very little impact within
individuals' existing organizations. Recognizing this failing, universities are
responding by developing new and innovative approaches to education. One such
approach is the adoption and incorporation of action leaning (Frank, 1996). This paper
seeks to reports a case study of an example of this, an MBA in Engineering
Management offered by Bradford University School of Management. This program
offers a genuinely innovative approach to management education. Many examples of
the incorporation of action learning in higher education see it as either a subject of
study or as a limited aspect of a wider program of conventional study (Smith, 1998).
The MBA program considered here is, we believe, unique in being entirely centered on
an action learning approach in which participants come together as a group to work on
workplace-centered problems on an ongoing basis, and gain an accredited MBA degree
as a result.
In this paper we begin by briefly outlining the theoretical foundations of action
learning, before describing how these are applied in the MBA program in question,
focusing on the learning experience of participants. The program's effectiveness is then
considered, and proposals for assessing ongoing effectiveness will be considered and
discussed. Finally the challenges and limitations of adopting an action learning
approach are explored.
Theoretical foundations
Action learning has its inception in the work of Reg Revans, who, when director of...