Rethinking leadership: a way forward for teaching leadership?

Purpose – There have again been increasing calls for management educators to strengthen the development of leadership in their programmes. However, it is unclear as to how such calls can be best answered. One way forward may be to rethink our conceptualisation of leadership. This paper seeks to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach – Dominant theories of leadership may offer limited help to management educators. The dominant conceptualisation of leadership is questioned using empirical evidence from recent studies and interviews undertaken by the authors which examined managers' understandings of leadership. Findings – This article suggests that mainstream leadership theories are framed by systems-control thinking and highlights a number of issues in respect of teaching leadership. Proposes that a process-relational framing of leadership may be a more useful way to think about leadership. Research limitations/implications – Whilst the interview data drawn upon is exploratory and therefore cannot be taken as conclusive, we hope to stimulate a wider rethinking of leadership than is currently present. Practical implications – Tentative suggestions are presented for responding to calls to improve the teaching of leadership. Originality/value – The paper emphasises a process-relational understanding of leadership and may be seen to offer practical help to management educators concerned with the teaching of leadership

Dispelling the myths of online education: learning via the information superhighway

There continues to be a perception that online education is inferior to traditional education. In the U.S. online learning is more developed than in the U.K. This paper provides insights into a U.S. provision and takes a close look at what are perceived as weaknesses of on line learning and argues that these are not necessarily inherent weaknesses of this form of educational delivery. Then, results of two major studies, undertaken in the U.S. are provided comparing the effectiveness of online education to traditional education as perceived by current MBA students and past graduates. Results of these studies suggest that students of MBA modules and MBA graduates perceive the quality and effectiveness of online education to be similar to, if not higher than, the quality and effectiveness of traditional modules and programmes