A Threshold Concept in Managing: What Students in Introductory Management Courses Must Know

In the field of management, a practice–theory gap has developed and consequently, management education has been criticized for being irrelevant to the needs of stakeholders. This article argues that introduction to management courses in higher education perpetuate this gap by not teaching what managers do. These courses fail to communicate well the threshold concept of managing as accomplishing results through other people. Understanding this threshold concept would give students clearer perspectives on the distinction between doing work and managing work in organizations—between being “one of the team” and “managing the team.” Using a class exercise as exemplar, the author demonstrates the use of a set of debate questions in the form of contestable statements regarding doing and managing, which are argued by students in small groups in class before final resolution in a plenary session. Students emerge from these debating sessions with a clearer definition and understanding of the core work that managers actually do. Learners also become cognizant of the need for managers to have an appropriate balance between the amount of managing and doing work they engage in on a daily basis. Without these understandings students become “stuck” and their learning lacks posteducational relevance.