Abstract
This chapter provides a theoretical basis for the relevance of professional doctoral education as a mechanism of harnessing the transferable agency of those equipped experientially for leadership in times, which can neither be predicted or reflected upon in terms of workforce utility and purpose. The last three decades have witnessed doctoral education undergo an emergence of programmes geared towards the practical application of knowledge within workplace contexts, so that the creation of knowledge is both needs led and purposeful in outcome and potential impact.
TopIntroduction
Business in the context of the 21st Century knowledge economy is driven by the dynamics of policy, practice and the institutions and organisations which drive their capacity to function and develop professionally and in the context of applied research (Bogoviz, 2019). It is within these contexts that the emergence of Professional Doctorate programmes, the Doctorate of Business Administration, in particular, which has forged a landscape of the need to address the professionalisation of knowledge, to acknowledge the agency that applied knowledge equips personnel with and how more traditional mechanisms of doctoral education are less suited to the application of theory to practice and more suited to theoretical emergence and academic contexts such as education (Cardoso et al, 2020). The gap between perceptions of usefulness and purposefulness of the two though, has narrowed in recent years (Aarnikoivu, 2021). The prospect of responding reflexively and adaptively to new events and key epiphanies such as crisis has ensured the visible and tangible impact of professional doctorate programmes in practice, reflecting a shift to greater respect for a different type of knowledge creation and replacing the contexts of validity and reliability in empirical research with those of trustworthiness and authenticity in applied praxis environments such as the workplace (Dirks and de Jong, 2021).The objectives of this chapter are threefold in a) providing a theoretical basis for the facilitation of knowledge creation in work based settings and its translation into practice via optimal leadership b) Framing the translation of doctoral knowledge in crisis by mid-career professionals; b) The consideration of the complex ambiguity surrounding knowledge creation from a methodological perspective and c) Introducing transformative learning theory as a lens through which the need for cognitive, metacognitive and epistemic perspectives can be acknowledged and used to drive positive action in workplace crisis. Successful navigation through the leadership pipeline is dependent on the need to engage skills of critical reflexivity and to ensure that knowledge construction, co-construction and co-creation is executed both optimally and in a timely manner. This chapter serves to provide an insight into how skill development across domains of knowledge creation can reinforce opportunity and support for potentially marginalized leaders, alongside affording equitable provision where all responsive reflexive action can be valued in situated contexts of education.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Disruptive Innovation: Refers to the innovation that transforms previously inaccessible products and ensures their availability to wider more generalised populations.
Ambiguity: The concept of being inexact, unclear and as a direct consequence being open to multiple interpretations.
Impact: Something that has a marked effect or influence.
Action Research: Also, often and interchangeably, termed Participatory Action Research (PAR), co-operative enquiry and action learning is a research approach focused on the systematic improvement and positive change of the structure and agency afforded to people within context specific settings.
Performativity: A philosophical means of describing the power of language to effect change in the world
Intersectionality: Is the integrated and interconnected socially ascribed labels of classifications such as gender, class, and race when they are applied to either individuals or collective groups of people which may intentionally or unintentionally lead to marginalization and/or stigma.
Knowledge Transfer: Is a diverse range of activities used in the support of mutually beneficial collaborations within and between universities, businesses, and the public sector for the civic benefit of society.
Transformative Learning: A process of individually or collectively changing perspectives, which has three distinguishable dimensions of psychological response, convictional attitude, and behavioural change.