A Reflection on the Significance of Numbers

Abstract

This article reflects on what the author considers a curious absence of curiosity about, and research looking at the practices of, management development practitioners. Whilst appreciative of the breadth and depth of qualitative research presented in this journal over the course of the last 40 years the article suggests that we are far from having the measure of management learning as a practice and that it would now be helpful—perhaps even essential if the field is to be meaningful to academics, practitioners and policy makers—to establish the boundaries of the field with the help of quantitative data about the business of management learning.