Using professional situations to design a training system for managerial activity

De Bisschop, H., Loizon, A., Landret, C. (2022). Using professional situations to design a training system for managerial activity. L’Institut Agro Dijon. UR FoAP- Formation et Apprentissages Professionnels https://www.innovation-pedagogique.fr/article11981.html

Teaching management continually raises pedagogical questions. A complex and highly interactive activity, it mobilises the person carrying it out in many intellectual, physical, emotional and ethical dimensions (Barbier et al., 2011; Mispelblom-Beyer, 2006). For many practitioners, as well as for some experts, management cannot be learned in a classroom setting because “it is above all a profession, in the sense that it is based on experience, on learning by doing” (Mintzberg, 2005). However, “the experiential anchoring of managerial expertise is not self-evident” (Bonnet 2019, p.27), so prevalent is the tendency to reify management learning with the acquisition of a body of generic knowledge disconnected from psycho-sociological dynamics. On the other hand, certain army training courses have, for example, demonstrated interesting learning potential (de Bisschop, 2020). Companies and training organisations are developing systems based on or inspired by this type of course, particularly for leadership training, which incorporate reflexivity in varying proportions (Gillet et al., 2015). We present the design of a two-day training module in an engineering school aimed more specifically at developing skills in organising collective action and in conflict management.