Educating Modern Managers

Continuous changes in both the economy and technology, as well as changes in the

speed of change, suggest that m^anagers who lead modern organizations need to be

engaged in a constant learning process. Although much executive education focuses

on technical and financial issues, we believe that the big mistakes in careers and

organizations result from a lack of knowledge of a different kind—from gaps in selfawareness.

We review executive education with three goals in mind. First, to define

some key terms associated with learning and education thai are often left unspecified.

Second, to propose a taxonomy of learning outcomes associated with self-knowledge: the

taxonomy is exhaustive in that it can account for all existing competency models. And

third, to suggest that executive education will proceed most efficiently and productively

when ii is preceded by an assessment of the executives' capabiliiies, relaiive to their role

responsibiUiies (present and future) and ihe organizational culture in which they work.

"It isn't whai you don't know that will hurt

you, it's what you do knovir that isn't true."

—Will Rogers

It is axiomatic in today's world of business that

change is the only constant. Successful managers

walk a learning treadmill to keep up, and run that

treadmill to succeed. A bewildering array of management

training practices are now available, but

no one agrees on terminology, methods, or desired

outcomes (Peterson & Hicks, 1999). This essay is

mostly about defining terms and specifying the

assumptions and conditions that should be considered

before any kind of executive training will be

effective. We have organized it into six major sections:

First, we argue that the most important thing

about which managers need to be educated is human

nature in general and their own personal

nature in particular. Second, we take up the two

major traditions in learning theory—the Gestalt

and behaviorist models—and review how they

compare...