Few MBA or executive training programs adequately address the importance of developing leaders. For the most part programs tend to be theory oriented and use the traditional tools of conceptual learning — case studies, lectures, films and discussions — relying on the contrast between managers and leaders actions. Which may be why the value of an MBA and the salaries of MBA students appear to no longer be what they once were.
The problem with many business school leadership programs is they teach ideas, not real behaviours, and the professors are chosen by virtue of their ability to publish detailed research, not their leadership experience. Understanding something intellectually often has little to do with being able to do it. Adult learners need experiences and coaching to turn concepts into leadership behaviours.
Henry Mintzberg, a professor of management studies at McGill University in Montreal, also argues that because students spend so much time developing quick responses to packaged versions of business problems, they do not learn enough about real-world experiences. Rakesh Khurana, a professor at Harvard Business School and author of From Higher Aims to Hired Hands, a historical analysis of business education, says business schools never really taught their students that, like doctors and lawyers, they were part of a profession with professional standards. In the 1970s, he said, the idea took hold that a company’s stock price was the primary barometer of a leader’s success. Among other things, this changed business schools’ concept of proper management techniques. Instead of being viewed as long-term economic stewards, he says, managers came to be seen primarily as the agents of the owners — the shareholders — responsible for maximizing shareholder wealth.”We can’t rely on the usual structure of MBA education, which divides the management world into the discrete business functions of marketing, finance, accounting, and so on,” he says.
For universities, business schools have been a means to an end — money. They are less expensive to operate than graduate schools are with their elaborate labs and research facilities, and alumni tend to be generous with donations. About 146,000 graduate degrees in business were awarded in the U.S. in 2005-06; roughly a fourth of the 594,000 graduate degrees awarded that school year,the U.S. Education Department notes. Still, there have been signs all is not well in business education.
A study of cheating among graduate students by Linda Trevino, Ken Butterfield and Donald McCabe, published in 2006 in the journal Academy of Management Learning & Education, found 56% of all MBA students cheated regularly — more than in any other discipline. The authors attributed that to “perceived peer behaviour” — in other words, students believed everyone else was doing it.
McCabe, writing in the Harvard Business Review, contends the prevalence of cheating among MBA students is because of the “get-it-done, dam-the-torpedoes, succeed-at-all costs mentality many business students bring to he game.” He describes an MBA student mentality of getting the highest GPA possible so they can get the highest paid jobs in the pharmaceutical, high-tech and finance sectors.
Some employers are beginning to question the value of an MBA. A research project that two Harvard professors released in 2008 found that employers valued graduates’ ability to think through complex business problems, but that something was lacking. “There is a need to broaden from the analytical focus of MBA programs for more emphasis on skills and a sense of purpose and identity,” said David Garvin, a professor of business administration and one of the project’s authors.
Students themselves may welcome an emphasis on character skills and personal development. In surveys that the Aspen Institute regularly conducts, MBA candidates say they are less confident now they will be able to resolve ethical quandaries in the workplace.
In fairness, several business schools are trying to revise their model but most have yet to realize they have a credibility problem. Business schools including the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, Wharton, Yale and Stanford are overhauling their MBA programs, with a focus on better problem-solving, decision-making, ethics and social responsibility through experiential opportunities.
Angel Cabrera, President of the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, says that business schools are slowly beginning to move towards accepting the broader responsibility of management, citing the example of more than 200 business schools around the world that have endorsed the Principles of Responsible Management Education, a movement sponsored by the United Nations.
The challenge for business schools now is how to develop leaders not managers — people who believe business has bottom lines beyond shareholder value.
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