Design Thinking: Reinvigorating Management Education
The concept of “design thinking” has been around for a while–you may have read about it in Harvard Magazine or heard about it on 60 Minutes in just the past few weeks–and it’s now making a breakthrough among management educators and students. On the latest Journal of Management Education podcast, Ann Welsh of the University of Cincinnati joins Kathy Lund Dean to discuss her paper “Combining Critical Reflection and DesignThinking to Develop Integrative Learners,” co-authored by Gordon Dehler of the College of Charleston and now available in JME’s OnlineFirst section. Listen in as Dr. Welsh explains the benefits of engaging students with “messy” learning experiences, the transformative effect of design thinking, and something called the “fried-egg metaphor.” Click here to play or download the podcast interview or subscribe on iTunes by following this link.
Professor Ann Welsh (Ph.D., University of Missouri) has maintained her passion for helping students to find their pathway to a productive and satisfying life and for helping organizations to innovate in anticipation of changing environmental conditions. Her scholarship appears in the most influential journals in business such as the Academy of Management Journal and the Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Learning and the Journal of Management Education. Her current research focuses on the use of design thinking to enhance management education, developing new pedagogical approaches for multidisciplinary critical management education.
Gordon E. Dehler (PhD U of Cincinnati) is in the department of management & entrepreneurship in the School Business at the College of Charleston. He joined C of C in 2005 following positions at George Washington University and the University of Dayton teaching in graduate and undergraduate management programs. Gordon is the recipient of the OBTS Teaching Society for Management Educators’ 2013 David Bradford Outstanding Educator Award and received the C of C School of Business Distinguished Teaching Award in 2009. He is the only associate editor to have served both Management Learning and Journal of Management Education, received JME’s 2007 Roethlisberger Award for his piece on action research, and served as site coordinator for the 2009 OBTC at C of C.
Kathy Lund Dean holds the Board of Trustees Distinguished Chair in Leadership and Ethics at Gustavus Adolphus College She earned her Ph.D. in organizational behavior and ethics from Saint Louis University. For fifteen years she has been active in both the OBTS Teaching Society for Management Educators, where she served on the Board, and the Academy of Management. Currently, she’s researching ethics and decision-making among entry-to-mid-level managers, how religious and spiritual disputes in the workplace get resolved, and student disengagement issues.