Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/63421
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT where the future designing a class setting. "It's difficult to have a diverse learn- ing community in a tiered amphitheater," he says. "You can't do it unless you have a flat room with space for people sitting around tables in sub-groups. If you've got those tables, you can include people who are shaky in the teaching language because the lecture stops every ten minutes or so and allows participants to check their understanding with other people around the table." Such a course setting encourages pluralism, which Gosling hastens to point out is not the same as diversity. In most tra- ditional classrooms, a diverse student body is largely irrele- vant, he says, "because the students read the same set of case studies, they get quizzed on the same questions, and they're supposed to reach the same conclusions." In a pluralistic class- room, however, participants actively interact with people who live around the world, listen to their insights—and understand how different experiences can illuminate their own. One key part of this pluralistic learning experience in the is happening now UC Irvine is ranked as the 12th best public university by U.S. News & World Report IMPM program is the pair exchange, in which one executive takes a week to visit his counterpart in another region of the world. Sometime later, they reverse their roles as guest and host. "At first participants were skeptical," says Gosling. "They would say, 'Why would I want to watch someone else operate for a week in a language I don't understand?' But they would come back and say it was the most valuable expe- rience they had in the course." That part of the program has been so successful that the IMPM team has created a separate leadership program for senior executives who want to repli- cate these weeks as guest and host. The concept of sharing knowledge—between individuals and between institutions—is one that Gosling hopes to see expanded for management education in the future. He would most like to see a world in which academics feel "they have a shared and equal, but different relationship with their these managers realize that the decisions they make as execu- tives have an impact on themselves and the world around them. He says, "Management education takes the easy way out if it ignores that." ■ future, managers will see their jobs in the broad- er context of the world. He believes that the alienation many managers feel comes about because they are forced to separate themselves as human beings from themselves as business execu- tives—and that business schools must help managers reintegrate those two roles. Business schools also must help partners" in the education process. He's also committed to the idea that, in the z BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2002 35 PART OF THE ACCLAIMED UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SYSTEM… • excellence in scholarly research • leadership in academic education • partnering with organizations and the community GSM IS RECOGNIZED FOR ITS QUALITY AND INNOVATION… • distinguished faculty known internationally for their expertise • ranked 1st worldwide by Financial Times for its focus on Information Technology for Management • developed the Social Responsibility Initiative for student teams to complete projects for non-profit organizations • Ph.D. • MBA • MD/MBA • Fully Employed MBA • Executive MBA • Health Care MBA (949) UCI-4MBA www.gsm.uci.edu