Donovan, Paul
(2017)
A Threshold Concept
in Managing: What
Students in Introductory
Management Courses
Must Know.
Journal of Management Education, 41 (6).
pp. 835-851.
ISSN 1052-5629
Abstract
In the field of management, a practice–theory gap has developed and
consequently, management education has been criticized for being
irrelevant to the needs of stakeholders. This article argues that introduction
to management courses in higher education perpetuate this gap by not
teaching what managers do. These courses fail to communicate well
the threshold concept of managing as accomplishing results through other
people. Understanding this threshold concept would give students clearer
perspectives on the distinction between doing work and managing work in
organizations—between being “one of the team” and “managing the team.”
Using a class exercise as exemplar, the author demonstrates the use of a set
of debate questions in the form of contestable statements regarding doing
and managing, which are argued by students in small groups in class before
final resolution in a plenary session. Students emerge from these debating
sessions with a clearer definition and understanding of the core work that
managers actually do. Learners also become cognizant of the need for
managers to have an appropriate balance between the amount of managing and doing work they engage in on a daily basis. Without these understandings
students become “stuck” and their learning lacks posteducational relevance.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
management education; threshold concept; doing; managing work;
introduction to management; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Business |
| Item ID: |
11314 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562917704869 |
| Depositing User: |
Paul Donovan
|
| Date Deposited: |
16 Oct 2019 11:56 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Journal of Management Education |
| Publisher: |
Sage Publications |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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