Fostering Intuition in Management Education: Activities and Resources

In business, there is little doubt that managers use their intuitions when making decisions. But in spite of the fact that intuition and rationality are two parallel systems of knowing, intuition is often considered the antithesis of rationality and is overlooked, disregarded, or acted on covertly by managers. What is also clear is that intuition is not typically a part of the traditional management education curriculum. The risk therefore exists that business school programs may be producing managers of the future who are unprepared with respect to the more intuitive aspects of management practice. In this article, the authors define intuition and explore various ways management educators can incorporate intuition in business curricula, along with specific teaching ideas that can be utilized in the classroom.