I Was Transformed, But I Didn’t Love the Process: Testing Students’ Learning and Feedback of the New ‘Humanistic’ Management Course

In this article, we present the results of an evaluation of a new paradigm for the undergraduate “Introduction to Management” course. Included is an overview of the basic principles of the pedagogy, the learning objectives of the course, and the process of evaluating those goals and outcomes. We developed a course that integrated the Jesuit values along the learning dimensions of knowing, doing and being by focusing on improving students’ self-awareness, emotional and spiritual intelligence, and mindfulness. Complementing this focus on personal growth was a skills-based approach to help students improve their capacities for conflict resolution and managing their psychological and physical well-being. We found that our students, (n > 600), reported higher levels of emotional stability, higher levels of well-being, and an increased sense of purpose and personal engagement in the world, after completing the course. These results were self-reported despite lower scores on traditional teaching evaluations (3.8/5).