Collaborative Competence: Redefining Management Education Through Social Construction

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to stimulate discussion and further research on the topic of a fundamental and wholesale change in management education across a variety of organizations. The proposed model for management education is focused on interpersonal relationships as core to all aspects of educating managers. The article's premise is that management education should evolve to a design based on management itself as a relational social practice. The emergent model developed in the article rests on a historical analysis of approaches that demonstrate a flawed focus on rationalistic concepts. A new model is grounded in collaborative competence, an approach to achieve results over and above the sum of individual contributions. Collaborative competence is designed based on social construction principles. The episodic criticisms of the value of management education demonstrate that the approaches to educating organizational managers remain lacking. Shifting the pivotal focus of management education from rational and technical notions to a focus on relationships first rooted in social construction provides an enabling framework for organizational performance. The change in focus also addresses the need to educate managers to act in more ethical and socially responsible ways.