Action researching post-experience management education : a powerful mechanism for developing leaders and bringing about organisational learning

Court, Krista and Greenwood, Jo (2025) Action researching post-experience management education : a powerful mechanism for developing leaders and bringing about organisational learning. Educational Action Research. ISSN 0965-0792

Abstract

This research utilises an Action Research approach to examine the mechanisms by which a UK post-experience management education programme can bring about improvements in management practice. Our multi-layered Action Research examined departmental policies and practices and the mechanisms by which impact unfolded for a group of professional, postgraduate alumni. Findings suggest that the translation of scholarly inquiry to practice occurred through: a) a departmental commitment to relational management education; b) a facilitated process of intentional partnership between educator and student; and c) perhaps most importantly, engagement in a change-orientated Action Research capstone project within the student’s organisation. The authors contend that taking an Action Research approach to post-experience, work-based learning curriculum design and evaluation can support leaderful practice and organisational learning for both students and programme team. Moreover, a learning and evaluation process such as this promotes an important shift – from a traditional ‘information give’ model of teaching and learning and a standard end-of-programme survey approach to evaluation – to one of partnership, knowledge-sharing and power-sharing.