The phenomenon of being-in-management in executive education programmes - An integrative view

Abstract

Currently, we experience a situation in society in general as well as business school education where leaders and executives prefer to remain ambivalent and inauthentic about humanity's worsening socio-economic challenges. As a result of this, we continue with regimes of common sense that have lost their legitimacy and perpetuate an unsustainable future. Occasionally we notice this when there is a financial, environmental, social, or ecological crisis. Is it possible to resurrect a willingness to be more proactive? This paper uses the business school education challenges to explore this dilemma and offer insight on how the situation could be changed. The paper argues that the key phenomenon of being-in-management has not received sufficient attention and is an important aspect of teaching and learning in business schools that constrains impact. We experience this as a lack of will, lack of commitment, and subsequent lack of action to improve many of the socio-ecological threats we encounter. This paper makes a concerted effort to offer a coherent argument that this is the case, and integrates recent views of the phenomenon of being-in-management to illustrate the potential for more societal impact. While the business school setting is in focus, the insight is of equal value to academics interested in development education and global learning.