An introduction to the 5M framework: reframing change management education

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a reflective and critical rhetorical framework capable of replacing traditional approaches to change management and its education. This framework conceptualises managing change as the Mindful Mobilising of Maps, Masks and Mirrors and provides a comprehensive integration of the processual, practice and critical academic literature on change management. It adopts a drama-tic approach, combining dramaturgical and pragmatic approaches to organisations and change. This paper introduces the framework, the manner of its delivery as an MBA subject, and the varying perceptions of its nature and impact held by a number of mature middle management MBA students who had attended the course. The documentation of student interpretations draws on the learning diaries completed by MBA students in two deliveries of the subject at a leading business school in Australia. It is argued that the framework provides a working model of a reflective and critical approach to change management that resonates with mature managers, and concludes with recommendations for future research and development.