Patricia Sanders

Management Development Assistance for Poland ‐A Playground for Western Consultants?

Western management development assistance (MDA) is being viewed with scepticism in Poland – a scepticism fuelled by the rapid proliferation of MDA programmes which sometimes compete with one another, frequently lack intellectual clarity, and often are short‐sighted. Discusses some of the barriers, challenges and opportunities associated with developing MDA programmes for post‐communist countries, presents a method for analysing variables in planning MDA programmes, and offers recommendations for those seeking to develop MDA programmes for post‐communist countries.

Enthusiasm Awareness in Experiential Learning

The folklore of education frequently includes enthusiasm as a characteristic of effective teaching. Yet, after extensive conversations with colleagues while revising a business faculty evaluation form, enthusiasm appears to elicit little excitement from business professors. Common criticisms were, &dquo;I’m here to teach the students, not to excite them,&dquo; or &dquo;Enthusiasm is nice, but not necessary.&dquo; This lack of enthusiasm for enthusiasm in the university classroom comes

A Socialization Exercise: Learning the Ropes in an Experiential Course

a four-stage model. Learning begins with a concrete experience which provides an arena for &dquo;experiencing&dquo; in which students must take action. Structured debriefing questions provide the vehicle for reflecting and generalizing about the experience. Subsequent exercises or life experiences provide opportunities for applying and testing the new learning. In part, experiential learning is an outgrowth of the teachings of John Dewey, who asserted that experience and learning are inextricably linked. Dewey (1916) proposed that a &dquo;backward-forward&dquo; connection must be made for learning to occur: &dquo;To learn from experience is to make a backward and forward connection between what we do to things and what we enjoy or suffer from things in consequence&dquo; (p. 140). Successful experiential learning depends on at least three factors: The student’s ability to learn affectively as well as cognitively; the instructor’s skill in making the backward-forward connection between experience (doing or feeling) and cognitive learning; and, the instructor’s effectiveness in &dquo;socializing&dquo; students into the experiential learning classroom. Socialization refers to the process by which new members learn the value system, the norms or required behavior patterns of the society, organization or group they are entering (Schein, 1968). In the classroom, socialization includes the process or method the instructor uses to inform students of expectations, i.e., what is expected of them, the role of the instructor and desired outcomes. Getting students involved in their own learning and expecting them to utilize affective as well as cognitive processes in learning may be a difficult barrier to over-

Commentary On the Development, Validation, and Use of the Experiential Socialization Index

The Experiential Socialization Index (ESI) was developed originally as a self-reflective device for a classroom exercise on organizational socialization. The initial self-assessment instrument consisted of sixteen statements soliciting student agreement or disagreement with attitudes and beliefs related to learning in classroom activities. Subsequently, it was used to assess the degree of participant (student) acceptance of pivotal and peripheral norms associated with experiential learning (Sanders &