Search results

Customised executive education, designed for and delivered to individual client companies by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), differs in important ways from award-bearing courses. One area in which these differences are surprisingly extensive is in the use of technology. We explore the impact of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) on course design, delivery and evaluation of customised executive education. In doing so, we contrast this form of learning with MOOCs, which use TEL in a different way, for a different audience.

We begin with the ‘two-client’ problem. In customised executive programmes, course design is done collaboratively between the HEI and the corporate client, reflecting the particular learning needs of the selected participants as perceived by the commissioning client. We find that the level of TEL in any programme will reflect the learning needs, and also the level of TEL sophistication, of both client and academics.

We then consider the successful integration of TEL into customised executive education. TEL can enrich a course great, but will also mean a loss of academic control, as a significant amount of the learning will be peer-to-peer, and much of the information-gathering can take place outside the classroom.

We conclude with the outcomes and success measures of customised executive education. The institutional disruption of TEL to the HEI is considerable, as their traditional business model is based on rewarding academics for research and for classroom-hours. This needs to be rethought where the classroom element is reduced, but there is constant online interaction with participants.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolving nature of supply chain management customised executive education over the past decade and present a conceptual framework for curriculum development and design.

The paper adopts a combination of methods utilising both in‐depth interviews with academics and practitioners and a single longitudinal case study based on records of 197 customised executive education programmes delivered since 2000.

The findings show that the needs of practitioners have evolved from acquiring competency‐based training to obtaining support for wider strategy deployment and change management programmes within organisations. Moreover, the design and delivery of programmes have developed over the period considering the requirements for experiential learning, project work involving deeper faculty engagement, pre‐ and post‐course project activity, supported by internet‐based learning portals.

The authors' research provides evidence that the nature of supply chain executive education has changed and that further research is needed to explore the implications for the delivery of programmes.

The adoption of the framework will provide course directors and programme managers involved in supply chain management executive education with insights for successful design and execution of programmes. Similarly, the framework can support decision‐making processes conducted by organisations commissioning customised executive education programs.

Although there is a body of research relating to curriculum development and design generally, there is little empirical research focusing on supply chain management executive education.

This paper seeks to elaborate on the drivers underpinning the rise of the Platform Model in customized executive learning and to explain the guiding philosophy underpinning this model.

The study followed directives for case‐based research, and was based on multiple sources of evidence: extant literature, archival data, industry publications, interviews and direct observation. Common issues were identified and used to build theory and make the concepts generic enough to be communicated to executive education professionals. Findings were shared and validated with professionals, and with managers within the human resource and organizational development departments of corporate firms.

The emergence of the Platform Model for executive education has been driven by four key developments –an explosion in the number of intellectual free agents who work outside or beyond the permeable organizational boundaries of academic institutions; the increasing recognition of open collaboration as an engine of customization and innovation; the pervasive spread of information and communication technologies that are enabling virtual teams to deliver integrated educational offerings; and the demand of clients that educational offerings should deliver outcomes by matching intellectual resources with their needs, and not vice versa.

The paper describes a recent trend in the ongoing evolution of approaches towards the design and delivery of executive learning. The Platform Model for executive learning is based on the existence of what has become a two‐sided network, entailing a triangular set of market relationships. On one side of this network are the individuals and firms that possess specialist skills and expertise, and on the other side are organizational clients seeking learning solutions. The need for these two groups – the network's “sides” – to interact with each other efficiently has created the opportunity for the emergence of Platform Intermediaries.

If this is the “Age of the Learning Organization,” surely creating leaders who can build learning‐oriented competitive advantage should be a big business. Nohria and Berkley of the Harvard Business School have estimated that corporate expenditures for training have grown from $10 billion to $45 billion during the past decade. Business Week estimates that approximately $12 billion of this amount was devoted to executive education. The growth in expenditures for executive programs is a result of the increasing recognition that education and leadership development are powerful levers in communicating and implementing key strategic initiatives.

This paper aims to explore the growing role of customized case studies in executive education programs.

A general review is provided, mainly from the authors' experience, on designing and employing custom cases.

It is shown that the benefits of designing and using custom cases accrue throughout the program development, delivery and follow‐up phases and can have a positive impact not only on course participants, but also on senior management and teaching faculty.

The role of pedagogical tools in executive education remains a largely under‐researched area. Suggestions are made for future work.

It is shown how the construction of a case can vary by both content and format to best suit program objectives. Guidelines are also provided for teaching effectiveness.

This appears to be the first, in‐depth assessment of the design and use of case studies in executive education.

This article reports on the development and assessment of a customized executive education experience, designed for the managers of a large financial services organization. It was designed to incorporate many of the desirable outcomes of “action learning” such as organizational impact and sustainability, while being more parsimonious in the involvement of senior executives and, in a single‐period design, in the time intensity of participant involvement. A total of 542 managers who participated in the program, over a four year period, were surveyed concerning the effectiveness of the program. Hypotheses are developed and the results examined to determine whether participants believed that the value of their learning diminished over time, the effects of demographic characteristics, and the extent to which the sharing of the learning and support of organizational colleagues affected participants’ perception of the program’s effectiveness. Results reveal less degradation over time than anticipated, and more powerful influence by subordinates, in sustaining learning.

This study aims to examine managers’ considerations for leveraging management research for their work and the implications of such considerations on using inquiry-based learning (IBL) in customised executive education programmes (CEEPs) offered by business schools (b-schools).

The study proposes a conceptual framework that is validated using a single case study analysis. For the case study, semi-structured interviews were carried out with the top leadership of an organisation. Using the findings of the interviews, a survey was designed and administered to the managers of the organisation to further validate the findings.

This study identifies four considerations of the managers for leveraging management research. It analyses how faculty members can use IBL to design CEEPs to meet these considerations and link management research with managerial work.

The single organisational context in which the study was carried out and the small sample size of the survey can be seen as a limitation of this article to produce generalisable considerations of managers.

The findings in this study have practical implications on the design and teaching practices of using IBL in CEEPs.

The main contribution of this study is the conceptual framework for deciding the teaching practices of IBL in CEEPs. Another contribution is its analysis at the level of individual managers, which provides novel insights about the relationship between management research and managerial work.

This article outlines the experience and approach of an Australian university in developing and managing education program partnerships within industry.

Describes how the university has established a specialist Strategic Partnerships unit for managing the customisation and delivery of postgraduate award programs and executive education to industry. Discusses some of the key issues that have contributed to the management of industry partnerships.

Some of the key issues that have contributed to the management of industry partnerships include project management of industry programs and flexibility in developing and delivering education programs to industry from a university perspective.

Provides an illustration of the growth of university and corporate education partnerships in an Australian context.

This paper aims to fill a void in existing research by focusing on in-company efforts to develop supply chain (SC) talent, with a specific focus on the role that executives can play in this process. This study uses the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and theory of training motivation as theoretical background for the exploration. In addition to that, this paper provides meaningful information for executives aspiring to contribute to the development of supply chain management (SCM) talent including the primary drivers, benefits, barriers and bridges (Fawcett et al., 2008). Using this framework will lead to the development of a conceptual model to facilitate future research efforts.

This paper studies three case companies where there was an active executive engagement in the recruiting, on-boarding and ongoing development of SC talent.

In all three case companies’ executive engagement was high and the executives acted as champions of the SC talent development program including designing and stewardship of the program. They also got personally involved in recruiting, training and mentoring. In alignment with the RBV of the firm, all three case companies were strongly driven by a need to improve the competitive advantage of their firm through the SC competencies and capabilities. This strategic directive is driven by the executive suite and typically involved a combination of goals including improving functional capability development, internal stakeholder relationships and growth in business value contributions. This leads to the need for attracting new talent, due to talent shortages and developing more future-proof capabilities of the SC talent. Talent that is future-proof can effectively handle the current scope of work and successfully implement changes that the SCM strategy aspires to. Hence, the executive ownership is very much driven by a strategic imperative to improve the knowledge, skills and abilities and critical realization of the importance of talent recruitment and development. This study also finds that there are very specific SCM drivers, benefits, barriers and bridges in play making it important for SCM executives and teams to engage and not rely on generic human resource (HR) processes and frameworks only.

We found that in the three case companies’ executive engagement in talent development had a positive impact. We also identified specific roles of the executives such as, the benefit of engagement across multiple hierarchical layers of the organization and, the risk of programs being shorter lived when focused on a narrower talent issue. Our research focus contributes to the existing supply chain literature involving talent management. It also suggests actions for supply chain executives, for the educational provision of universities and multiple research opportunities.

There is no evidence of prior research in fields of HR management, talent development or SCM related to the impact of executive engagement in this process. This paper studies three case companies where there was an active executive engagement in the recruiting, on-boarding and ongoing development of SC talent. Findings show the critical impact of personal and extended engagement of senior-level executives and their leadership teams, in SC talent development. This paper offers specific techniques and approaches, generates suggestions for further research, managerial action and university implications.