**1. Why does the mainstream management education model needs an in depth transformation to better answer to the present and future managerial challenges?**

Most organizations and especially the larger ones in the corporate world are encountering very serious people management issues and are suffering from weak or bad human management skills coupled with poor leadership qualities on the part of their executives. These executives are focused primarily on short-term quantitative results that show a surprising "myopia" about these major and growing human management problems that are now jeopardizing the companies' attractiveness for real talents, image, and also global performances at least in the medium term [1–3]. The present supposed "panacea" for most management problems and performance improvement, focused on the digitalization revolution and artificial intelligence, is not only often making matters worse in these areas of human management and good leadership but also will not efficiently contribute to the enhancement of the organization's and companies' global and sustainable performances.

One of the main reasons and responsibilities behind these serious people management issues (and their very high associated "hidden cost") lies to a large extent in the

mainstream model of management education still based on an old MBA concept. We will see in this chapter not only why this model is outdated and does not adequately answer the organizational world's present and future human management and leadership challenges but also why this model exhibits a strong resistance to any real profound change.

Today, it has become necessary to develop and to promote new approaches and models of management education more capable of bringing about adequate answers to the twenty-first century's present and real people management and leadership challenges [4].

The action learning approach ([5–7]) appears as a very promising pathway to effectively and extensively renew and revamp the traditional management education model and to open quite attractive perspectives. The action learning approach helps not only to boost the learning of the needed human and leadership competences of the future "managers-leaders" but also to facilitate the design of new types of less hierarchical organizations and more efficient operating modes based on collaborative intelligence that fosters creativity, initiatives, autonomy, and responsibility of both individual employees and work teams.

After briefly reviewing the limits of the mainstream management education model and analyzing the main factors of its resistance to profound changes, we will take on the main managerial challenges encountered today in the organizational world—challenges for which the current model is not bringing about adequate human skills. Then we will see how an alternative management education model based on action learning can be a much better response to most of these people management and leadership challenges and can also better suit the aspirations of present and future generations' new work habits.

## **2. The serious limits of the mainstream management education model offered by business schools**

As already emphasized and criticized by [8, 9], more than 15 years ago, the mainstream management education model is still based on the American MBA concept designed more than half a century ago. This model was elaborated in a very different context with an emphasis on the management disciplines corresponding to the main managerial functions such as described by Fayol at the beginning of the twentieth century. Paradoxically, this model has not changed much since the "Industrial Age" while everything else has been changing for one century!

It turns out that the mainstream management education is mainly composed of theoretical courses focused on each main management discipline (accounting, marketing, finance, logistics, data analysis, human resources, supply chain, sales, etc.) without many links between each subject. These courses are illustrated by pedagogical cases or exercises with a deductive pedagogical approach. Even the courses on strategy are essentially focused on products/markets/technologies/finance with pure quantitative goals. Employees are only considered as "human resources" with necessary professional skills and the priority to fulfill short-term economic and financial objectives.

Instructors or professors who deliver these courses tend to be highly specialized in their respective management discipline with an emphasis put on their theoretical research works which appears to be the most important factor for their academic career.

Very often students feel frustrated with management courses which appear to them as too theoretical and not preparing them well for their future necessary operational expertise. In addition, this type of "toolkit" management education

#### *Renewing Management Education with Action Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88670*

mainly based on the learning of techniques in each management discipline has an inadequate outcome: formatting super management disciplined technicians but not preparing them well for the very core of their manager-leader job which is mainly people management and leadership responsibilities [10, 11].

This outcome is due to the very approach of this MBA type of management education for which employees are merely considered as "human resources" that can be tapped to primarily serve the interests of the business at the lowest possible cost!

The MBA philosophy and priority (even if it is a bit hidden today) are to maximize, in the short term, owner (shareholder) profit more than to meet the interests of the main stakeholders despite, for some years now, the increasing trendy talks and courses about CSR and sustainability.

The profound changes that are transforming our present developed societies can no longer be satisfied with this only shortsighted, purely financial goal. Today, sustainability with environmental and social challenges cannot be overlooked. The triple bottom line (economic, environmental, and social) tends—and will be more and more—to become the new mantra of the premium corporate world. Indeed, most MBAs are today trying to offer a better image by incorporating, to various degrees, sustainability issues but are generally much more shy about social and human matters.

The very basic model of most mainstream business schools still remains the same even if these schools have tried to improve their attractiveness in a very competitive market by playing with their image and putting forward the fashionable digitalization of their programs and exercises in their communication strategy as well as the applications of artificial intelligence in the teaching of their various management disciplines and techniques!

One can be struck by the confusion that exists between the modernization of the management education only based on the incorporation of the new information and communication technologies within the same MBA model and the much needed real modernization of the manager-leader function which should be more based on the learning and the development of human skills such as interpersonal communication, listening, sharing informations and reflections with coworkers which create the adequate conditions for individual motivation for each person, delegating responsibilities, empowering individuals and teams, coaching and mentoring the less experienced members, etc.

An important sign of the corporate world in this area is its growing demand and stress put on the "soft skills" of their future managers and the requirement to innovate for people management and leadership practices [12].

Preparing future "managers-leaders" adequately can no longer be only about training management disciplines to technicians but accompanying the learning processes of human competences which make up 80% of the real job of an efficient and intelligent "manager- leader"! So we can wonder why is the old and increasingly obsolete MBA model showing so much resistance to the profound changes that would better answer executive profile needs of the corporate world? What are the main reasons of its surprisingly long life despite its increasing inadequacy?
