Bright Lights and the pastoral idyll:ideas of community underlying management education methodologies

Reynolds, Michael (2000) Bright Lights and the pastoral idyll:ideas of community underlying management education methodologies. Management Learning, 31 (1). pp. 67-81. ISSN 1350-5076

Abstract

The idea of community underlies much of the more participative, if not experiential, approaches to management education and development. More recently the idea has entered the conceptual vocabulary of the `learning organization'. The appeal of community lies in its implied promise of solidarity, belonging, and a sense of personal significance. But these promises can mask darker tendencies towards coercion and the assimilation of differences. This article offers a critique of the notion of community. It proposes an alternative basis for a management pedagogy in which differences are the grounds for debate, dispute and understanding, rather than the reason for assimilation or exclusion.