ABSTRACT
In short, the relationship between improved knowledge through action and improved action through reflection is the main thrust of action enquiry strategies (Kiely and Ellis, 1999). Facilitating this relationship is the direction in which we believe business schools should be moving. The dichotomy between knowledge production and knowledge use is nonsense. The days when business schools considered it sufficient for managers attending their programmes to be taught theory and its application to business are long gone. Theory does not ‘trickle down’ to practice or practice ‘trickle up’ to academic theory. Instead, managers are creating their own knowledge embedded in their professional practice. In so doing they are drawing on existing knowledge in the wider domain and their own personal knowledge. The process itself equips managers and businesses for dealing with future challenges (Schön, 1995). Actions do speak louder than words, as we build critical reflection in managers as an integral part of business education, and through them, in the culture of their organisation. They learn to act and reflect so as to learn, and then reflect on learning in order to act more effectively.
