The shift from an exclusive reliance on systematic learning to experiential learning has gained prominence in Japanese university education. This study examines problem-based learning (PBL) and its role in university management education, including its historical context and distinctive characteristics. Amid these transformative shifts, it is essential to understand the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts, which compelled a transition from face-to-face to distance learning, on the efficacy of PBL education. This study investigates the nuances of students’ learning experiences pre- and post-pandemic, shedding light on the evolving dynamics of education. Additionally, it examines the differences in learning effects between online and face-to-face PBL programs and underlines the challenges and potential of remote PBL instruction by focusing on industry-academia collaboration courses offered in first-year education at universities. It provides insights into the future of university education in an increasingly digital world while offering a comprehensive overview of PBL's potential within this changing educational landscape.

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This conceptual article aims to reintegrate existing path theories meta-theoretically, furthermore proposing an alternative theory termed ‘Dialectical Path Analysis.’ In existing path studies, determinist path dependence and voluntarist path creation meta-theoretically constitute an unhappy dualism. This article reintegrates the two existing path theories based on analytical dualism, a meta-theoretical concept of human nature of critical realism. From analytical dualism, the path formation process is not formed by completely alienating self-reinforcing mechanisms, nor do voluntarist actors create it from nothing. It is continuously reproduced or transformed by the dialectic interplay between existing social, economic, cultural, and material structures and the emergent properties of human agencies representing various backdrops. This article underscores not only the implication of comprehensive and deepening consideration of social phenomena, including management, economy, and industry, but also the importance for scholars themselves to embrace a reflexive and dialectical epistemology.

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This study clarifies the forms of management and support available for people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from the perspective of organizational socialization through interviews conducted in satellite offices for the employment of disabled people in Japan. The employment of disabled people is a significant topic, and people with ADHD and ASD are expected to be active in the workforce. Therefore, satellite offices for the employment of disabled people have attracted attention in Japan in recent years. This study provides some implications. First, it expands the concept of realistic job preview as experience-based way from a perspective of cognitive diversity. Second, it defines a new concept, work anchor, which is a value that represents the underlying source of motivation and positive meaning in work. Third, it points out an assumption that organizational socialization is irreversible, and the possibility of the backlash of organizational socialization.

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