Foundations for Theory and Practice of Competence and Incompetence Training

Abstract

An unfortunate proposition, confirmed by many research studies, is that human decision-making in general and management sense- and decision-making in particular, is imperfect (Kerr, MacCoun, & Kramer, 1996; Marewski, Gaissmaier, & Gigerenzer, 2010; Simon, 1960). In addition, several scholars in management claim that educational methods using different management paradigms serve to increase incompetency in thinking and deciding by executives (Armstrong & Brodie, 1994; Armstrong & Collopy, 1996; Armstrong & Green, 2007a). Businesses cannot afford to employ highly educated, highly-paid graduate managers who lack the competence to manage and lead their enterprises. Woodside (2012, p. 280) underlines this problem, “Training that results in inconsequential outcomes can represent substantial opportunity costs.” For MBA degree-granting schools of management to remain relevant to management practice, they need to respond to employer demands to produce graduates with the ability to use relevant management knowledge and make competent decisions. Given the complexity of the market place and the demands from employers to deliver graduate managers who are able to deal with inherent complexities in real-life contexts, educationalists continually re-engineer curricula. This perspective is the foundation for the key questions this book examines.