The Centre takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the problems and issues in management learning and development with the aim of identifying effective ways of managing knowledge within organisations in order to improve organisational performance.The research programme has the following aims:

• To enhance and extend current understanding of the relationship between management learning, knowledge transfer, and organisational learning;
  
• To understand the linkages between knowledge acquisition, absorption and retention and organisational performance;
  
• To provide insights into the links between management education, management development and organisational performance;
  
• To gain an insight into the issues faced by managers in managing the work/non-work interface, including issues of stress and work overload;
  
• To identify the barriers to the introduction of new information and communications technologies in management education and training.
  
• To explore the use of information technology in supporting the ongoing implementation of change management within organisations;

The ways in which these elements of the research programme interact is set out below.

The research programme for the Centre takes organisational learning as its cornerstone and focuses on three themes: knowledge acquisition and retention, diversity, and networks.

1. Organisational Learning through Knowledge Acquisition and Retention

This theme is explored in several ways:

• An analysis of managerial knowledge transfer through communities of practice. Kathy Monks and Finian Buckley have received funding of €12,800 from the Electricity Supply Board for this project.
  
• A study of the impact of management education on individual and organisational development (Finian Buckley, Kathy Monks, James Walsh).
  
• Metacompetency development in human resource managers. Finian Buckley and Kathy Monks have received €4,800 from the Office of the Dean of Teaching and Learning, DCU for this project.
  
• An exploration of the human resource processes underpinning the design of high performance work systems (Kathy Monks, Edel Conway, James Walsh). Part of this project is undertaken in collaboration with University College, Dublin and the National University of Ireland, Galway, through the Centre for Structural Innovation and Change and sponsored by the HEA with funding of €33,000 to Kathy Monks from the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions.

2. Organisational Learning through Diversity

This involves several inter-related projects:

• The analysis of the impact of management education on the progression of women into management and their influence within the organisation as change agents (Finian Buckley, Kathy Monks, Patricia Barker)
  
• A study of the attitudes, aspirations and psychological orientations of women in management (Finian Buckley, Melrona Kirrane)
  
• An evaluation of work-family attitudes and conflict (Melrona Kirrane)
  
• An evaluation of the impact of stress. Finian Buckley has received €10,000 from Beaumont Hospital for this project.
  
• A study of women in professional careers (Kathy Monks and Patricia Barker).
  
• A study of ethnic minorities. Gerry McNamara has received funding of €27,000 from the HEA for research in this area.

3. Organisational Learning through Networks

This involves three projects

1. An analysis of barriers to new information and communications technologies (ICTs) in management education and training.
This project examines barriers to the penetration of innovative methods utilising ICTs in management education and development in Ireland. Kay MacKeogh has received funding of €120,000 under Socrates/Minerva for this project.

2. An evaluation of virtual management education and training.
This project evaluates new thinking on virtual learning environments, incorporating computer conferencing, linked with WWW resources, CD-ROMS and other learning technologies to management education and development. It evaluates how ICTs can facilitate collaborative, problem-based learning within companies on a national and transnational basis (Gerry McNamara, Kay MacKeogh). Gerry McNamara has received funding of €12,500 from the HEA for a project on 'Using and Evaluating WebCT as a method of developing key teaching competencies in Higher, Further and Adult Education'.

3. An evaluation of information technology in the ongoing implementation of change management within organisations
This project involves the development and evaluation of an online support system to enable managers to engage in an ongoing basis in individual development. The research measures the impact of this intervention on both individual and organisational change (Gerry McNamara, Joe Curry).