Abstract

Here, I discuss two management learning education systems, and how they can learn from and relate to each other. One stems entirely from neo-liberal thinking; the other seems more grounded in the idea of ‘the commons’—that is, a resource that is shared and belongs to everyone in a community. This theme concerns me as a human being. Both systems and their value frameworks were already present in the social system I was born into: the son and middle child of a mother who was a management assistant in large organisations and a father who is a teacher and a poet. Hence, there are always two value frameworks asking for attention within me: respectively instrumental/hedonic and humanistic/transcendent. Both frameworks are reflected in my studies and career: It is therefore not surprising that I have come to discern these systems at play and interacting institutionally, and this chapter details my analysis and argument.