Learning and teaching research methods in management education

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Hoidn ◽  
Sibylle Olbert-Bock
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Administration ◽  
Competence Development ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Teaching Research

Purpose – In the context of the creation of a two-year Master of Science in Business Administration programme to offer a scientifically sound and practice-related management education in Switzerland, a curriculum for learning and teaching research methods had to be designed. Major pedagogic challenges were identified and addressed by curricular responses in terms of pluralism in knowledge production forms, a holistic approach to competence development and a learner-centred course design. The resulting design of the part of the curriculum on research methods is presented. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – To assess the outcomes and its response to the given challenges, the feedback from existing regular evaluations was used and additional surveys were conducted. Students’ perceptions and those of their teachers were combined to form a balanced view. Findings – The results indicate that the new curriculum is an appropriate approach- it led to gains in research methods knowledge and skills and improvements in research-related social and reflexive competencies. The assessment of the outcomes of learning research methods in management education reveals an interesting research gap. Originality/value – This paper assesses a newly developed research curriculum for management students implemented in a new master’s programme in Business Administration at a mid-size university of applied sciences in Switzerland. Three pedagogical challenges in teaching research methods were addressed to target the theory-practice gap in management education. The authors opted for a research methods curriculum that links management research and practice by encouraging pluralism in knowledge-production forms, a more holistic view of competence development in management education and a learning-centred course design.

Measuring the success of scaleable open online courses

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane E. Klobas
Keyword(s):  
Course Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Course Evaluation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Design Development ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Course Success

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose measures of online open course success for non-commercial institutional providers of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other scaleable open online courses (SOOCs). Design/methodology/approach – The measures are derived from the characteristics of open online courses, existing knowledge about open online course providers and users and their motivations, and current practice in MOOC evaluation and data analytics. Findings – Current practices for evaluation of open online courses are dominated by MOOC analytics which provide insights into user demographics and behaviour with some implications for evaluation of reach and course design but leaving many unknowns. Measures for evaluation of success at the institutional level can be derived from institutional goals for open online courses. Success from the point of view of teachers and technical teams involved in design, development and delivery of open online courses can be derived from team members’ expectations, resources and satisfaction as well as measures of cost and effort compared to budget and benchmarks. Users are classified as registrants (information seekers, window shoppers, samplers), downloaders and participants (starters, partial participants and full participants who are further divided into auditing, active and certificate takers); different measures are appropriate for each group. Practical implications – Practitioners and researchers must consider a variety of levels and indicators of success to adequately evaluate open online courses. Tables in the text propose measures, methods, timing and roles. Originality/value – This is the first published paper to take a holistic view of open online course evaluation and propose detailed measures.

scholarly journals Implementing liberal management education through the lens of the other

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 456-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Estad ◽  
Stefano Harney ◽  
Howard Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Business Education ◽  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Core Curriculum ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Core ◽  
Business Knowledge

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the prerequisite conditions for implementing a liberal management education and for fostering ethical students using examples from the core curriculum at Singapore Management University (SMU). Design/methodology/approach – Beginning with a reading of the Carnegie Foundation's Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education: liberal learning for the professions (2011), the paper examines the contribution and limits of the findings and recommendations before discussing the place of the liberal arts in the modern university and describing a case study of liberal management education in process at SMU. It concludes with a reading of the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Asian philosophy as the basis for an ethical management education. Findings – The paper uncovers a central shortcoming in an otherwise important Carnegie study: that business education is unlike other professional education because it lacks an autonomous discipline that studies business knowledge production as an object. Consequently, applying the liberal arts to business education risks neglecting the critical side of the liberal arts. With only the reflective side of the liberal arts in operation, management education cannot be grasped as a specific sphere of values within the pluralism of spheres advocated by the Carnegie report. Only by recreating the function of an autonomous discipline with an objective lens on business knowledge within the core curriculum at SMU can that university attempt to incorporate both the critical and reflective side of the liberal arts in management education. This kind of liberal management education can indeed lead to respect for the values of the others in the way that ethical philosopher Emmanuel Levinas envisioned. Research limitations/implications – Further development of the SMU core curriculum is necessary in order to confirm the hypothesis that the liberal arts can be brought together with management education to produce more mature, ethical students. Practical implications – Liberal management education curriculum must incorporate the critical function of the liberal arts when faced with business knowledge production in order to promote a pluralist ethics. If SMU is successful, it can become a model for other global business schools in Asia and beyond. Social implications – Asian higher education is ongoing a rapid transformation in values. The shift is towards understanding the wider relationship between universities and society and the role of an education citizenry. Liberal management education can be a bridge to this new world of higher education in Asia, and beyond. Originality/value – This discussion provides a fuller understanding of the two-sided nature of the liberal arts and the importance of both sides for building a liberal management education and creating ethically mature students.

Gender, feminization and the MBA: a review of the contribution of Ruth Simpson

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 461-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afam Ituma
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Administration ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mba Curriculum ◽  
Scholarly Contribution ◽  
Business Requirements ◽  
Business And Management ◽  
Changing World

Purpose Ruth Simpson is a leading scholar in management education. This paper aims to provide a succinct summary of her voluminous work on management education, with a particular focus on her work on the relevance and benefit of the Master in Business Administration (MBA) degree, which is generally considered the flagship of business and management education. Design/methodology/approach The approach taken is a review that introduces the central themes underpinning the work of Ruth Simpson on the MBA. Findings The paper elevates the understanding of the skills development and related outcomes from the MBA. Research limitations/implications The works reviewed have implications on how to align the MBA curriculum to meet contemporary business requirements in a fast-changing world. Originality/value This paper highlights the key findings of Ruth Simpson’s research on the MBA and her scholarly contribution in this area. The paper also generates insights that are anticipated to stimulate management educators to further extend the field and carry it forward in the coming years.

Peer research with young Muslims and the politics of knowledge production

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 268-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Vassadis ◽  
Ameera Karimshah ◽  
Anita Harris ◽  
Youssef Youssef
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Politics Of Knowledge ◽  
Youth Research ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Peer Researchers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to draw on the authors’ experiences as a team made up of both “insiders” and “outsiders” in order to investigate how an insider-outsider peer research method facilitates productive forms of research into the lives of young Muslims, and to contribute to debates about ways of knowing youth. The authors aim to shift focus from a common claim that peer research methods simply improve research about youth to more deeply investigate how they enable, as well as limit, the production of particular kinds of knowledge, in this case, about Muslim youth in Australia. Design/methodology/approach – The research aimed to explore how “ordinary” young Australian Muslims engage in civic life. Yet the authors were faced with the challenge of accessing and recruiting “ordinary” youth in times of Islamophobia, wherein Muslim communities expressed serious concerns about their voices being misinterpreted, misused and misappropriated. Therefore, the authors sought to utilise an approach of outsider-designed and guided research that was then shaped and executed by insider peer researchers. It is this research design and its execution that the authors interrogate in this paper. Findings – As well as affording the authors access and the elicitation of rich, complex and high-quality data, the approach also fostered more complex stories about young Muslim identities and experiences, and enabled the authors to contest some common and homogenising representations. It also allowed opportunities for fundamental issues inherent in these kinds of qualitative research methods to be made explicit. These include the politics of performativity and issues of positionality in the peer research process. The authors suggest that the “insider” and “outsider” approach succeeded not so much because it got the authors closer to the “truth” about young Muslims’ civic lives, but because it revealed some of the mechanics of the ways stories are constructed and represented in youth research. Originality/value – The originality and value of this paper lie in its contribution to a debate about the politics of knowledge production about young people and Muslims in particular, and in its effort to move forward a discussion about how to be accountable in youth research to the various communities and to one another in insider-outsider research teams.

2008 APSA Teaching and Learning Track Summaries—Track Four: Teaching Research Methods

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (03) ◽  
pp. 616-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Dion ◽  
Leland M. Coxe ◽  
Margaret Carne
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Research Universities ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Diverse Group ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Teaching Research ◽  
Pedagogical Innovations ◽  
Large Research

A diverse group of 25 faculty and graduate students participated in the 2008 Teaching Research Methods (TRM) track. Participants represented a range of institutions—public and private, urban and rural, domestic and international, large research universities and teaching colleges. Presentations provided evidence of the heterogeneity in methods instruction and of pedagogical innovations in course design and delivery. The discussion in this year's meeting echoed and built upon prior meetings, reflecting the workshop format and participation of several track members in successive TLC meetings. The recommendations formulated by the track will be discussed following a brief summary of the presentations and discussion.

Contemporary issues in events, festivals and destination management

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 842-847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathilda Van Niekerk
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sport Events ◽  
Content Theme ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This article aims to provide a critical review of the articles included in this special issue and highlight their findings and contribution to events, festivals and destination management research. Design/methodology/approach The article critically reviews methodologies, findings, themes and conclusions offered by each article included in this special issue. Findings The articles in the special issue identify the latest thematic trends in events, festivals and destination management research and propose conceptual frameworks for event and festival life cycle trajectories. They build on previous research confirming how accessible tourism and a balanced event portfolio can increase the sustainability and competitiveness of the destination. Based on sound methodologies, they offer specific theoretical and practical implication for the successful planning, marketing and management of events, festivals and destinations. They provide suggestions on how event innovation, participatory sport events, mega sport events, food and wine festivals and meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) can assist in the marketing and branding of the tourism destination. Research limitations/implications The articles in this special issue lay the foundation for future research in events, festivals and destination management. Articles in this special issue apply various research methods and analysis, indicating the growth of event and festival research. Research methods and analysis techniques used in the special issue include content/theme analysis, case studies, qualitative studies and questionnaires. The research articles and methodologies used in this issue should help both researchers and industry practitioners. Originality/value This study highlights key findings, theoretical and practical implications and contributions of the articles included in this special issue. It provides a holistic view of events, festivals and destination management research and suggests areas for future research.

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