Abstract:

For centuries universities in their teaching and learning processes have implemented tools of traditional logic and rationality. Only recently management learning scholarship has acknowledged that learning also relates to embodied practices. The theory of embodied cognition argues that several factors such as the body and the environment play a role in the development of one`s cognitive capacities. While scholarship increasingly recognizes the importance of embodiment in management learning, this field is not only relatively new but still undeveloped and we lack empirical research on the outcomes of such practices.

In this paper, our main aim is to analyse and explore how the embodied practices implemented in the university settings were perceived by the business students and have influenced their cognitive processes. We present a methodology to deal with complex management problems through alternating sequences of mobilisation of Sensory, Emotional, and Spiritual (SES) intelligence, in addition to rational capacities and the outcomes of the implementation of this methodology.

Through an empirical case of six SES skills workshops, we explore how embodied practices ground critical thinking skills development of business students which they apply to solve complex management cases. The theoretical ground for the SES methodology is embodied cognition, coupled with the design thinking approach and the Theory U. During the six-workshop program, students engaged in mediation, breathing techniques, movement, painting, with the aim of understanding their corporeal and mental activity, their emotions, and their emerging conceptions of creativity. The pedagogical approach adopted was intended to challenge conventional classroom settings, by foregrounding bodily awareness, and not focusing solely on an analytical approach.

The data used in our analysis are based on reflection involving student descriptions of their ongoing experience with the workshops and work with the cases. Students were asked to reflect on the following two questions: what were your experiences about yourself during the SES workshops? What is the value of SES skills for the leaders in contemporary organizations? As an analytical technique, we coded the texts through an open, inductive coding scheme using NVIVO software.

The results show that SES workshops at the personal level develop students’ ability to think wide and at the same time to keep focused meaning that the methodology keeps them relaxed and at the same time fully concentrated on the problem. This type of training could allow business leaders to perceive problems differently and look for non-standard solutions. Students characterised SES skills as ‘inner knowing’ which is very much needed in the contemporary fast pacing world and at the same time as providing inner peace, as able to give simple answers that are not visible in a complex business world where a rational mind is traditionally engaged. The training was described as an ideal combination for a manager enabling to combine practical knowledge with experience and the ability to intuitively and alternatively find the best possible solutions for business development.

We conclude that the SES method increases students` problem-solving capacities and provides better results than a simple analytical approach. We discuss the implications of embodiment techniques for developing management learning.

Keywords:

Embodied cognition, Business management, SES skills, Complexity.