What works in management development - evaluation of action learning

Arrival from 12 noon. Seminar starts at 12.15pm and ends at 1.15pm.

Tea, coffee and sandwiches provided

A seminar by Professor John Burgoyne, Lancaster University Management School and Elaine Clark, Manchester Business School

This is a joint seminar with the Revans Academy for Action Learning and Research.

Identifying what works in management education can be seen to be, at least partially, a wicked problem. The requirements of commissioners to secure evidence that programme goals are met and to justify spending on education through quantifiable measures of’ impact’, can create a tension when seeking to determine what works for participants and organisations. This is particularly so for Action Learning, since how can the impact upon individual’s confidence, ability to question and relationship to oneself, others and the context, be identified through standard quantitative methods?

Within this seminar, Professor John Burgoyne, Professor of Management Learning in the Department of Management Learning in the Lancaster University, and an Associate at Ashridge Business School and Henley Business School, will discuss the use of a critical real complex network theory approach to the evaluation of management education and explore how this method can serve to illuminate the real impact of education, rather than to eliminate recognition of value.

Dr Elaine Clark, Fellow in Action Learning and Healthcare Management in Manchester Business School will illustrate the use of this approach in practice, through examples of recent evaluations of action learning programmes.