The role of postgraduate education in management development

Abstract

This article considers the role of postgraduate education in the process of management development. The article argues that most management education has to date concentrated on providing managers with a knowledge and understanding of specific organisational issues as defined by academics and that there are few attempts to provide managers with the skills to solve organisational problems as defined by managers. It is suggested that there is a need to rethink the structure and content of management education and that there are opportunities within specialist postgraduate programmes to experiment with new approaches and techniques. The article describes two Masters programmes in Ireland in which attempts are being made to move from a pedagogical to an andragogical approach in teaching and learning. The results to date indicate that there are positive results to be gained from this approach for both managers and lecturers.