Management fads in higher education

As an effective pedagogical tool for teaching interpersonal skills, leadership, and group dynamics, the T-group will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. T-groups have been used to train managers, executives, consultants, and other professionals since the late 1940s. They have also been included in business school curricula. By the mid-1970s, about half of all MBA programs accredited by the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business integrated T-groups into their programs (Hunsaker, 1978). Business school use of T-groups waned during the 1980s but has revived in recent years because of the growing awareness that interpersonal and team leadership skills are critical to personal and organizational success (Porter & McKibbon, 1988). Many business schools are changing their curricula to include courses that improve student behavioral competencies. Affecting changes in student behavior is best accomplished when experiential teaching techniques are included with normal pedagogical routines (Kolb, 1984). The T-group is just such an experiential tool that has proven its value through 50 years of practice and research. The term itself is a short form of Basic Skill Training Group (Coan, 1991).

T-Groups in the Classroom: Some Examples of Current Practice:

There is an increasing amount of evidence, based upon curriculum reevaluation efforts, indicating the practical value of allowing the field of organizational behavior and related disciplines to step beyond their traditional academic boundaries and be integrated into other curricula, particularly in upperclass and graduate study. This paper describes four levels of instruction in organizational behavior which may be, all or in part, extremely valuable to the future professional success of students in programs outside of organizational behavior. This four-level instructional paradigm provides a conceptual framework for prescribing various kinds of learning experiences to enhance student development and professional preparation. General suggestions and guidelines for each level of the paradigm are given with documented cases and examples.

Integration of Organizational Behavior Within Higher Education: Four Levels of Needed Involvement for Upperclass and Graduate Curricula

Sensitivity training is now well entrenched in about half of the MBA programs in schools of business administration accredited by the Ameri can Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. In this study, the experiences, attitudes, and recommendations of academics were gener ally found to be congruent with those of management-development direc tors in business firms that utilize the technique. Participating faculty appeared to be well qualified, used sensitivity training in elective-credit courses, utilized conservative methodologies, graded the participants, felt that they were successful in attaining their objectives, saw little probability of psychological danger for participants, and encountered the most resistance to their objectives from the prevailing business- school atmosphere.

Phillip L. Hunsaker

Papers

T-Groups for MBA's: A State-of-the-Art Survey