Masters in Organisation Consulting - Our Approach

Ashridge Masters in Organisation Consulting - Our Approach

Our Approach to Learning

The Ashridge Masters in Organisation Consulting is founded on an integrative and experiential approach to learning, interweaving theoretical input with firsthand experience, personal reflection and active experimentation within your consulting practice. Our faculty members are all practising consultants, working in diverse sectors and geographies, who draw on their wealth of experience to bring to life the conceptual frameworks and informing methodologies of the programme.

Reflective Practice & Action Inquiry

A fundamental objective of AMOC is to support participants' learning to become 'reflective practitioners', to enable rigorous inquiry into one's assumptions and perceptions, and notice how they affect the way we relate to groups and organisations. AMOC introduces the methodologies of Action Inquiry as a means of developing individual reflective praxis through cycles of action and subsequent reflection.

Assignment writing and assessment

Participants are encouraged to notice how they are engaging personally with the subject matter, and are expected to complete regular written assignments between workshops as part of a process of further self-directed learning, supported by a personal tutor. Criteria, for assessment by faculty and peers, refer to intellectual development (engagement with theoretical input and workshop experience), practical development (demonstrating linkage between theory and your praxis), and reflective practice (effective development of a sustained and critical awareness of relating self to practice).

Participation

AMOC participants come to the Masters with a wide variety of organisational and consulting experience. The highly participative nature of the workshops enables participants to bring to the group the benefit of their experience and to think and learn together. By sharing examples from within their current practice, participants can work on issues that are appropriate for them, allowing for immediate application of new approaches and methodologies to practice.

Consulting Application Groups (CAGs)

The CAG process enables participants to integrate conceptual learning with experimentation in the safe environment of an action learning set. Participants meet regularly between workshops, in groups of five or six, to consult to each other on live consulting issues brought by the members themselves. Sensitive facilitation by a faculty member supports the group process through the programme.

This focus on using participants' real and current consulting issues as material for developing consulting practice also benefits participants' organisations and clients from the beginning of the programme.

Learning Exchange with Case Western Reserve University

During the AMOC programme, we exchange visits with participants from Case Western's Masters programme in Positive Organisational Development (MPOD), directed by Professor Ron Fry, who is well known for his contribution to the field of Appreciative Inquiry. The major themes and underpinning principles of MPOD have much in common with AMOC. The collaboration is designed to share thinking and practice for organisation consultants on both sides of the Atlantic.

Contextual Perspectives in partnership with the Schumacher College

In this workshop we deliberately extend the focus of our attention to the wider context of an organisation's operation, seeking to locate organisations in their specific environment. The overall framework encompasses ethical and practical issues associated with corporate globalisation, the relationship of the organisation to its stakeholders and the challenge of ecological sustainability. The workshop takes place at Schumacher College, the international centre for Ecological studies, as an appropriate contextual location for our inquiry.

Resources available on the programme

The Ashridge Library: Houses an extensive range of printed and electronic information sources for programme participants and alumni.

Virtual Learning Resource Centre (VLRC): The VLRC is designed to give "just-in-time" access to a range of Ashridge's Learning Resources and can be a valuable tool for everyone wishing to keep up with the latest materials in management development.

The AMOC Alumni: The AMOC Alumni now represent a significant resource in their own right. They now number over 200 and strong links and networks have been established throughout the twelve years the programme has been running.

Alumni Network: All programme participants have the opportunity to join our Alumni Association which provides ongoing contact with Ashridge and the opportunity to build networks with others who have benefited from Ashridge. The AMOC Alumni group is very active and organises Masterclasses and regular networking meetings. Find out more about Life after AMOC