Joseph A. Raelin

Public Reflection as the Basis of Learning.

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 the process of critical reflective practice, as may be practiced as part of a project-based learning experience. After defining the concept, the article illustrates why reflection is fundamental to learning and how it can be brought out in the company of trusted others through dialogue. The article goes on to illuminate the relationships between public reflection and the common good, experience, and time, as well as to characterize the skills associated with reflective practice.

From leadership-as-practice to leaderful practice:

Consistent with views that see leadership emerging from social practices rather than from the external mind, this paper contributes to an emerging movement in leadership studies known as ‘leadership-as-practice’ (L-A-P). This movement looks for leadership in its music and activity rather than in the traits and heroics of individual actors. The article distinguishes L-A-P from the individualistic approach by explaining its intersection with its dualistic counterpart, theory; with the agency—structure problem; and with relationality and meaning in organizations. It calls for a modification in classic approaches to research methodology and to leadership development. L-A-P is advised to consider its natural affinity with democratic participation through leaderful practices that systematically privilege the co-creation of social organization.

Developing Managers as Learners and Researchers: Using Action Learning and Action Research

This article takes the view that formal educational programs often miss opportunities to use the rich experiences of working managers to produce both learning and knowledge. Two alternative pedagogical approaches, action learning and action research, are proposed as contributing to management education by their respective capabilities to generate practical learning and produce actionable knowledge. These approaches are compared with one another and with conventional classroom methodology using a new framework based on voice, level, form, and time.

Work‐based learning in practice

This paper depicts a prototypical learning program based on the author’s model of work‐based learning. The model is premised on the simple idea that learning can be acquired in the midst of practice. It deliberately merges theory with practice and acknowledges the intersection of explicit and tacit forms of knowing. There are eight learning modalities in the model of work‐based learning. The paper concentrates on three somewhat popular action strategies that are typically presented in isolation: action learning, action science, and communities of practice. The paper demonstrates how corporate educators and facilitators might distinguish between these approaches and yet offer them in a meaningful sequence based upon their preferences, skill, and comfort level as well as upon the needs of their managerial clients.

Seeking Conceptual Clarity in the Action Modalities

This article begins with the presumption that action learning has not made as deep an impact in promoting participatory social change as its supporters may have hoped for, but nor has its cousin action modalities, such as action research and action science. These action strategies have evolved separately along distinct traditions and, rather than focus on their commonalities, their proponents have tended to cite their differences from one another. As a result, they have seldom stood together to advocate for their shared epistemology based on practice as the fundamental unit of analysis. Accordingly, after briefly summarizing the history and differences among these action modalities, this article will focus on their potential confederation. It cites ten unifying elements that may construct an agenda characterized by the value of learners collectively reflecting on planned engagements that can not only expand but can create knowledge while at the same time serving to improve practice.

Individual and Situational Precursors of Successful Action Learning

Action learning is based on exposure to managers and teachers engaged in the solution of real-time problems. This article reports on a study of three action learning programs to determine individual and situational factors that lead to useful behavioral outcomes. Students improved the most in questioning competencies as well as in some of the traditional mangerial skill domains. This study also found a strong association between action science proclivities and action learning outcomes.

The Practice Turn-Away: Forty Years of Spoon-Feeding in Management Education

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 neo-institutional theory, which posits that the pressures to conform to standardized classroom teaching are highly resistant based on deep-seated and long-standing consensual beliefs and traditions. The principal alternative of employing practice-based and critical approaches has been diluted in favor of the promotion of reductionist and mythological active learning strategies which, though useful, are unlikely to lead to the acquisition of prudential wisdom.

Imagine there are no leaders: Reframing leadership as collaborative agency

Fearing that our overreliance on an individual, heroic model of leadership will only continue to dampen the energy and creativity of people in our organizations and communities, this essay proposes a practice perspective of leadership based on a collaborative agency mobilized through engaged social interaction. After briefly reviewing the emerging practice tradition in leadership studies, the article turns to the inseparable connection between leadership and agency and discusses how structure may pacify but, under dialogic conditions, release agency. Acknowledging the cultural constraints against collaborative agency, the account affirms its potential realization through interpersonal interaction and sociality. Specific leadership activities associated with collaborative agency and their conditions are illustrated. The paper concludes by showing how the collaborative agentic model might produce a more sustainable future for our world while suggesting avenues for future research of a collective rather than a personal approach to leadership.

The End of Managerial Control

This paper has the aim of considering whether managerial control, no matter its form, has outlived its usefulness in post-bureaucratic society, and if so, whether it can be replaced by a more emancipatory discourse among local practitioners as they confront the immanent requirements of social interaction within their own practices. The paper initially reviews the limitations of bureaucratic control and considers post-bureaucratic or “soft” alternatives as sources of empowerment. Seen as ideals, post-bureaucratic options are not thought to overturn the imposition of control in organizing, but the relocation of the positioning of work to the practice setting offers management a new role as the facilitator of the critical discourse required to sustain and enhance local activity.

Emancipatory Discourse and Liberation

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 dialogic processes change the social order to close the gap between a privileged class of managers and workers, or do we require class struggle and structural reform? By elaborating on such methods as dialogue, public reflection and action science, this article attempts to make the case that marginalized groups in society might find their voice in projects that are intentionally contextualized and publicly reflective. These methods have found applications in some illustrated critical pedagogies, although not without strain induced from conventional institutions. The article concludes with an enumeration of some conditions under which emancipatory discourse and liberationist struggle may coincide.