THE EFFECT OF GRADUATE MANAGEMENT ACTION LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS ON PUBLIC REFLECTIVENESS IN MANAGERIAL PRACTICE

In 1957 at an earlier time when there was a chorus of criticism against business education but for different reasons than today, President Clark Kerr of the University of California, himself a professor of business, in addressing his colleagues made the now‐famous statement that, “business administration was busy searching for its soul”. Today, there is still a chorus of criticism against business education. In the United States the field is also known to have become too academic, too technical, too narrow, and as a result, responsible for graduates who are not prepared to be future leaders in a world‐wide economy (Cheit, 1985). In a less well‐known part of that same speech, President Kerr may have pointed to the reason for business education losing its way. He also said that the managers of that day work “….within a context given to them”. That is to say, they don't tend to question the purpose of their mission.