The Fragility of Goodness, What Good Do We Do as Management Educators?

A question that is sometimes asked in public policy is—how does government initiative come to affect the frontline and the public? It is a question that should receive more attention. In short—what good do we do? This is a question I have previously explored in healthcare (Warwick, 2010), and will now focus on higher education and the work of a small business school. This chapter is based upon two extended interview conversations imbued with richness and contextual experience. One interviewee shares their experience of being on an MBA programme in the Business School in question. We hear how the programme has offered her the opportunity to reflect on her experience and values in a way that mattered to her. We then hear from an experienced faculty member of several smaller business schools on his experience of what is of value to participants. In many respects this view chimes with the first interviewee’s experience of being on the MBA programme. Here we get an institutional insight that what is of value is often not recognised, or seen to be of value, by the organisation itself or in wider education policy.