Abstract:

There seems to be a strong distinction between what most business schools prepare their students for and what practicing managers actually do in their professional life (Roos, 2015). Business education, in general, sees management as analytical and scientific, when empirical evidences indicate that the practicing manager repertoire is comprised of not only analysis but mainly of the development of creative solutions to ill-defined problems (Mintzberg, 1973).

Under this perspective, a change in management education is needed. It should be oriented less on the training of business analysts and more on preparing future managers for solving the ill-designed problems of ‘real’ business practice. It is suggested that the focus of business education should move from ‘simply’ providing a body of business knowledge to give students the opportunities to apply that knowledge under realistic contexts, since business theory is rarely applied in its ‘pure’ form (Mintzberg, 2004). Moreover, the globalization of the economy and the shift from a manufacturing to an information-based society have led to significant changes the conditions of work; with post-industrial economies living an era of continuous market change and creative destruction (Baaken et al., 2015; Braun and Mishra, 2016). This scenario increases the array of responsibilities of higher education institutions which, in addition to providing disciplinary knowledge, should prepare students in the development of non-disciplinary competences such as decision-making, problem-solving, interpersonal communication, etc. As argued by Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, et al. (2015), such competences - sometimes referred as transversal or generic - are increasingly relevant in a society facing constant changes, as they are adaptable to various contexts enhancing the relevancy and the employability of students.

Having that considered, to adequately teach management one needs to create 'powerful learning environments' which better resemble management practice and foster the development of transversal competences. In that respect, literature suggested that active learning methods are best fitted for the ‘task’ (Raelin, 2009). More specifically, different authors have pointed out a series of ‘desirable’ elements that should be present if one wants to accurately replicate a management learning environment. Those desirable elements, I condensed to form what is my thesis' theoretical proposition: that to build powerful management learning environments needs: a) learner-centred approach, b) use first-hand, ill-defined and implementable experiences, c) pay careful attention to reflection in and on the action and d) foster the development of a community of practice.

Nevertheless, while formulating theoretical answers has its own merits, the aim of this work is not only to develop a theoretical alternative, but also empirically verify such proposition. This will be done in two stages. First, through a comparative evaluation where the level of generic competences developed by undergraduate business students subjected to the theoretical proposition will be contrasted with others not subjected to the experimental treatment. Second, students subjected to the theoretical proposition will be interviewed where details over the learning process and the components to the theoretical framework will be addressed with the purpose of assessing and improving it.

Keywords:

Active-based learning, generic competences, transversal competences, management education, competence assessment, PBL, WBL.