Can the teaching of leadership transform practice? What concepts and modalities are best suited to do so? This paper builds on Meyer and Land’s (2003) theory of threshold concepts to examine how students learn and experience leadership as a complex and multi-faceted practice. Threshold...

This article takes up an important question that has puzzled learning theorists in the critical tradition, namely, are the dialogic practices of emancipatory discourse sufficient to change oppressive conditions in the power structure of the modern organization? In other words, can critical...

We hear much about the “democratic ideal” as if it were unreachable within the walls of the organization. Of late, apologists have begun suggesting that there is no need to worry; democracy exists; it is just that it is often hidden from view right within the requisite hierarchical...

This article takes a whimsical look at the state of pedagogical delivery in management education over the last 40 years, and concludes that the long tradition of what the author refers to as ‘spoon-feeding in management education’ is unlikely to end anytime soon. His case is built on...

It is through public reflection that we may create a collective identity as a community of inquiry. But how does public reflection differ from introspection, and how does it contribute to self and organizational learning? In this article, the author uncovers the many traditions which constitute...

This special issue has been constituted to distinguish the burgeoning action strategies which are now being practiced by organization and management development practitioners around the globe. Its aim is also to look for common ground across these popular action strategies.

As pedagogical approaches, the professional education model and more recently action learning have each made important contributions to the preparation of experienced students for management practice. Using some carefully chosen domains, these approaches, in particular their advantages and...