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This two-part article describes the author's experience in using Management Learning Contracts as a vehicle for personal development for a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.
My story starts in 1989 when the Employment Service, which is an agency of the Employment Department with some 40,000 staff, decided to fund 40 part-time MBA courses. The selection process was competitive, both in relation to applicants and institutions. I decided to apply because, having joined the Department at the age of 16, I had reached a relatively senior level and felt both a need to demonstrate this academically and that my future prospects would be enhanced by a Master's degree. At the time of application I was Deputy Regional Director but I was promoted to Regional Director by the time I started the course. From possible venues I selected the course at Northern Regional Management Centre in conjunction with Durham University because it offered a competence-based programme combined with action learning. I felt these would best suit my learning styles and, given my heavy official workload, allow me to learn through my job rather than away from it. There was also a suggestion, which proved true, that the programme was flexible for those who wanted to progress more quickly. I was shortlisted, interviewed and offered a place.
The course got underway in October 1989, with participants from a variety of organizations, and commenced with a competence-based Diploma phase. This consisted of 11 functional competence commissions covering: Marketing, Personnel, Industrial Relations, Managing Operations (three reports), Financial Management (two), Behaviour in Organizations (two) and Strategic Management. This work culminated in a final paper to describe the interrelationship between functions. The main purpose of the reports (which in my case averaged over 6,000 words each, 70,000 in total) was to demonstrate functional competence in one's own organization and to start to explore generic competences, based on Boyatzis, which would feature more strongly in the MBA stage Each report was reviewed by designated tutors and declared either competent or requiring further work. I completed these commissions some three months ahead of schedule in December 1990 and was awarded the DBA early in 1991.
This allowed me to move on to the MBA stage in March 1991 (catching up with an...