Graduate Leadership Education for Dynamic Human Systems

As global flux reshapes organizational life, demands on organizational leadership are shifting radically. This article reviews the trends in recent calls for revision of management education and presents a fundamentally different perspective with related design principles that hold promise for addressing the new leadership challenges in turbulent environments. This systemic approach to leadership education for organizational change leaders and consultants fosters attunement to social processes in the collaborative development of productive organizational contexts, the effective use of theory-in-practice, expertise for learning-in-action, and requisite self-knowledge. Educational programmes evolving with dynamic postmodern organizational realities are, by definition, incongruous with the underlying traditional operating assumptions of the university. The challenge of negotiating this paradigmatic interface is also discussed.