Dualistic Theory of the Processes of Management Learning

Over the years there have been numerous attempts in social psychology to examine the process of influence between change agents (e.g. parents, teachers, clinicians) and objects of their influence (children, students, patients). There has not been a concomitant effort to do the same in the field of management education, that is to explore the learning mechanisms between a management educationalist (e.g., teacher, trainer) and manager, although the parallels with social psychological theory are obviously there. It was felt that we might briefly examine a number of these theories here with a view to extracting concepts that may be useful in helping us to develop a working model of a learning theory applicable to the management education process.