All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Buckley , Finian |
|---|---|
| Email: | Finian.Buckley@dcu.ie |
| Institution: | Dublin City University Business School |
Conway, Edel Monks, Kathy Kirrane, Melrona MacKeogh, Kay Barker, Pat
Recently some very searching questions have been asked of the utility and functionality, not to mind the philosophical integrity, of Management Education (Paauwe & Williams, 2001). As most adult or post experience management education is sponsored by employers, there has been a demand for the identification of financial and behavioural benefits to organisations of management education (Burrow & Berardinelli, 2003). The current research seeks to establish the impact of management education on individual and organisational outcomes in Ireland. This report outlines the development of the Management Education Effectiveness Questionnaire. The three-stage research plan involves data collection as students begin their programme of studies, again when they complete their education and again six months after completion of the programme. The study attempts to overcome the limitations associated with previous evaluation research by including measures of important pre-education antecedents such as Motivation to Learn, Conscientiousness, and Self-efficacy. The researchers also hope to gain independent verification of the impact of participation in management education on workplace behaviour change by including participant work colleagues in the research using a separate evaluation questionnaire. The research, involving the participation of four universities on the island of Ireland, begun in November 2003. Universities in Australia, USA and South Africa have also agreed to participate in the research from 2004 forward. The broad objectives and implications of the research are presented. More tangibly initial data has been received and collated and preliminary results regarding the relationship between dispositional (personality) variables and workplace behaviour are reported as well as expectations regarding management education utility. Burrow, J. & P. Berardinelli, 2003, "Systematic Performance improvement - refining the space between learning and results" in Journal of Workplace Learning, 15: 16-13. Paauwe J. & R. Williams, 2001, "Seven key issues for management development" in Journal of Management Development, 20: 2, 90-105.
(Abstract ref: #29.)