Communication and, through it, language have become key elements of business and organizational life. How organizations interact within their walls and with the outside world fundamentally affects business processes, creating organizational culture, shaping public perceptions, and influencing consumer choices. This essay calls for a greater…

Images of leadership serve as mirrors reflecting assumptions and as windows revealing possibilities. We take a visual and less common methodological approach and highlight particular images by way of a linguistic and stylistic analysis. The foundation of this study--an archive of 8,283 images and essays--is noteworthy, since it represents nearly…

This essay claims too much and too little for Critical Language Discourse, an interesting subject, but in my view not necessary as a separate topic from Needed Communications Skills Education. Those skills are best learned in context, working on specific challenges with specific audiences where there are particular communications problems to be…

Study abroad programs (SAPs) are desirable experiential learning opportunities that can enrich students and faculty alike. Faculty participate in SAPs because their immersive learning contexts offer a variety of personal and professional benefits, including the chance to meet new research contacts, tour cultural sites, and get to know students in…

This article discusses the value of learning from a psychodynamic approach to experiential learning. This approach is used to help students experience and understand the emotional and relational complexity of leading and managing within organizations. From this perspective, experiential learning means engaging with emotions and with embedded…

Many instructors use experiential learning techniques to link students' academic experience with the reality that awaits them professionally. Careful planning and reflecting on experiential activities usually take place prior to implementation to ensure that prescribed student learning outcomes are met. Hence, management educators' confidence…

Women represent just less than 50% of undergraduate business graduates and 36% of MBA graduates. Despite their strong presence in management education programs, women are noticeably absent from business case studies--a key pedagogical tool for instruction within management education programs worldwide. While case studies inform students about…

In order to elevate the effectiveness of teaching and learning, business deans must manage the dynamic interplay among four elements--strategy, budget, curriculum, and delivery. When these elements reinforce and complement each another, a business school can generate powerful energy in the form of new curricular and cocurricular developments,…

The role of dean in a business school is, by design, more strategic than tactical. And, when the various stakeholders that a dean must interact with are considered, the ability of a dean to have much of an operating knowledge of what is going on in the teaching and learning space of a school is very limited. The problem, however, is that the dean…

In this article, I present some of the teaching and learning challenges faced from the perspective of a U.K. business school dean. There are many challenges that I could have chosen, but my focus is on the unpredictable external environment, the conundrum of teaching evaluation, developing teaching staff, and the curriculum issues we face.

Deans and academic colleagues are collectively involved in the delivery of business education. Yet their perspectives on teaching and learning can vary significantly reflecting the distinctive position from which they view the process. The dean's perspective is shaped by external drivers and reference groups that are very different from those…

In this essay, I explore the topic of curriculum design in business and management education from the perspective of my current role as Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching. Using Biggs's constructive alignment as an organizing framework, I summarize a number of challenges for management educators and administrators in the design and evaluation…

My vision of the future: The business school is not an architectural masterpiece across the river from the main campus. It now sits squarely in the middle of campus, a slightly worse for the wear place where students of all disciplines come and go. On campus, it is not even called The Business School. Instead, it goes by its nickname, "The…

The content of most MBA capstone strategic management courses emphasizes general management theory and analytical skill development. Additionally, the design of the capstone is often tasked with providing practical application, integrative thinking, and experiential learning. A common critique of the capstone, however, is its insufficient delivery…

This essay explores the similarities and differences between faculty and administrators related to the definition and applied practice of teaching and learning. It is concluded that there is much agreement in defining the construct from sources over time, from different levels and different disciplines in higher education. However, perspectives…