Does your company use executive education as a strategic tool? Reward? Preparation for promotion? The Journal of Management Education (February, 2000) stated the purpose as:
· Recasting the worldviews of the executive teams and aligning organization to new directions
· Building awareness and support for strategic transitions
· Facilitating large scale organizational change necessary to realize new strategic direction
· Building depth of leadership talent, career transition to executive roles
· Instilling and socializing vision, mission and values of the corporation.
The pedagogy has evolved, with greater use of action-learning experiences and feedback for executives (Dotlich & Noel, 1998), as there has been a shift from functional knowledge to strategic leadership and organizational change. Now, you will see team-based exercises aiming to solve real-life problems with immediate relevance to the company.
Also, the educational events can be linked to change efforts, with the outcome to cascade downward throughout the entire organization (Conger & Benjamin, 1999; Fulmer & Vicere, 1995; Tihy & Sherman, 1999).
Measuring the impact has been a challenge. As the program seeks to impart complex knowledge, one does not know if the executive has retained it until a real-life situation emerges during which the learning can be tested (Conger & Xin, 1997).
What is the goal of your company's exexutive education?
