Katalin Illes

The Learning Experience of Postgraduate Students: Matching Methods to Aims.

Action research with international Masters in Business Administration students reported here builds on action research carried out at Anglia Polytechnic University to better enable international postgraduate students develop learning and research strategies and research methods to succeed in their study. The Reflection on Learning Inventory (Meyer and Boulton-Lewis, 1997) and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) examination, which tests competence in reading, writing, listening and speaking skills,1 identify student learning styles and language levels from which conclusions about teaching and learning needs are deduced. A programme of academic-oriented language support, including both the APU-originated CD-ROM Excel at Academic English and specific workshop sessions, has been developed. This programme is piloted with the 2000-2001 cohort, and accompanied by action research which includes focus group interviews and mid-year evaluation of the support and development programme. It has led to radical overhaul of elements of the course itself, with widespread implications for support and development for international postgraduates studying at APU.

Learning from the Patchwork Text process – a retrospective discussion

After about two years of work with the Patchwork Text process in our different contexts, and after writing our individual case studies, we decided we would like to put together a ‘joint statement’ about what we had learned. Given the quite different directions in which each of us had taken the original general idea, this was itself necessarily conceived as a sort of Patchwork. We decided we would individually prepare a statement of specific ideas that had emerged from our own work, but present them in a spoken forum, so that discussion of points of difference and overlap could take place. The occasion was tape-recorded and transcribed, and the transcription was then edited, to convert the inevitable vagaries of speech into a readable text.

The role of spirituality in business education

Purpose – This paper aims to argue that there is a strong imbalance in business education between providing abstract, rational concepts and opportunities for personal growth. Introducing spirituality in business education seems to be desirable if we want to prepare students for the complexities and challenges of the workplace today. Design/methodology/approach – The paper gives an example of how techniques from voice and drama therapy can be used for enabling students to look beyond the rational and the material. Findings – By engaging with their “true self”, students may discover dormant qualities in themselves and start to find their purpose, meaning and spirituality. Originality/value – The paper shows that by introducing some new approaches in business education, we can provide opportunities for students to connect their rational thoughts with conscience and the “true self”. When students make an integrated use of our mental, emotional and spiritual resources, they are better equipped to make complex ...

Spiritually inspired creativity in business

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation of spirituality and creativity in business context. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents practical examples of spiritual-based creative business models in different faith traditions (Hinduism, Christianity and Anthroposophy). Findings Spirituality and a deep sense of connectedness are essential to enhance creativity and care in business. Spirituality creates free space and openness to allow the future to emerge organically. It creates a distance between the self and the pressures of the market and the routines of business and daily life. This distance is a necessary condition for developing creative, ethical and responsible solutions to the complex challenges around us. Originality/value Spiritually inspired creative business models overcome the instrumental rationality and materialistic orientation of today’s business management which produces large scale ecological, social and ethical “ills.” The paper shows that alternative business management practices need a spiritual foundation to be more creative and caring.

The Patchwork Text and Business Education: rethinking the importance of personal reflection and co-operative cultures

This paper describes and evaluates the introduction of the Patchwork Text assignment in the assessment of a Masters-level course on ‘Intercultural Management’, taught to students of various nationalities and linguistic/cultural background as part of the MA International Business and the MA Business and Management at Anglia Polytechnic University. It begins by addressing the question of whether the Patchwork Text assessment process can contribute to effective management education and concludes that the Patchwork Text has relevance in attempts to foster creative individuality and ‘feminine’ qualities of mutual nurturing and sharing.

How Stories Can Be Used in Organisations Seeking to Teach the Virtues

Our focus is on the use of narrative in ethics education in organisations. The effectiveness of stories as a basis for executive education and organisational development has been described in other chapters in this book and elsewhere. Many writers provide examples linking stories and ethics, but the examples are drawn most often from overtly ethical stories. We offer a more expansive and inclusive view, suggesting that all stories are valuable for teaching ethics. We use Booker’s (2004) finding that all stories belong to one of seven basic plots – overcoming the monster; rags to riches; the quest; voyage and return; comedy; tragedy; and rebirth – to show that no major category of narrative need be omitted from those which can provide examples or links to the development of virtue in organisations. We provide examples of how stories can be used to encourage the development of specific virtues including courage, integrity, hope, inquisitiveness, humour and prudence. Six further aspects are considered – whether only moral stories are useful, the value of complexity, the benefit of familiarity, stories of failure, the selection of appropriate stories and whether non-fiction can be included.

The Light of the World

This paper was inspired by William Holman Hunt’s Pre-Raphaelite painting, The Light of the World. https://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/about/chaptel/Light%20of%20the%20world%202.JPG/view. It is a well-known Victorian oil painting with rich symbolism. In this essay I outline the context, describe the painting and reflect on the role of spirituality and contemplation in one’s work and personal life. I offer autoethnographic illustrations and argue that spirituality and contemplation make a positive contribution to wellbeing and can support one’s search for meaning, purpose and connectedness in the world.

Spiritual-Based Entrepreneurship: Hindu and Christian Examples

Spiritual traditions put human existence into a broader context, and support the integration of moral values and behaviors into daily life that can create a happier and more meaningful existence. This paper contains two insightful cases. One involves a Hindu social entrepreneur, while the other concerns a Christian social entrepreneur. The basic principles of Hinduism and Christianity are described in the search for purpose, meaning and correlations between the cases. By tapping into the timeless wisdom of our human heritage we can connect with others in meaningful ways, overcome cultural, political and religious barriers, and find new ways of working together.

Reflections on Peter Pruzan’s “Spiritual-Based Leadership”

A growing area of leadership discourse is based on the spiritual and philosophical dimensions of leader development. The topic is there in academic papers, conference themes and memoirs of some leaders. Nitin Nohria argues that we need leaders who demonstrate moral humility. How do you cultivate moral humility? Can it be taught?

Facilitating regeneration through new enterprise creation

This paper undertakes a comparative study of intervention strategies and the resultant impact upon new enterprise creation in the UK and Hungary. Firstly, secondary data is used to compare and contrast the actions of, and support provided by, major employer organisations faced with the need to downsize and restructure in the light of changing economic circumstances. Parallels are drawn between the need to support the local economy in specific regions of the UK, which faced extreme recession following the decline of major industries and the need to support local economies in Hungary, which face an uncertain future, but new opportunities, following the liberalisation of economic policy. Secondly, the paper reports the results of interviews with entrepreneurs and owner-managers in both countries who have received and who are receiving support and assistance to establish, grow and develop new enterprises. For many this marks a significant transition from employment to self-employment and requires the acquisition of new skills and competences together with the acceptance of high levels of risk and exposure not previously experienced. Thirdly, the paper assesses the impact of changing relationships within the local economy. This is especially significant where newly established SMEs operate as sub-contractors to the supporting organisation which takes the opportunity to out-source services and/or production which was previously undertaken in-house. The paper concludes with specific recommendations concerning the role of facilitators in influencing attitudes towards entrepreneurship and actions, which may be undertaken to encourage regeneration through the creation of new enterprises.