Skill Development with Action Learning within A Group Of MBA Students: A Mixed Method Evaluation

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to better understand the dynamics and possible impact of the ‘Action Learning’ (AL) approach on MBA students during an introduction class on their own skill development to better prepare them for their MBA. For that purpose, a class was designed with the AL approach in mind and applied during an 8-week course. In this research the same course participants have been investigated on their own learning, reflections, and experience during the course, the end of the course and one year later after finishing all coursework. The research is using an interpretive approach to qualitative evaluation using observation, qualitative questionnaire, students learning reflections, and a focus group. The findings suggest that the AL approach has the potential to create a wide variety of skills and knowledge for the users if enough time is given to experiment and apply with the AL approach. The findings also correlate with the findings of previous studies.  Educator and lecturer teaching at Postgraduate level will benefit from the design descriptions of the introductory class and the subsequent evaluations results to be applied in future course designs. Even so the findings might be unique to that particular group and generalizations cannot be made as the sample size is quite small, the originality and value of this study provides a deeper and better understanding of the group dynamics and learning potential of the AL in an international MBA class context. The setting and length of this AL study makes it challenging to replicate such a study which makes it a valuable contribution to practice and theory.