Fostering soft skills leadership through a

critical reflection approach

Vanessa Angioletti Ferreira Lemos and Janette Brunstein

Abstract Vanessa Angioletti Ferreira

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to the research on the use of reflection in the work environment, Lemos is based at the
highlighting its use in the development of interpersonal skills. This study presents procedures for Department of Social
promoting critical reflection using critical incidents, dialogue and reflective diaries, which can be a Science Applied,
reference for researchers, managers, consultants and corporate educators. Universidade Presbiteriana
Design/methodology/approach – This research was guided by an interpretative qualitative approach Mackenzie, São Paulo,
that is suitable for the study of critical reflection. The authors chose the method of action research
Brazil. Janette Brunstein is
because of its interactionist and interventionist character, which allows for the evaluation of the leadership
based at the Department of
soft skills development experience.
Social Science Applied,
Findings – A leadership soft skills development program based on the concept of critical reflection in the
work context leads to leaders having potential to promote changes in management practices and Universidade Presbiteriana
enhancing behavior, and the study points out the conditions necessary for success in instituting the Mackenzie, São Paulo,
desired changes and transformation. Brazil.
Practical implications – The proposed developmental model, based on reflective conversations of
critical incidents, dialogue and reflective diaries, stimulates critical reflection. This can be applied by
other actors who are interested in promoting assessment and the development of soft skills.
Originality/value – There are few studies that discuss critical reflection in the corporate environment. In
particular, few present models or tools that foster a reflective view of one’s assumptions, beliefs and
values. This research not only advances this proposal by introducing considerations from practical
experience as developed through action research, but it also signals the high potential of the study’s
approach to promoting the development of soft skills.
Keywords Transformative learning, Critical incidents, Soft skills, Critical reflection,
Critical reflection in the workplace, Manager development
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Despite the consensus on the relevance of critical reflection in the corporate environment
(Cotter, 2014; Souza and Brunstein, 2018; Forrester and Mc Tigue, 2020), few studies have
looked to ways to promote it. This action research project addresses this lacuna by
presenting a proposal to encourage the development of soft skills; the study contributes to
both theory and practice.
Studies in different countries and market segments show that communication, problem-
solving and teamwork are the skills most desired by companies and, at the same time, there
is a gap between the need for those skills and the current skills of professionals (Robles,
2012; Mishra, 2014; Sharma, 2018). To reduce this gap, companies have promoted training
and development opportunities for soft skills (Mishra, 2014). On this basis, scholars have
argued for the need to develop training that encourages leaders to assume new roles and
practices oriented toward soft skills (Rao, 2014).
Received 10 January 2022
Revised 28 May 2022
Many studies in the educational field have considered critical reflection, especially in 7 September 2022
relation to teaching practices (Freire, 1967; Schon, 1983; Brookfield, 2009). Through critical Accepted 19 September 2022

DOI 10.1108/ICT-01-2022-0001 VOL. 55 NO. 1 2023, pp. 143-156, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 0019-7858 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING j PAGE 143
 reflection, adults can interpret and produce new knowledge and actions, in addition to
analyzing their assumptions, beliefs, values, cultural practices and social structures. This
allows the individual to imagine new beginnings and propose alternative ways of action.
Critical approaches have always been central in the academic tradition; however, they are
not always encouraged in business schools and organizations (Vince and Reynolds, 2009;
Souza and Brunstein, 2018). Although studies demonstrate their importance for
organizational change (Dixon et al., 2016), as well as discuss the use of reflective practices
in the workplace (Faller et al., 2020), there is still limited work done on how to create spaces
for reflection. We also did not find studies that evaluated training and development
experiences focused on soft skills that considered the approach of critical reflective
learning.
Thus, the following research problem arises:
RQ1. How does critical reflection contribute to the development of soft skills and
transform the professional practice of managers?

Soft skills at the heart of reflexive training actions

In the second half of the 20th century, soft skills emerged as fundamental for employability,
professional development and increased productivity. This is because this period, which
was marked by globalization, productive restructuring, the use of advanced technologies
and the high production of nonmaterials, demanded that companies adapt to these
structural and resource changes (Hobsbawn, 1995). In addition, from the point of view of a
worker’s professional profile, soft skills came to be considered essential in the new, more
technological and competitive job market in which companies desired skills oriented toward
social interaction, such as teamwork, communication, leadership and decision-making
(Schwab, 2016).
The concepts of soft skills range from the idea of skill and attitude or may even be aligned
with personality traits and individual qualities in which interpersonal relationships stand out,
as mentioned in different studies (Laker and Powell, 2011; Robles, 2012; Mishra, 2014). In
this work, soft skills is understood as a transversal competence that can be understood as
an inherent part of the individual or skill developed throughout their life or professional
trajectory or even a mixture of these two processes (Sharma, 2018). It is a competence that
goes beyond those of a technical nature, specific to the profession, that impacts the
productivity of organizations. It demands relational skills (Davis and Muir, 2004), which
contribute to individual success, increase employability and contribute to professional
growth (Andrews and Higson, 2008). Furthermore, they help to manage difficulties in a more
positive way (Mishra, 2014).
The term “soft skill” has become widespread in academic studies, such as those intended
to understand its relationship with failure or success in organizations (Murphy, 2006). Issues
related to learning have become of interest to researchers because of the difficulties
observed in the development of soft skills in the work environment (Laker and Powell, 2011;
Jain and Anjuman, 2013).

Critical reflection in the work environment

Considering that critical reflection is an important element involved in work and learning
experiences in organizations, it becomes an indispensable component for the development
of professionals, their competencies and the abilities necessary for organizations to achieve
results. It involves much more than thinking and goes beyond simple reflection oriented
Only to questions of content and process, it is profound and demands questioning
assumptions and premises of a phenomenon, dilemma, situation or problem, and can lead
to a new understanding of the world (Mezirow, 1991).

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Critical reflection is the practice of taking a step back and the meaning for oneself and
others of a lived experience (Raelin, 2011). It is also considered the representation of
human consciousness, both individual and collective, a fundamental part of the
construction of human learning (Vince and Reynolds, 2016). It is related to reflective
practice to make decisions, solve problems and professional development (Faller et al.,
2020). Critical reflection can make organization members feel free to challenge and
question beliefs, values and structures, which can cause new patterns and behaviors to
emerge (Raelin, 2002). Such reflection can occur at both the individual and collective levels,
while institutional practice occurs in a process called “organizing reflection” (Vince and
Reynolds, 2009) in which reflection becomes part of the culture of an organization.
Engaging participants in critical reflection is not a simple or easy task. Its appropriation by
the organizational environment is sometimes questioned because the dynamics and
relations of power and control do not always favor spaces for the reflection on the group’s
assumptions (Souza and Brunstein, 2018). In addition, given that critical reflection is not a
widely adopted practice, it becomes even more necessary to use tools and carry out
facilitation in a careful way that involves individuals (Schedlitzki, 2019). Some of the
resources to facilitate this process will be discussed below.

Resources for developing critical reflection

Critical incidents, reflective diaries and reflective dialogues can be understood as tools for
development (Preskill, 1996; Gray, 2007) and instruments for gathering data (Godoi and
Mattos, 2006).

Critical incidents
At the organizational level, the use of critical incidents is related to the meaning that the
individual attributes to an event or experience. In general, critical incidents are classified as
errors, but, in fact, they are a resource that can take the individual or a group to a deeper
level of reflection, promoting learning. It can be considered as any incident that is not routine
and presents a problem that requires a decision or a situation that demands improvisation,
alteration of procedure or innovation. Such a situation involves the participants emotionally,
physically or mentally, demanding them in some way (Gray, 2007; Kember, 2008).

Reflective diaries
When writing about their experiences, individuals organize their ideas and reflectively
reconstruct their experience. By promoting a dialogue between what was lived and what
was reflected, fertile ground is created for the understanding of the action itself. By
presenting a strong connection between experience and reflection, narratives written in
diaries are tools that connect actions, values and beliefs and allow for the creation of new
meaning (Marcolino and Reali, 2010).

Reflective dialogues
Dialogues usually require a significant investment of time by leaders (Jensen, 2018); therefore,
they do not always receive the attention they deserve. Dialogues or reflective conversations
provide a collective sense of learning and reflection, and in this way, they can be part of an
organization’s routine in a formal or informal way, either through social interactions or through
the constant need to transfer information among the members of a company. Through group
dialogue, assumptions and mental models become more evident and provide an opportunity
to share ideas and verbalize criticism. However, it is very important that the group be aware of
and committed to the purpose of these interactions, which are exclusively for the promotion of
learning and professional development (Dittrich et al., 2016).

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 From these central elements that stimulate CR, an interventionist proposal was created for
the work environment to help understand the limits and potential of the transformation
processes that can be fostered when reflective spaces are created (Cotter, 2014).

Methodological procedures
Action research was chosen as the research strategy because of its interactionist and
interventionist character, which leads the researcher to become involved with the
company’s members around an issue of interest to both the researchers and organization,
mobilizing both groups according to the intervention defined in the research (Eden, 2001).
A development program for managers was created based on the assumptions of critical
reflection to study how reflection can be incorporated into a corporate educational
experience.
A medium-sized company was chosen to carry out the research that seven years after its
founding had 400 employees and 130 corporate clients and had conquered a large market
account: the third largest insurance company in the national market. This new client
represented a 100% growth in the company in terms of its number of employees, which
brought up problems related to structure, people and processes. In this study, 11 frontline
managers participated; they were responsible for assisting the company in adapting to this
challenge.
As a procedure for analyzing textual (daily) and observational (verbal and nonverbal) data,
the analysis of thematic narratives by Riesman and Quinney (2005) was used for each
reflective conversation circle. This means that the trajectory of the study’s analysis was built
from emerging themes and considered markers of meanings as they were introduced in the
meetings.
As criteria of validity and reliability, the following parameters were adopted, based on Tracy
(2010): the theme chosen for the research showed relevance to the business context and
the theme has been the subject of few studies of this nature; the development proposal is
based on theoretical constructs that consider the reflections of different participants. A
detailed methodology that can be replicated in studying different types of companies and
organizational contexts was developed, which provides space for dialogue, imagination,
development and improvisation (Cotter, 2014).
The research strategy, inspired by Tripp (2005), was conducted in several stages, as
illustrated in Figure 1:

䊏 The diagnostic stage entailed the identification of needs related to the managers
development in line with the HR and top management.
䊏 The planning stage focused on creating a development program based on the
assumptions of Critical Reflection and that consisted of reflective conversations, critical
incidents and the use of reflective diaries.
䊏 The action stage was carried out based on reflective conversations about critical
incidents; individual impressions were noted by participants in their reflective diaries,
and excerpts from the dialogues were noted in the researcher’s field diary. At the end of
the meetings, the researcher had access to all the diaries, which were provided with the
participants’ consent.
䊏 The monitoring stage centered on considering the effects of the reflections generated
during the reflective conversation circles and was carried out through the exchange of
emails and informal conversations with the participants, which were recorded in the
researcher’s field diary.

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 Figure 1 Research strategy cycle (action research)

䊏 The results evaluation stage was carried out as follows: with the participants during the
last reflective conversation round, at which time the researcher validated her
perceptions by confirming with the managers; analysis of the participants’ reflective
diaries; and a final conversation with HR and senior management to gather insights into
the effects of the development program on managers’ practices.

The development program consisted of six meetings, called reflective conversation wheels,
which lasted 2 h each and were undertaken over four months. These meetings promoted a
formative and reflective space, allowing participants to reflect on their actions individually
and collectively, as they related to issues involving soft skills. The pedagogical resources to
stimulate reflections during the reflective conversation wheels were critical incidents,
reflective dialogues and reflective diaries.
A pedagogical proposal was used to promote the exercise of critical reflection among leaders,
considering moments of individual and group reflection. Collectively, the proposal was to
stimulate open dialogues from a critical incident, which allowed the group to deepen the
reflection in a 360-degree perspective: how I reacted; how my peers, leaders, subordinates
and clients reacted to this situation, providing the construction of a reflective mapping of
reactions, emotions and behaviors. Through this dynamic, the premises and mental models
became evident, driving the critical reflection of assumptions (Mezirow, 2010). Individually, the
reflective diaries allowed participants to record the reflections that continued after the reflective
conversation circle in a recursive process between individual and collective moments.
Observation was one of the important aspects of the process of recording field data, and
during this work the researcher acted as a facilitator of the conversation circles and also
made use of a reflective diary as an instrument to record her own impressions about the
participants’ journal entries.

Diagnosis: the need to develop leadership and dissatisfaction with the leaders
Because of the increase in the number of employees in the company, some problems have
surfaced related to structure, people and processes. Because of the organization’s rapid
growth and its tight profit margin, no investments were made in leadership development
programs.

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 We are no longer able to deliver results as we used to, the company has grown very fast and
managers have not been able to adapt, [and] instead of collaborating with each other, they
compete and fight for everything. They do not have autonomy, everything needs to be said and
the directors had no time to direct, the situation is very chaotic. (HR Manager)

In the diagnostic phase (pre-intervention), the directors and HR management pointed out
that the competencies that had been important for building the company would no longer
be enough to move forward. Technical skills and business knowledge alone would not
suffice. The absence of well-developed soft skills was one of the biggest obstacles to
achieving organizational goals. There was frustration regarding the behavior of the
managers because of a lack of autonomy of the managers and the difficulty of maintaining
harmonious relationships among the departments.
Based on this diagnosis, a development program for leaders was created based on the
principles of Critical Reflection with the objective of generating significant changes in the
behavior of managers through the development of soft skills, as shown in Figure 2.
The meetings that were called “reflective conversation circles” were structured and planned
in a way that promoted a space of honesty and trust and allowed the participants to be
open to dialogue, as well as to reflect on and communicate their feelings. The meetings had
an active and participatory character. Each meeting was organized as follows:
䊏 Identification of the Critical Incident based on the reports of the situations experienced by
the participants about the problems, conflict and/or difficult situations (Kember, 2008).
䊏 Understanding the relevant soft skills: the participants were asked about the impact on
their behaviors and attitudes based on the critical incident.
䊏 Generation of dilemmas (Mezirow, 1990), insights and new beginnings (Cotter, 2014):
participants were encouraged to think about new possibilities for action (what could
have been done differently?), and, based on this process of questioning, new
dilemmas and insights for change were shared, as can be seen in Figure 3.

Figure 2 The development program for leaders based on the assumptions of critical
reflection

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 Figure 3 Dynamics of the meetings (circle of reflective conversation for potential soft skills
development)

The reflective conversation circles were carried out based on the interests of the
participants to deepen the discussions and learning needs that emerged from the
dialogues and interactions between facilitator and participants. It was up to the facilitator to
obtain the best conclusions based on the results of interactions with the participants’
experiences so that she could, at the next event, bring content that was relevant and made
sense for the reflective process.

Results
From the point of view of the leaders: experiences of reflection and transformation
During the execution of the development program that we designed based on the
assumptions of Critical Reflection, the conversation circles promoted dialogue in which the
managers talked about their own experiences and heard the reports of the experiences of
others. Based on these reports, three types of reflections were identified:
䊏 Self-perception of your actions as a leader. At this point, some managers realized that
their own leadership positioning should be different depending on the organizational
context, whether they were starting from an individualistic stance or a more collective
one, whether they were committed to the goals of the group, and whether they were
focused on their personal interests.
Even with so much experience I hadn’t realized that things are interconnected. I thought it
was enough to do my [work] well and that was enough. But my role is greater, as a leader I
am the leader of the company, what happens in the other area is my responsibility too.
(Manager 1)

I was the one who told everyone that I had to do my job well and that was enough, but I
understood that this is not the case. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to do someone else’s work,
but we are interconnected [. . .] we are in the same boat [. . .] the interest in the result is the same
(Manager 11).

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 䊏 Access your frame of reference, assumptions or beliefs. Sometimes, managers
accessed their frames of reference and questioned what was previously considered an
absolute truth, which could be considered a form of Reflective Skepticism (Brookfield,
1987), signaling signs among the managers of the resignification of some of their
assumptions.
I had one thing set in my head, that I needed to respect the hierarchy and wait for my leader to
determine the path, what needed to be done. I understood that it’s nothing like that, I’m a leader
and I need to define what needs to be done, my team is my responsibility. (Manager 3)

It’s not because someone is above me that he deserves to be on a pedestal. (Manager 6)

It’s not like me to interact with the team, but now I see the difference being closer to what people
[can] make. (Manager 4)

䊏 Reflections on new possibilities for action. In these reports, there is a kind of rupture
with the manager’s previous leadership model, that is, they stop reproducing that
behavior and start trying new actions.

I met with Pedro’s team and trained them on how to operate the system, [and] nobody asked me,
but I saw that it was useless for me to fix things in my area and that’s it (Manager 4).

Feedback with my team is now more constant, I need them to do the job correctly, but for that I
need to communicate better [. . .] I organized all the activities of each person on my team,
defined roles and responsibilities, designed the organizational chart, I held a meeting to present
this information, I am excited with the results of these actions, people became more engaged
(Manager 2).

Some managers, when implementing new practices, reproduced their own reflective
experience in the meetings with their teams.
I had my first meeting with my team, and it was amazing. We brainstormed to discuss what
should be improved in our department. I will do [this] every 15 days. (Manager 2)

I went there and did a diagnosis first and planned what should be done, like to stop and think
about what needs to be done and not just go out and do it. This part of planning was never my
strong point, but it made a difference. (Manager 7)

As the meetings evolved and the level of interaction between the group and the facilitator
increased, it became noticeable that the leaders felt increasingly encouraged to make
attempts at changing and, therefore, several examples of actions, experiences, new
beginnings and new practices appeared in their daily lives.
As the understanding of the issues progressed and the dialogues became more reflective, you
opened to new ideas and began to understand that despite the corporate environment, full of
transformations and uncertainties, there was one thing that had not changed, the need to
assume the responsibility as a leader and taking care of your team. When you reflected on your
values and what you understood to be true in relation to management, you allowed other
possibilities to be part of your repertoire. (Researcher’s field Diary).

Regarding the experience with the reflective diaries, this practice proved to be challenging
for the participants, since many found it difficult to use the diaries because of lack of habit
or even resistance to their use. The excerpts from the narratives presented below
demonstrate the difficulties in using this resource, although the respondents reported
making an effort to keep up with their journals because of their commitment to the facilitator.
I reflected a lot after each encounter, but when I tried to write, all that reflection seemed to go
away. (Manager 4)

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 [. . .] it’s very difficult to keep a diary, I just can’t write. (Manager 7)

According to Marcolino and Reali (2010), written records allow access to one’s own
thinking, reconnecting actions to values and beliefs and allowing for the creation of new
meaning. However, the fact of handing the diaries to the facilitator at the end of the
development program may have influenced the records that respondents made.
Despite this, some written narratives were specific and demonstrated both the search for
answers to dilemmas and the use of reflection as a resource to access new possibilities.
At the time I was very nervous [narrating about his participation in a meeting] but it is not my
nature to shout or fight, I was very angry about the exhibition [. . .] but I thought and understood
that I would have to do my work and that of the other, I looked for support in other people and got
the job done. (Manager’s Diary 9)

Upon reflection, I concluded that we get what we want using intelligence, and not getting carried
away by emotion [. . .] I cannot allow other people to take control of me in a way that makes me
lose control (Manager’s Diary 8)

From the point of view of HR and senior leadership: transformations generated from
the reflective process
The discussions and reflective experiences of this group of managers triggered two
significant changes in their behavior:

1. Strengthening the autonomy of managers

Initially, managers reported that they sought to wait to receive strategic information from top
management so that they could take action with their teams, or they complained about the
lack of meetings or alignment on the part of their leaders. At the end of this process, it was
observed that most of the participants took on their responsibilities, as could be determined
from their communication, which indicated that they understood the possible impact of their
communication on other members of their team. This led them to act more autonomously.
This more autonomous behavior was noticed by HR workers and directors who identified
that managers no longer expected to receive guidance when deciding how to act or
mobilize their team members. One of the directors commented that he was even surprised
to walk through a meeting room and see managers from different company departments
gathered together without the directors having asked that they meet:
I was surprised to walk into the meeting room and see the commercial, finance, and operations
leaders together, addressing a problem that needed to be resolved. I even opened the door and
asked: “is it a meeting?” Someone answered yes and told me the reason, then I asked: [do] I
need to be in this meeting, and they answered in chorus: “no!” [. . .] I confess that I liked the
feeling of things going without me. (Director 1)

2. The change in interactions with others

It was possible to register in manager’s narratives a change in how they interacted with the
other members of the company. They demonstrated the incorporation of methods such as
information exchange and a willingness to share actions and feedback in meetings with
their teams, as well as between departments and peers. This was not observable in their
behavior before starting the soft skills development program that we designed based on
critical reflection.
According to the HR Manager and directors, managers became more agile in their
decision-making because they began to organize themselves in a more collaborative way,
scheduling meetings without the request of their immediate superiors to deal with the most
relevant matters for their departments. And, as a result, by taking matters to higher

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 hierarchical levels, those matters were more carefully analyzed, discussed and reflected,
which facilitated the consensus and decision-making processes. These results, in the eyes
of the top leadership, were promising in view of the expectations of behavioral changes
portrayed in the diagnosis carried out in the first stage of action research.

Discussion
The study’s results lead to three axes of discussion in answering our research question:
How does stimulating critical reflection contribute to the development of soft skills and
transform the professional practice of managers?
The first axis refers to the debate on critical reflection in the work environment: regarding the
reflective experience, some authors who have dedicated themselves to studying critical
reflection in the work environment are unanimous in concluding that it is very difficult for it to
occur in the organizational context (Raelin, 2002; Vince and Reynolds, 2009; Cotter, 2014).
The reflective space created in this development program provided everyone with moments
in which it was possible to expose feelings, thoughts, discuss challenges and celebrate
achievements without fear of judgment (Cotter, 2014). As the following report shows: these
meetings are the only place where I feel comfortable to expose what I really feel without
being judged or treated as a poor thing (Manager 1).
Even after opening the meeting to allow the managers to participate, it was possible to
perceive that the meetings were not seen as relevant to the business. One of the managers
reported that he was called by his immediate leader a few minutes before one of the
Reflective Conversation Rounds and, therefore, he explained that he could not delay
attending the meeting, as he had already committed to it. Then their leader commented
loud enough for everyone in the department to hear:
So, my boss walked out of his office and right in the middle of my department, in front of my team
he said, “But are these meetings important? Can’t you not go?” I was upset, what do you mean
they’re not important, when I’m in this meeting I’m also working because I’m thinking about how
to do my job better. (Manager 3)

It is important, however, to consider that institutionalized reflection had limits, since it did not
expand to the entire organization, nor was it directed to the higher members of the
hierarchy. Rather, it was limited to the group participating in the experience and to some of
the subordinates of the members of that group. It did not fully become part of an organized
reflective experience (Vince and Reynolds, 2009).
The second axis of analysis refers to corporate education as a space for critical reflection:
self-reflection, the sharing of ideas, feedback and discussion, whether done individually or
collectively, can provide a chance to review processes and changes in organizational
values, triggering a learning process in the organization, according to Van Woerkom (2004).
The managers involved in this process highlighted the importance of critical reflection in
their learning and development process: Stopping to think, reflect, made all the difference
in the things I started to do after the meeting (Manager 2). Or, as Manager 1 said: We never
have time to stop and reflect [. . .] but then there is a lack of planning to execute, to reach
the result [. . .] maybe the answer is right there [. . .] lack of thinking (Manager 11).
Many emotions surfaced and permeated the reflective moments (Malkki, 2019) present in
the creation of this space, which allowed for the elaboration and re-elaboration of feelings
that until then had no place in the work setting. In addition, when managers understood the
purpose of the development program and adhered to the idea that the meetings were
defined as a space of honesty and confidentiality (Cotter, 2014), it was possible to observe
a progressive increase in behavior of naturalness, freedom, commitment and delivery by
the participants. Faced with each dilemma, event or critical incident that was then

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discussed and translated into each participant’s perception, the participants were then able
to access their frame of reference and reflect on new ways of acting, giving new meaning to
past experiences. Not everything that was externalized reflexively led to action, and there
were several setbacks.
Finally, the third axis of analysis centers on the development of soft skills: as the discussion
of critical incidents evolved, it was possible to observe movements that guided the agendas
and discussions of the meetings, which were not previously organized or thematized. Some
managers demonstrated a mere understanding of contextual phenomena and situations
that involved communication issues in their work routine without going further; others
already showed a willingness to engage in some level of reflection, such as a manager who
wrote in his diary that he does not want to be like his leader because he concluded that he
is a model for other people (Manager Diary 7).
In smaller numbers, we were able to identify some who arrived at the point of reflecting on
assumptions, questioning their values and worldview while seeking to assume new roles.
This process, however, was not linear and some managers who showed signs of reflection
or critical reflection at one point seemed to regress, and other portions of their narratives
were less critical and reflective. This process of making advances and experiencing
setbacks in one’s reflections and transformations has already been recorded in the
transformative learning literature (Mezirow, 2013) and this finding reinforces the importance
of institutionalizing reflective spaces in the company (Vince and Reynolds, 2009), which will
ensure continuity within and the deepening of the factors necessary for such
transformations to take place. Anyway, even with the observation of these natural setbacks,
what is important to note is that there was a break with the inertia that was perceived at the
beginning of the reflexive development proposal, indicating that a movement of change
was triggered with the formation of a critical-reflective space in the company. This
movement is represented in Figure 4 as a reflection flow.
This reflection, through individuals and group interactions, generated a transformation of the
manager’s practices (Cranton, 2013) and the meaning of creating a permeability in an
individual frame of reference. This can entail referring to your teacher’s questions and, at
the same time, the movement of being able to step back and review your opinions. In this

Figure 4 Reflection flow

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 sense, words such as anger, disrespect and discouragement, among other words that
reflect fear, were observed in the daily writing of the reflective ones.

Final considerations
The results presented here revealed that a soft skills development program based on
critical reflection had significant potential in terms of generating changes in managers’
practices. This finding suggests that use of such a program is viable in the corporate
environment.
From a theoretical point of view, these results contribute to the studies on the use of critical
reflection at work; from an empirical perspective, the results were gathered using an
interventionist methodology, which was presented in detail. This will allow other
researchers, consultants or corporate educators to replicate this outcome in a professional
setting with leaders or professionals from other hierarchical levels.
From a practical and methodological point of view, a proposal was presented for the
development of soft skills for managers that uses reflexive and dialogic pedagogical
resources and that can be replicated and improved by researchers, managers, consultants
and corporate educators. The results suggested some essential elements for replicating
this experience:
䊏 alignment and identification of development needs with HR and management;
䊏 opening of a reflective space sponsored by the top management so that use of this
practice will be legitimized within the organization; and
䊏 establishing the presence of a facilitator who helps to mediate the reflections,
consolidating their practice within a space of honesty, trust and openness to new
beginnings (Cotter, 2014).
However, this research also has important limits, which could be addressed by future
research:
䊏 It was not possible to determine with more precision at what time the reflection or critical
reflection took place. This point could be observed in individual interviews, which was
not possible to be carried out in this investigation.
䊏 It is necessary to identify the changes reported in managers’ practices from reports
received from peers, immediate leaders or subordinates.
䊏 The limited time made available for the research is a factor that restricted the possibility
of observing the evolution of the managers in relation to the critical reflection
undertaken after the meetings.
䊏 The reported transformations were restricted to a management context and were not
expanded to the rest of the organization.

It is hoped that this study can inspire market professionals and researchers to propose and
foster new critical-reflective training experiences, stimulating the development of
professionals who are not mere performers or reproducers of crystallized habits in
organizations, but who are critical-reflective actors within organizational spaces.

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paradox: the role of action learning in the suppression and stimulation of critical reflection”, Management
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Corresponding author
Vanessa Angioletti Ferreira Lemos can be contacted at: [email protected]

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