Sensing: The Elephant in the Room of Management Learning

Abstract

This paper examines sensing as the overlooked dimension of management learning and argues that it is an essential component of the way we construe knowledge. Despite recent efforts to validate the role of sensing in practice-based learning, it has not been widely considered in the management literature. Hence, management educators may not be well-equipped to assist analytically-minded learners in recognizing sensory inputs and integrating them effectively with intellectual knowing. The purpose of this paper is twofold: 1) to highlight the essential role of sensing in management learning and organizational performance, and 2) to help educators gain a deeper understanding of analytically-minded learners’ resistance to it, as well as provide appropriate language for addressing it. Drawing on our experience from the corporate and university classroom, corroborated by the literature, we have identified several common causes of resistance to sensing in management learning and discuss how to approach them: preference for sequential reasoning style, lack of sensory awareness, inadequate vocabulary for sensory experiences, dismissive attitude, discomfort of learning outside of the comfort zone, and social norms against non-analytical approaches in the corporate world.