Learning into practice shaped by discursive dynamics: Relevance of MBA for experienced managers

Abstract

Companies worldwide, including India - site of our field work, invest considerably in management development programs. Still, little is known about how practices are modified because of what is learned. We gathered firsthand testimonies about transferring learning to practice (L-to-P) based on in-depth interviews with 50 Indian engineer-managers, back to work after completing a mid-career MBA program. From our findings, we identified six types of L-to-P effects, providing previously unavailable factual examples of modification in practices inspired by learning. Unraveling the soft invisible process by which L-to-P occurred led to the proposition of discursive dynamics as foundational. Focusing on the change process reported in our interviews, we judged that the discursive dynamics by which training is transformed into practices occur in three-phases: (1) Intrapersonal discursivity (self-reflection on learning as practice potential), (2) Interpersonal discursivity (change-agency communication with others at work), and (3) Institutional discursivity (considering contextual-institutional constraints on change processes). To make sense theoretically of that emergent interpretation of the discursive dynamics process, we turn to the embodied phenomenological perspective of Merleau-Ponty. In closing, the practical utility of our findings for human resources planning, general management development program investment, and for business school advancement are discussed.