Historical sensibility for better management decisions
This research shows how management education can use historical sensibility to challenge dominant logics, improve managerial reflexivity, and prevent repeated crises from formulaic decision-making in organisations.
What did we research?
We investigated management educators’ use of historical documents, narrative analysis, and collective memory-making to develop students’ reflexive understanding of past managerial actions and consequences.
What did we find?
We developed a pedagogical model showing that students need more than historical content. They should learn to source and evaluate documents contextually, analyse and synthesise competing narratives, and communicate historically informed accounts. These capabilities build sensitivity to possible pasts and reveal how dominant logics constrain managerial decisions in practice today.
What was the impact?
Management educators should embed historical sensibility into curricula through archival inquiry, source criticism, narrative construction, and clear action foci. This would help future managers question inherited assumptions, recognise alternative possibilities, make more reflexive decisions, and shape collective memory in ways that reduce repeated failures and improve responsible management practice outcomes.
Article
- Cavanagh, A., Croy, G., Wolfram Cox, J., De Jong, A. (2023). Developing and harnessing historical sensibility to overcome the influence of dominant logics: A pedagogical model. Academy of Management Learning & Education 22(4), 595-620