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The End of Business Schools? Less Success Than Meets the Eye
Abstract
Although business school enrollments have soared and business education has become big business, surprisingly little evaluation of the impact of business schools on either their graduates or (he profession of management exists. What data there are suggest that business schools are not very effective: Neither possessing an MBA degree nor grades earned in courses correlate with career success, results that question the effectiveness of schools in preparing their students. And. there is little evidence that business school research is influential on management practice, calling into question the professional relevance of management scholarship.
... However, only few studies examine the making (or unmaking) of academic-practitioner differences in day-today settings; most contributions to the theory-practice debate merely take them for granted (Bartunek & Rynes, 2014). Whereas most arguments implicitly consider scholarly and managerial publications to be the main academic-practitioner exchange media, the evidence shows that a very small percentage of managers read management journals (Barends et al., 2015;Pfeffer & Fong, 2002;Rousseau, 2006). There have therefore been several calls for comparative studies on how academics and practitioners make sense of each other's theories and practices beyond publications, in situated contexts such as business education or joint collaboration projects which require them to face the realities of the 'other' within and beyond taken-forgranted prejudices (Astley & Zammuto, 1992;Bartunek, 2020;Bartunek & Rynes, 2014;Tushman et al., 2007;Ungureanu & Bertolotti, 2020;Weick, 2003). ...
... On the one hand, some studies have argued that executive education is problematic because it implies power asymmetry to the advantage of academics who leverage the educatorstudent roles in defense of high status and knowledge authority in the classroom. By exasperating differences between the two groups, executive education may deepen practitioners' beliefs about the 'ivory tower' of academia, and turn the theory-practice gap into a self-fulfilling prophecy (Aguinis et al., 2020;Bennis & O'Toole, 2005;Leavitt, 1989;Mintzberg, 2004;Pfeffer & Fong, 2002). On the other hand, many concerns have regarded an opposite trend whereby the increasing customer-orientation in executive education shifts the power imbalance in the favor of practitioners. ...
... It is significant that the use of the knower-doer stereotype is related closely to the theorypractice debate in the field of management which often describes academics and practitioners as opposites, and laments the difficulties involved in linking academics' abstract, detached, and self-centered theorizing to business managers' narrow, action-based, and context-driven practice (Hambrick, 1994;Hay & Heracleous, 2009;Pfeffer & Fong, 2002;Rynes et al., 2001;Starkey & Madan, 2001). Our findings are in line with the argument that the inter-subjectively perceived differences between academics and practitioners are crucial for explaining the worrying gap between management theory and practice (Baldridge et al., 2004). ...
Despite the growing debate on the difficult relationship between management theory and practice, we still know little about what happens when academics and practitioners meet in liminal contexts, and how they deal with perceived differences. We study a corporate executive program where management academics and R&D managers draw on the ‘knower-doer’ stereotype to exchange knowledge about technology innovation management. We introduce the concept of dynamic stereotyping -i.e. using readily available occupational images to engage immediately in temporary and fluid exchanges with members of other occupations. Dynamic stereotyping (anticipation, reaction and reversal) can help reduce the relational insecurity experienced by academics and practitioners when they meet and promote the transition from abstracted to more embodied and realistic views of each other. We contribute to the theory-practice debate and to the literatures on stereotypes and occupations by providing a process-based view on stereotyping and the conditions favoring dynamic versus rigid stereotyping.
... embodied learning, psychological capital, challenge stressors, outdoor training, adventure training INTRODUCTION Criticism regarding the effectiveness of leadership training programs provided by business schools and training companies alike is growing as they often fail to improve leader performance (e.g., Alajoutsijärvi et al., 2015;Pfeffer & Fong, 2002). The experiential learning approach-which is a hands-on and physical process of learning by doing-has become popular and its adoption in business education programs has been advocated by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB; Hibbert et al., 2017). ...
... To support this claim, we collected data at various time-points in each study, with the first study showing that adaptability stemming from psychological capital persisted 6 months after the embodied learning intervention. In light of the growing suggestion that traditional methods of leadership development provided by business schools and training companies fail to improve leader performance (e.g., Alajoutsijärvi et al., 2015;Pfeffer & Fong, 2002), we encourage organizations to consider their return on investment when selecting a development program and to choose the methods (i.e., embodied learning) that may best prepare leaders to adapt to changing new realities. ...
We examined the efficacy of embodied learning for augmenting leader psychological capital — a latent construct reflecting hope, optimism, self-efficacy, and resilience. To do so, we leveraged the literature on embodied cognition and the challenge-hindrance stressor framework to better understand how involving both the body and mind during learning (i.e., embodied learning) can lead to heightened perceptions of challenge stressors, which then result in greater psychological capital. We also expected that higher levels of psychological capital relate to greater subsequent adaptability on the job. We tested these predictions in two quasi-experimental field studies. Study 1 included a sample of 141 Executive MBA students and Study 2 included a sample of 163 working managers. The results of the first study revealed that participants in the embodied learning group experienced higher post-learning psychological capital than those in the disembodied learning group and that psychological capital mediated the relationship between learning approach and peer-rated adaptability six months later. Study 2 replicated the positive relationship between embodied learning and post-learning psychological capital and extended it by showing that challenge stressors mediated this relationship.
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... The choice of the business school to pursue an MBA is the biggest decision a prospective student makes. Business schools have adopted marketing and brand management as one of their key strategies to remain competitive and relevant in the market place (Pfeffer & Fong, 2014). Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the UKZN GSB&L's brand management strategies and its effect on students. ...
... The extent to which the ICT skill development should rest with business schools is the subject of some debate in the literature, especially given that the digital workplace requires different skill sets from business graduates than in the past (McCoy, 2001). Business schools have been criticized on the grounds that they do not prepare students well enough for a competitive job market (Pfeffer & Fong, 2002;Sadri, 2002). For example, Feast (2003) argues that post-secondary institutions must understand their role in developing graduates' IT skills, and recognize that they cannot simply rely on the skills they bring from secondary school or hope that students will somehow develop these skills by the end of their university education. ...
This study examines the perceptions of Canadian business school graduates’ and employers with respect to business graduates’ ICT proficiency levels. Twelve (12) business graduates from a Canadian university and six (6) local employers were interviewed on a range of topics relating to the acquisition of information and communications technology (ICT) skills and graduate competency levels. Graduates were positive in their self-appraisal of computing proficiency and expressed high levels of confidence in their ICT capabilities, while the acquisition of these skills was found to be primarily learned informally, self-taught, or learned during work terms. Generally, employers felt that the ICT competencies of business graduates the skills they need for the workplace are appropriate, but indicate that some specialized ICT skills are acquired through workplace orientation and ongoing professional learning. Graduate skill deficits were found to be more prevalent in the areas of writing and communication – including spelling, grammar, and business writing. Research findings suggest some misalignment between employer expectations and program objectives and raise questions about a potential gap in the readiness of graduates for the workplace. Although there is wide recognition that the primary aim of university business degree programs falls outside of ICT skill development, this research suggests a need for better coordination to align the needs and expectations of employers with the goals and objectives of business programs. Strategies for greater collaboration between business faculties and employers, with regard to business graduates’ ICT and other key competencies are suggested.
... Kumar and Dash (2011) and Shweta and Kumar (2011) focus on the role of the regulatory bodies and policymakers in ensuring acceptance of the courses they offer to the management aspirants. Reilly (1982), Korey and Bogorya (1985), Pfeffer and Fong (2002, 2004), Chaudhry (2003 and Oza and Parab (2012) argue that the low industry linkage is a significant factor contributing to a decline in demand for management courses in the last few years. Management courses are recognized to focus only on employment-oriented specialization and are not well-aligned to the needs of the industry. ...
Abstract
Purpose
This paper proposes a decision-making framework for assessing various dimensions and barriers that have affected the admission process in management educational institutions during the ongoing pandemic. The framework considers the interrelationship between the obstacles and highlights the importance of each barrier.
Design/methodology/approach
An integrated method based on decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory and analytical network process is proposed to structure the barrier assessment framework. Results obtained from the study are validated by comparing them against the conventional analytical hierarchy process.
Findings
The results obtained from this study indicate four significant dimensions that hinder admission in Indian management institutes, namely, governmental, financial, sectoral, institutional and market. The top five barriers are demand shift towards technical (alternative) skills, acceptance of the graduated students, lack of industry–institute collaboration, lack of long-term vision and opening new Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) and Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs).
Research limitations/implications
During this ongoing pandemic, many educational institutes have been forced to shift from the traditional classroom to a virtual teaching model. In this regard, this study helps identify and assess the barriers to admission in Indian management institutes during this epidemic and thus, contribute to the literature. The findings will assist all stakeholders and policymakers of management institutions design and develop appropriate managerial strategies. The study is conducted in the Indian management educational institute context and can be extended to technical education institutions for deeper insights.
Originality/value
The paper develops an assessment framework for analysing the barriers to admission in Indian management institutes during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Research implications are discussed in the context of a developing country.
... This is reminiscent of the schism that appeared at the turn of the millennium between management as a science and management practitioners (e.g. Pfeffer and Fong (2002), and one that has also been identified in other disciplines, (see Fraser et al., 2020 for a recent example from accounting). ...
There is a growing impetus on academics working in higher education to evidence the wider impact (i.e. the social and economic benefits) of their research. As academic disciplines, tourism in general, and sustainable tourism more specifically, evolved to understand and address the real-world challenges and opportunities facing the sector. It is thus worrying that there are indications of a growing divide between researchers and beneficiaries. This editorial introduces a special issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism dedicated to showcasing examples of sustainable tourism research that are bucking the trend by clearly evidencing the applied value of research and the routes to creating change. First, we outline the footings of the ‘impact agenda’ within academia and examine the distinction between the impact in its academic and wider forms. With the focus on wider impact, we then consider its provenance within the field of sustainable tourism before outlining the themes underpinning the eight articles comprising this special issue. We end by considering the changes that are required within the academic environment and to the psyche and approach of tourism scholars in order to enhance the likelihood of wider impact being generated from the outcomes of scholarly activity within the field.
... Business schools began to adhere to the call to adopt a more scientific model similar to the physical sciences and economics. The scientific model as advocated by the Gordon and Howell report resulted in the faculty members of business schools being staffed by people holding PhD qualifications beginning 1960, which introduced a scholarly mode of teaching (Fourcade & Khurana, 2013;Grey, 2004;Khurana & Penrice, 2011;Khurana & Spender, 2012;Pfeffer & Fong, 2002, 2003Starkey, Hatchuel & Tempest, 2004;Starkey & Tempest, 2005, 2009). This scholarly mode of teaching played a strong advocating role in favour of the legitimation of business schools within institutions of higher education. ...
This study addresses the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4’s objective to increase the number of adults with relevant skills for employment and decent jobs by looking at the context of aged academics in the domain of digital academia. The literature review reveals that there is a scarcity of research studies related to aged second-career academics. Previous studies which have been carried out on second-career academics in business schools did not address the issue of information technology (IT) literacy. Therefore, this exploratory study aims to contribute to the conversation of increasing and sustaining the number of professionally and capably enriched aged second-career academics in digital academia. A hermeneutic interpretive approach is adopted, covering eight aged second-career academics from various types of higher education institutions across Malaysia. The findings from this study suggest that significant support, appropriate IT development and training programs in enhancing their information technology proficiency and literacy is crucial. The finding suggests that this is particularly pertinent for sustainability with respect to aged second-career academics. The study is expected to enhance the governance of universities with regard to introducing proper orientation and training for supporting and improving the information literacy of aged second-career academics in business schools especially for blended delivery of business education.
... As a phenomenon, rapid current change is, and should be, managed by leaders with a great personal capacity for communication (Gillen and Carroll, 1985;Mumford et al., 2007). Within the framework of leadership training as delivered by business schools, there exists a special sensibility toward communication skills training (Pfeffer and Fong, 2002), and the paradigm change to a less directive and more collaborative leadership now requires, more than ever, the reinforcement of social skills for communicating to and influencing others (Sobral and Furtado, 2019). Along with this new leadership style, according to Roberts et al. (2012), comes a new generation's particular aptitude for learning and being trained through play. ...
Adult learners demand teaching innovations that are ever more rapid and attractive. As a response to these demands and the challenges of skills training, this article presents a conceptual analysis that introduces competitive debate as an impact training model. The aim is to learn whether debate can be considered to fall within the frame of gamification, so that the full potential of debate as gamification can be exploited. There is a significant research gap regarding competitive debate as a game, with the training mechanics for adult learners remaining practically unexplored. Through a conceptual analysis of game, game experience, and gamification, and their respective characteristics, we conclude that competitive debate is an ideal instrument for gamification.
... DiMaggio and Powell (1983) note that the preference for qualifications from selected educational institutions in recruitment leads to homogeneity in the cognitive frameworks of leaders. Supporting this, Pfeffer and Fong (2002) observe that business school education prepares executives for identifying the same set of problems and responding with a standard set of solutions (see also Bell et al., 2018). ...
We know little of why a minority of firms pursue counter-cyclical strategies and consequently outperform competitors during recessions. Based on the theory of institutional isomorphism, we hypothesize that these firms avoid the mimetic and normative pressures that promote strategic convergence during uncertainty. We demonstrate these effects at the board-level in a sample of 1,615 U.S. firms. Mimetic processes are evident, with firms' connectedness in board interlock networks attenuating profitability and decreasing firm value during recessions—a reversal of the positive effects during expansions. Normative pressures arise from homogeneity in directors’ educational and professional experience, with greater consequences for long-term performance. Overall, recessionary performance is improved when firms occupy relatively isolated positions in informational networks and appoint directors from a range of backgrounds.
... We apply concepts from Collins et al. (2002) and Collins (2001) in an academic setting in order to illustrate how ideas that have been applied in business can be reapplied to solve problems that arise when a research project stalls and the research team has to redirect its efforts. This application of Collins et al. (2002) and Collins (2001) from corporate America to academia is similar to the recommendations that Pfeffer and Fong (2002) and Schoemaker (2008) made in an effort to rethink how we educate business students in a world of increasing uncertainty and complexity. Researchers need to integrate concepts that have been applied in the business world to innovate in "messy, ill-structured situations" (Glen, Suciu, & Baughn, 2014, p. 653). ...
The retail industry is one of the largest employers in developed nations and managerial motivation within retail organizations plays a vital role in employee productivity, performance, and organizational outcomes. This study examined the effect materialism has on the motivation of business managers since materialists aspire to attain money, possessions, image, and success through financial gain. This study included 56 randomly selected retail managers from the Midwestern United States who were over 18 years old, works in the retail industry, have at least 3 years of retail managerial experience, and supervise 10 or more employees. Demographic information was collected, and the participants completed the Material Values Scale, the Intrinsic Motivation Scale, and the Extrinsic Motivation Scale. Two regression analyses were conducted to determine if a significant relationship existed between materialism and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation. Results from regression analysis one revealed there was no significant relationship between materialism and intrinsic motivation. The results from regression analysis two suggested a significant relation between materialism and extrinsic motivation. Results agreed with recent studies that indicated that materialism has no effect on the workplace intrinsic motivation of individuals. Conversely, the findings were consistent with other studies that showed materialism is correlated with extrinsic motivation which can affect individual behavior, work performance, and organizational outcomes. This this study can have practical application for organizations by creating leadership training programs for managers using intrinsic motivation and recruitment strategies for materialistically motivated retail managers. Future research should focus on the controlling for demographics to see if this affects the relationship between materialism, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation, as well as, investigate the relationship between variables within other industries so it can be generalized to a larger population.
... In recent decades, numerous business scandals, rising income inequality, and the perceived failures of globalization and shareholder-focused capitalism have drawn attention to the importance of moral education in business schools (Ghoshal, 2005;Giacalone & Thompson, 2006;Hummel et al., 2018;Swanson, 2004). While business schools and MBA programs have the opportunity to contribute to a better world by educating socially responsible managers and ethically aware business leaders (Carlson & Burke, 1998;Gu & Neesham, 2014), they have instead been criticized for not sufficiently educating their students in becoming critical moral agents (Pfeffer, & Fong, 2002;Rubin & Dierdorff, 2009;Solomon, 2001;Swanson, 2004). On average, business school students cheat more in educational contexts (McCabe et al., 2006), score lower on empathetic abilities, and higher on narcissism (Brown et al., 2010). ...
... The study finds a significant link between both the type of degree and school selectivity with Tobin's Q. Results are explained by citing the length of time that lapses between the attainment of formal education and becoming CEO. This time gap renders formal education irrelevant (Maxam et al., 2006;Mintzberg, 1996;Pfeffer & Fong, 2002). ...
... Consequently, the quality of the training imparted by Business Schools was called into question. Critics not only wondered what contribution Business Schools made to society (Morsing & Sauquet, 2011) but also argued that they were to blame for the undermining of Good Management Practices (Ghoshal, 2005) and had thus lost their raison d'être (Pfeffer & Fong, 2002;Bennis and O'Toole, 2005). Others said they had not given the training that companies needed (Mintzberg, 2004) or had lost all notion of management as a profession Fong, 2002, 2004;Khurana, 2007). ...
This essay begins with a look at the contribution made by Business Ethics and by Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to Business Education, and how the first two have moved to the last over time. Yet their contributions also reveal limitations that need to be taken into account in the debate on the training provided by Business Schools. This debate cannot be confined to speaking of disciplines and their cross-cutting natures but rather needs to focus directly on the kind of personal profile fostered among business students. In the context of this debate on the future of Business Schools, the essay stresses the relevance of Peter-Hans Kolvenbach’s framework. He proposed an educational ideal based upon educating competent, conscious, compassionate, and committed people. This ideal took shape in the form of an educational paradigm integrating four dimensions: professional ( utilitas ), ethical-social ( iustitia ), humanist ( humanitas ) and spiritual ( fides ). The essay not only shows how each of these dimensions is in tune with some of the present proposals for renewing Business Education but also how Kolvenbach's more holistic approach can help to further integrate and spotlight the blind spots of each of them.
... Page 16 of 41 Morrison (2014), the degree itself is no longer seen as sufficient by employers for securing employment in a highly competitive, flexible and globally responsive environment. The dominant call in undergraduate competency literature is for partnership accountability between the university, the student and industry (Taylor & Hooley, 2014;Wickramasinghe & Perera, 2010;D'Este & Patel, 2007;Pfeffer & Fong, 2002;Poyago-Theotoky, Beath & Siegel, 2002). ...
A complex interplay exists between actors of higher education and graduate employability in developed countries. Collaboration between these actors takes on significant importance, driven by a globalized, technologically advanced and highly competitive knowledge-based economy. We propose a new graduate employability framework, constructed of employability capital and competencies; underpinned by human capital and Bourdieusian social theory. An emergent graduate identity research lens is adopted, incorporating work-integrated learning, seeking to enhance national competitiveness through making graduates more employable. Propositions and a conceptual model are subsequently offered, addressing both 'what' and why' angles of the student perception of the graduate labour market. Conclusions offer potential benefits to actors; including advice for policy makers of higher education and work-integrated learning. We believe that implementing the model will positively influence the ways undergraduate students are prepared for future introduction to the graduate labour market.
... From the Carnegie and Ford reports of the mid-20 th century to the criticism of neoliberal theories and philosophies in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 (Mirowski, 2013;Parker, 2018), business schools' right to operate has been questioned openly (Murillo & Vallentin, 2016). Highly critical essays by Pfeffer and Fong (2002) and Ghoshal (2005), who blamed business schools for ineffectiveness in enhancing career progression and the failure to produce responsible managers and societally impactful research, remain some of the most highly cited pieces ever published in the AMLE. ...
... In short, our data do not corroborate the dominant narrative in portraying a faltering start for Britain's business schools . Instead, we suggest that the creation of two aspirational business schools in London and Manchester emerged from deep roots to galvanize in time a thriving academic sector, extending a financial lifeline to many universities, and instigating a national industry (Pfeffer & Fong, 2002). ...
Britain is often depicted as a laggard in management education before the late creation of two graduate business schools in London and Manchester in the mid-1960s triggered the emergence of a new academic sector. According to the dominant narrative, the anachronistic views of Britain’s industrial leaders and disdain of its universities for practical learning constrained developments in the field. Through the lens of elite theory, we offer a reinterpretation of the formation of Britain’s first business schools informed by archival research, suggesting that they arose from an evolutionary process rather than a crucible event. The story of the creation of Britain’s first business schools has never been told from the perspective of elite agency. Our study reveals the emergent managerial elite of the post-war era growing into something altogether more powerful. Our main contribution to theory is to demonstrate that, while expanding management education ostensibly contravened elite interests, elite interaction in the field of power at a time of national urgency amplified elite influence, prefiguring their role as ‘influence elites’ today.
... Grey (2004, p. 182) notes that the attempt to construct a 'science of management' using the bio-medical paradigm has failed, because of the differences between the natural and the social worlds. So the call by Pfeffer and Fong (2002) for business schools to mimic medical schools with their natural science base will remain unfulfilled. For Grey, critical management education reflects the traditional tenets of a liberal education with wider concerns for philosophy, ethics and politics and the social sciences to promote transformational personal development in the student. ...
This 'think piece' paper contributes to the recent 'business school business' debate by examining whether an alternative form of the business school-specifically, the public interest model-can be created. Current criticisms of conventional business schools are reviewed and alternative models explored. We take some examples from our own field of health management research. We define the public interest school model in more detail than in previous accounts and compare and contrast it with other models of the reformed business school. We identify certain conditions in which this form is more likely to succeed and suggest a future empirical research agenda.
... Teaching approaches in the context of PBL are increasingly used within university disciplines to enable future graduates to act competently in an increasingly complex and dynamic environment (Barrows, 1996;Dochy et al., 2003;Edens, 2000;Walker & Leary, 2009). This development can also be seen as a response to the criticism that the practical relevance of the learning contents in higher 3 education was often lacking and that many graduates would develop insufficient competencies in problem-solving (e.g., Barrows, 1996;Pfeffer & Fong, 2002). ...
The study presented here investigates the question of how entrepreneurship education can be embedded into academic courses of life science students, to provide basic economic competencies. From the perspective of business education, a pragmatic approach has been taken within the framework of an interventional study. This approach combines entrepreneurship education with a problem-based learning approach and the case study method. Using a framework based upon knowledge, skills and attitudes, the students' acquisition of competencies has been evaluated. For this purpose, a longitudinal study with two cohorts (n = 23) was conducted in 2018 and 2019, which included a knowledge test and a self-assessment. The test instrument was based on two validated tests, namely the ‘Test of Economic Literacy’ and ‘Questions on Economic Knowledge’. In addition, qualitative reflective essays were carried out to examine the development of student's skills and attitudes. Although the knowledge test did not show any increase in students' knowledge of economics, the results of the self-assessment and the reflective essays at least indicate a positive impact of the learning environment on students' skills and attitudes. Consequently, the teaching design considered in this study may also be relevant to other studies of embedded entrepreneurship in academic courses.
... Management education has been under public scrutiny for many years, and concerns about its outcomes (e.g. Pfeffer and Fong, 2002) and its normative assumptions (e.g. Khurana, 2010) have been repeatedly presented, with some scholars recently calling for its dismantlement (Parker, 2018). ...
Purpose
This paper points out that common human resource manageement (HRM) research and practice have overlooked employee's class of origin. Workers' class of origin can be seen as “the elephant in the room” in current HRM, being that it significantly affects organizational decision-making with negative social (increased class-based inequality) and organizational (inefficient allocation of human re-sources) effects.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper summarizes the partial, fragmented and multi-disciplinary literature on HRM and employees’ social class of origin.
Findings
The paper shows how recruiting, selection, training and development practices systematically reinforce class-based inequality by providing high-class employees with more resources and opportunities compared to low-class employees.
Practical implications
The paper provides sustainable HR practitioners, educators and researchers with recommendations on how to address employees' social class of origin, improving organizational competitive advantage and reducing class-based inequality at the societal level.
Originality/value
The paper focuses on a topic which, in diversity management, is an elephant in the room (i.e. workers social class of origin).
... Concerns have been expressed about the limitations of rational approaches when decisions are made in highly complex and ambiguous environments (Elmuti, 2004;Pfeffer and Fong, 2002). Academics and practitioners have recognized the importance of distinguishing between complex and simple decision problems, referring to these as wicked/tame (Rittel and Webber, 1973), non-programmed/programmed (Cyert et al., 1956), mess/problem (Ackoff, 1981), ill-structured/structured (Orasanu and Connolly, 1993), complex/complicated (Snowden and Boone, 2007), while pointing out the need for a more nuanced approach to M a n a g e m e n t D e c i s i o n 3 addressing these different types of problems (Vroom, 2003;Klein 2008). ...
Purpose
Managers are increasingly presented with complex, ambiguous decision problems that affect multiple stakeholder groups. Such problems cannot be tackled solely by classical approaches that prescribe rational methods to weigh evidence and select an optimal course of action. Yet most courses on decision making still focus on these methods. This paper draws attention to the complementary nature of rational decision making and sensemaking techniques in management decision making, and describes a practical pedagogy that demonstrates how the two can be integrated into management curricula.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on an in-depth review of relevant research, the authors propose a conceptual model that highlights the complementary nature of rational and sensemaking methods for making decisions relating to complex and ambiguous problems. They then describe a course on decision making as an illustration of how the model can inform decision making pedagogy.
Findings
Decision makers need to think of their decision problems in terms of two distinct types of uncertainty: those for which uncertainty can be quantified and those for which it cannot. When faced with the latter, decisions are best made by working with relevant stakeholders to collectively frame the problem using practical sensemaking tools prior to applying rational decision making techniques to address it. Decision making under ambiguity is an iterative, social process requiring a combination of rational decision making methods and sensemaking techniques.
Practical implications
The paper seeks to increase awareness about the complementary nature of sensemaking and rational decision making. It emphasizes the need to integrate the two in management curricula and provides details on how this can be done via an example of a course implemented at an Australian Business School. The techniques described will also be of interest to practitioners.
Originality/value
The paper describes a practical pedagogy that blends rational decision making and collective sensemaking techniques in a way that fosters managers’ decision making skills in contexts characterized by ambiguity.
... Most of the papers in the research set focused on learning "textbook" content although a few qualifying studies measured behavioral outcomes (e.g., McEvoy, 1998). It could be that textbook learning is not the most valuable learning in MME or that much of what we find in textbooks is not particularly useful in the workplace (Bacon, 2017;Pfeffer & Fong, 2002). However, just as there are relatively few rigorous studies of content learning in MME, there are even fewer rigorous, experimental studies of other important learning outcomes such as critical thinking or self-efficacy. ...
After decades of research in marketing and management education (MME), what do we now know about what educational practices work best? We answer this question with a qualitative systematic literature review of every contribution published in five marketing and management education journals from inception through May, 2020 that provides recommendations for evidence-based best pedagogical practice. Contributions were screened to identify empirical studies that employed measures of actual learning in an appropriate experimental design and reported analyses that met certain statistical standards. Of the 4,160 articles examined, 55 studies met our criteria. Based on the studies’ results, we developed a model for understanding the teaching methods that are most effective for achieving actual learning in MME. We provide evidence-based pedagogical recommendations for faculty and recommendations for additional research in key areas and for increasing the rigor of pedagogical research.
Management education has grown immensely. From the areas of Marketing, Finance and Personnel Management it has now reached to areas of Human Resources, Operations, International Business, Supply Chain Management, Retail and many more. Globalization and Technological advancements have increased competition at a much greater pace. Therefore, the need of management education has increased exponentially. This study clearly focuses on all the critical factors which, if taken care of, then the development of management institutes shall be done on the correct path, keeping students' view point in consideration. The objective is to study the issues faced by management institute in current times with focus on Corporates. Identify the critical factors to be considered which will ensure the development of management institutes from Corporate view point. The methodology applied is exploratory research, followed by descriptive. The purpose of this study is to understand and analyze the corporate's perception on management institute of Gujarat and to find out critical factors to be considered to ensure the development of management institutes from Corporate's point of view. The findings indicate five critical factors which are responsible for any management institute to become centre for excellence from corporate's view point. The study is limited to the vicinity of Gujarat. The views are limited to management program conducted by Self-Financed Institutes affiliated to Gujarat Technological University. The study will give an insight on the improving areas of management education in Gujarat. The study will suggest the critical factors for developing management institute and making it a center for excellence. Management education has been discussed in the past researches. However, there is hardly any research which indicates the problems faced by management students with special reference to Gujarat.
The current challenging environment demands that business leaders adopt a holistic vision, with a wide view of the world where technical and human perspectives converge. Our global society is undergoing a profound transformation, in which megatrends will impact business models and organizational structures, threatening to transform the world in the coming years.
The Humanities have been part of the higher education curriculum since the first universities were created. Their fundamental purpose was to nurture the virtues or habits required for social coexistence and civic behavior within a tradition of human values dating back to antiquity.
Purpose
This study examines the impact of college education on incorporated and unincorporated self-employments. It specifically compares the effects on African Americans and Hispanics with the effects on Whites.
Design/methodology/approach
The study sample was drawn from the US Current Population Survey between 1989 and 2018. Based on a sample size of 1,657,043 individuals, this study employed logit regression models to test the hypotheses. Racial variations were examined using African Americans and Hispanics as moderators.
Findings
The results suggest that college education increases incorporated self-employment and reduces unincorporated self-employment. The impact of college education on incorporated self-employment is stronger for African Americans and Hispanics than for Whites. In contrast, its effect on unincorporated self-employment is stronger for Whites than for African Americans and Hispanics.
Research limitations/implications
The findings provide empirical evidence of how college experience changes the motivation of starting an incorporated or unincorporated business. The results suggest that college education impacts African Americans and Hispanics differently than Whites in pursuing their career path of entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
It is the first study that examines the relationship between college education and incorporated/unincorporated self-employment. It also sheds light on radical variations.
Recognizing the prevalence of suffering among management teachers and students, we raise the importance of compassion as central to the practice of management teaching. To aid in understanding how suffering and compassion arise in management teaching, we call upon a theoretical view of their rhizomatic structure, which conveys the widespread, complex, and largely unspoken spreading of suffering and corresponding need for compassion in the work of management teaching. To meet this suffering with compassion, we propose two clusters of practices central to teaching that lend themselves to helping management teachers see possibilities for more skillfully intertwining suffering and compassion. The first focuses on how management teachers can design the context for teaching in ways that make compassion more likely, focusing specifically on roles and networks. The second draws upon Honneth’s recognitional infrastructure to focus on how teachers can approach the relational practice of teaching with emphasis on enriching human recognition of suffering. We conclude with a caution about overly simplistic approaches and overly individualized views of compassion in the work of management teaching. We call for systemic approaches to action that will enrich our imaginations as we approach management teaching and its role in our collective responsiveness to suffering.
The aim of this study is to explore how entrepreneurship sustains the barriers in the entrepreneurial process in a developing country like Pakistan. To reach these findings, a qualitative approach was used in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with young entrepreneurs in the region of Hyderabad, Pakistan. After collecting data, thematic analysis was conducted. The findings of the study in the form of final themes suggest that trust issues, family barriers, financial issues, gender issues, educational barriers, corruption, and legal barriers are among the challenges which trigger changes in the entrepreneurial process and its sustainability. This study provides implications for the regional government, academic institutes, financial institutes, entrepreneurs, and society at large when developing a support system and promoting a sustainable entrepreneurial environment by minimizing these challenges and suggestions for an entrepreneurial focus on sustainable entrepreneurship.
Dedication to sustainability means that business schools face challenges to their legitimacy. Teaching is the central activity through which business schools build legitimacy, and there are three legitimacy related aspects of management education which can be directly influenced through teaching: the overreliance on normative theoretical models in teaching and research, the distance between academia and practice, and the custom of developing academic silos. We suggest that the business model concept is especially well-suited to ameliorate these characteristics and support the development of more legitimate and sustainability-oriented business school. The paper builds on experiences gathered from a master's course in sustainable management where the business model was used as a key component in the analysis of the sustainability performance of selected case companies. The results show that the business model concept helps students to critically assess normative theories on management by introducing practice-oriented questions about how sustainable business management can be conducted and how value creation can be conceptualized for different stakeholders. The business model helps to bridge the gap between practice and academia by conveying an understanding of the complex reality that managers deal with. Furthermore, by providing a common terminology the business model improves the students' ability to make connections between subjects taught in separate disciplines. Nevertheless, the business model also poses a risk to teaching sustainability since it may be interpreted as elevating an economic perspective on sustainability. The paper both exemplifies how teacher led activities may help to ameliorate the challenge that sustainability poses to business schools and discusses the implications of using the concept as a part of legitimacy-oriented work.
For the past four decades we have witnessed accounting as the mastermind behindnearly all business decisions – national and international. In fact, accounting is a business where most of time is spent in face-to-face communications exploring business strategies. In recent years, accounting education has been under attack and pressure to change its current educational methods. The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) has been a leader in calling for a change. They, and others in the accounting profession, have issued statements addressing the structure and objectives of accounting principles courses. These statements have stressed the need for innovative educational approaches and the importance of incorporating active learning into accounting principles courses. In addition, AECC called to increase the acceptance of international accounting standards and use of computer in accounting education as well as shifting accounting education lecturers’ focus from what they teach to what the students learn. This may prepare students to become lifelong learners and keep them aware of the latest developments and enable them to adopt these developments. This paper aims to uncover suitable criteria for the design and improvement of accounting program and curriculum. More specifically, the goal is to investigate the perilous future of accounting education and discover issues that needed to be addressed to improve the learning style and accounting practice.
Here, in this article, the historical trend of transformation with accounting discipline is being explored. Also potential obstacle in between accounting researches and professional requirments in practice will be explained.
Purpose
The paper seeks to illustrate the impact, a narrative based approach to learning in practice could have in relation to management education, where reflexive critiques may provide a platform for integrating more closely the appreciation/analysis of the nature of management development with the experiences of practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Collaborative ethnography seeks to connect the self with others and the social with context; it is a method which embraces the opportunity to understand/appreciate lived experience in moments of learning.
Findings
The use of storytelling as a method to aid reflexive dialogue forces the student to move away from their pre-existing assumptions and practices and provide them with the power and conviction to seek out and recognise new meaning and differing alternatives of practice. The implication of this position in terms of an educational agenda involves challenging the “self-conceptions” of what it means to be a “practitioner” (Alvesson and Willmott, 1992; Martin, 1992; Zubizarreta, 2004).
Practical implications
The authors argue that focus must be placed on methods through which learning resides in action. Recognising action in learning allows for the development of management education which re-directs thinking and conceptualising towards understanding the social tensions, complex relations and connections in the co-construction of knowing.
Social implications
The article has sought to exemplify how storytelling can contribute to professional and personal development in new and more enriched ways. This reflexive-style paper presented a perspective from which the writers' values and beliefs are informed, as opposed to making a claim for authenticity and authority in regards to the subject area.
Originality/value
The paper highlights the need to explore imaginative modes of management education practices (Hjorth et al. , 2018). Teaching students to simply tell stories is not the goal; rather, it is about sensitising students to the aesthetics of organising and the potential of approaching learning from sensuous and experimental perspectives.
Purpose
In the African context of business practice, the authors face two interrelated challenges. First, executives need to deal strategically and sustainably with growing levels of inequality, under-employment and declining levels of wellness and safety. Second, executive development needs to develop virtues to help executives to address these problems. This paper aims to articulate an integrated, sustainable business education approach that aims to prepare executives to practice integrative thinking while simultaneously cultivating virtues that enhance their lives, thereby enabling them to make ongoing sustainable impacts to their worlds.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a mixed method analysis including both quantitative and qualitative data from student course feedback evaluations from Business Model Innovation (BMI) and Phronesis Development Practice courses run over four consecutive years between 2018 and 2021 at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business as part of the Executive Masters of Business Administration degree.
Findings
The program’s pedagogical approach integrates a philosophical habituation process with a core course on BMI practice. This philosophical integration is one in which there is a sustainable focus on cultivating specific “process” and “practice” virtues which foster awareness amongst executives of their everyday mundane skilful coping in the world. This leads to candidates becoming attuned to ways, in which they can strive for more authenticity and to step into newer ways of being, that allow them to reflect their values and evolve cultural practices.
Originality/value
As the first business school in Africa to base a BMI course on the affordances of the phenomenon of being-in-the-world and a philosophical habituation process, the authors hope to inspire more business schools to adopt holistic, sustainable approaches to executive development that goes beyond the competence paradigm.
Much of the criticism levied against executive education has focussed on its lack of real-world relevance. Such is the bifurcation between executive education and professional practice that it has been described as a ‘valley of death’. Albeit dramatic in tone, this view of executive education points to the need for radical change in the way Business Schools conceive and deliver the curriculum. Hitherto, EE has been characterised by a pedagogy based on the functional delineation of learning to cohorts of students through standardised programmes. In recent times, Business Schools have adopted andragogical approaches as they look to empower students to exercise greater control over their learning- but is this sufficient? Heutagogy offers a view of learning that is centred on the self-determination of how individuals learn and that is embedded in authentic and life-long learning. This substantive review offers a view of future executive education through the theorisation of how a heutagogic approach may inform future curriculum developments.
Theorising Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education incorporates philosophical and pedagogical aspects of entrepreneurship education (EE) research, evoking some of the potential outcomes that can be expected from teaching techniques, curricular and extracurricular programmes. From a philosophical viewpoint, while authors in this title introduce a mixture of theoretical perspectives to undergraduate entrepreneurship education (UEE), such as behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism, and new perspectives such as humanism, these positions turn out to be largely complementary, strengthening the theoretical foundation of EE in higher education (HE).
The use of case studies in teaching is a common pedagogical approach in business and management education. Despite its prominent role in business schools, there is a longstanding debate between advocates and detractors over its usefulness in educating management and business students. In fact, evidence remains unclear as to whether students find case studies useful in their learning experiences. Drawing on the concept of sensitising in student engagement (SE) research, this paper aims to understand student's learning experiences in the case-based teaching environment in terms of four factors: learning agency, learning success, learning well-being and learning social justice. Based on classroom observations and in-depth interviews with international postgraduate students studying in the UK, the findings provide new insights into the usefulness of case studies in management teaching and lead to a number of research avenues to further examine the interrelationships identified.
Purpose
This paper aims to map how the debate concerning the relevance of management research historically evolved to (a) determine if B-schools and management researchers have been uninterested bystanders, as critics posit, or if they have had a relevant role, and (b) discover if a pathway for management research becoming socially relevant has been established by such debate.
Design/methodology/approach
This study performed a citation network analysis of the scientific literature concerning the relevance of management research. The network had a total of 1,186 research papers published between 1876 and 2018.
Findings
The results show that from a minimal to peripheral role at the beginning and middle stages, management researchers have rather taken over this debate since the 1990s; the key components of the citation network reveal a strong convergence on what needs to be done, but no convergence on how to do it; and the debate has failed to generate actual change.
Originality/value
This study maps the debate concerning the relevance of management research since its historical inception using a method underused in management history research. It reveals the main path of the debate and the journals that echoed such debate.
Although teaching in Business Schools takes a theory-driven perspective, there are multiple different interpretations of what this means. We make a contribution by examining how management educators define ‘theory’ and explore how differing definitions lead to variations in the way that teaching is conceptualised and designed. We adopt phenomenographic methods to reveal a five-level hierarchy of theory definitions ranging from simple descriptive notions of ‘theory as an idea’ to more explanatory definitions with causal and practice implications. This hierarchy shapes the way management educators design their teaching with those with the most sophisticated understanding of theory being the most practically focused in their teaching. Although all the interviewees view theory as having an interventional purpose to shape or change managerial action, management educators are haphazard in the ways they teach students to apply theory. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the essential–non-essentialist debate in management education and suggest avenues for future research.
The COVID‐19 crisis will continue to have an immense impact on society, especially on the economic livelihood of ordinary people worldwide. Given the role of business schools in training managers to lead organizations and people across industry, the COVID‐19 crisis highlights a new opportunity to reflect on the purpose of the business school, which stakeholders it serves, and how it might evolve toward broader consideration and effective anticipation/response to pressing societal issues. Thus, we set out in this study to investigate these questions by examining the role that Harvard Business School played during World War 2, a crisis that also had an unprecedented impact on society. Based on this examination, we highlight the importance of flexibility and organizational innovation in times of crisis. We also discuss how the business school might expand its focus and its audience to consider broader societal issues, allowing it to better prepare students to serve society in the future, where the next crisis might be right around the corner.
The case study explores how a mid-sized business school in Australia co-created the curriculum in its Master of Human Resource Management program with industry partners in a bid to cope with tensions between academic rigor and industry relevance. Using a tensions theory lens, we identify other inherent tensions that the curriculum co-creation processes must cope with - tension between individuals and groups, between various stakeholders that inform curriculum design, and between the needs of experienced older versus less experienced younger students. Our analysis suggests that the rigor versus relevance debate is a false debate. We contribute to the management education literature by analyzing a curriculum development process with industry partners that produces learning outcomes that are both relevant and rigorous. The following factors were found necessary for effective curricula co-creation: support from senior management; capability to recruit suitable industry partners; effective leadership that manages emergent tensions; preparatory work to identify the level of industry involvement; processes that make it easier for industry partners to contribute; and importantly, strong relationships with executive champions from partner organizations. Finally, we propose a matrix that plots curriculum content along ‘organizational relevance’ and ‘theoretical abstraction’ axes to demonstrate the nature and effectiveness of industry involvement.
In recent decades, changes in science have been characterized by internationalization and the quest for impact. The present article introduces the impact assessment process of 23 research projects of the Capes Print Programs, carried out within the scope of Fundação Getúlio Vargas. Individual interviews were conducted with project leaders. The assessment reveals that, despite the Covid-19 pandemic interference, the projects have advanced in their internationalization goals. As for the impacts, those related to science and education predominated, with a significant number of projects also indicating impacts on public policies and organizational practices. The article adds to the understanding of alternative modes of knowledge production and research impact measurement. Furthermore, it can be useful to directors of research institutions, research managers and researchers interested in measuring the research impact on organizations and society.
The business and management education could play a pivotal role in social uplift and triggering the entrepreneurial spirit in a society. The business schools face several challenges in terms of imparting quality education. External environmental forces and stakeholders continuously put pressure on the business schools to adapt the changes happening in the business world. The rapid trend of globalization and technological changes have made difficult for organizations to survive in the competitive world. As a result the importance of management education has increased many folds. Business executives need to update their skills due to sudden changes in the external environment. In order to meet the challenges of the future, the reform of the higher education could be unavoidable. The Education Institutions need to strive to achieve balance between the education cost and the quality. One of the major criticisms of MBA schools is the gap between theory and practice. Rapid changes have been occurring in the management education and development area, fueled by the call for accountability, an increase in experiential techniques, the availability of educational technology, and recognition of the need for lifetime learning. This review recognizes some of these changes and trends and suggests implications for practitioners. Recent literature in the field is reviewed according to a three-part typology: content, experience, and assessment/feedback. Research gaps in the field are noted and implications for future researchers are discussed.
Corruption is "the misuse of entrusted power for private gain" as defined by Transparency International is recognized to be one of the world"s greatest challenges. In today"s environment India is dominated with concerns about corruption and the inability of politicians to tackle it effectively. It has considerable impact in promotion of competition in leading brands which will lead to create monopolies in the market. This will not only hurt the consumers but also damage the legal laws and the reputation of the organizations and the society. This study is an attempt to describe the role of business schools in fighting against the corruption while it"s provide the suggestion to improve the education of B-school students for fighting against corruption.
In order to understand the progress and future of a research field that has reached a certain level of knowledge, it is necessary to analyze the subject patterns, research trends, conceptual structure and evolution from a historical perspective. A systematic review of the domain is required in order to consolidate its scattered theoretical and conceptual structure and reveal its evolutionary characteristics, since career is a scientific discipline that has been studied for many years, permeable with many different scientific fields, and received great interest from both academic and professional environments. With this study, it is aimed to reveal the conceptual structure of and the new developments in the field by systematically reviewing the studies, covering the years 1975 – to 2018, in the field. In this direction, common word analysis was performed by downloading the bibliometric data of the studies published within the scope of the Web of Science. As a result of the analysis, it has been observed that the studies in the field of career are gathered in three different clusters: i) organizational career management and environmental factors, ii) individual career management and career outputs, and iii) pre-career and career adventure. In addition, emerging concepts were examined. The findings were discussed by comparing the literature.
This paper presents a method for assessing whether members of two subcultures, in this case academics and practitioners, have influenced each other's interpretations. Conceptual and symbolic influence are seen as special instances of acculturation, and their occurrence can be studied by specifying changes in the language that members of different subcultures use to frame a topic or issue. Models of academic- and practitioner-oriented discourse on organizational culture were derived from early papers on the topic. The texts of 192 articles on organizational culture written between June 1975 and December 1984 were then examined for evidence of acculturation. The data strongly suggest that those who wrote for practitioners and academics initially conceptualized organizational culture differently. Over time, however, academics appear to have moved toward the practitioners' point of view, while the latter appear to have been little influenced by the former. Besides showing that it is possible to study acculturation by investigating language use, the analysis raises important questions about the links between theory and practice in organizational behavior.
Following the article by Scott Armstrong and Tad Sperry on business school prestige are comments by David Webster, Arnold Barnett, Frederic Murphy, Edwin Locke and Shelley Kirkpatrick, and Richard Franke. Scott and Tad then reply to the comments. The subject of this group of papers is the determinants of business school prestige and whether business schools should emphasize teaching over research. Each author has his or her own perspective. Important to the analyses presented here are the data developed by Shelley Kirkpatrick and Edwin Locke to formally measure research. In compiling these papers, we first obtained peer reviews of the Armstrong and Sperry paper. Then we asked the other participants to contribute comments. We then provided all the participants with peer reviews of their own and each other's commentaries. In addition, we sent the package for review to William Ross at The Wharton School. Although the subject of this collection does not directly relate to the practice of management science, it affects our ability to practice management science in the future. The current graduates of MBA programs are future customers for our models and analyses. Business schools have been reacting to beauty contests, such as Business Week's annual survey measuring student satisfaction. As a response, some business schools have reduced the amount of quantitative material, which students find difficult. This increases the ignorance of future managers and makes our jobs of communicating quantitative management models more difficult. Through their surveys, the press has affected educational curricula without examining the educational issues in business schools. This collection of papers is a step towards articulating what the agenda should be.
Tested the generalizability of findings reported by J. Pfeffer (see record
1978-26287-001) by examining the determinants of starting and current salaries for 314 graduates (mean age 29 yrs) from the business schools of 3 large state universities. Results support Pfeffer's conclusion that a master's in business administration (MBA) is particularly useful for persons not coming from the highest socioeconomic backgrounds. A variety of factors identified by Pfeffer were controlled for, and the possession of the MBA degree was positively related to starting salary irrespective of socioeconomic origin but was positively related to current salary only for those not coming from upper-middle and upper-class backgrounds. Current salary sex differences only were observed for Ss from upper-class socioeconomic backgrounds. This was attributable to a salary advantage possessed by upper middle- and upper-class males. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This essay describes differences between papers that contain some theory rather than no theory. There is little agreement about what constitutes strong versus weak theory in the social sciences, but there is more consensus that references, data, variables, diagrams, and hypotheses are not theory. Despite this consensus, however, authors routinely use these five elements in lieu of theory. We explain how each of these five elements can be confused with theory and how to avoid such confusion. By making this consensus explicit, we hope to help authors avoid some of the most common and easily averted problems that lead readers to view papers as having inadequate theory. We then discuss how journals might facilitate the publication of stronger theory. We suggest that if the field is serious about producing stronger theory, journals need to reconsider their empirical requirements. We argue that journals ought to be more receptive to papers that test part rather than all of a theory and use illustrative rather than definitive data.
The process of theory construction in organizational studies is portrayed as imagination disciplined by evolutionary processes analogous to artificial selection. The quality of theory produced is predicted to vary as a function of the accuracy and detail present in the problem statement that triggers theory building, the number of and independence among the conjectures that attempt to solve the problem, and the number and diversity of selection criteria used to test the conjectures. It is argued that interest is a substitute for validation during theory construction, middle range theories are a necessity if the process is to be kept manageable, and representations such as metaphors are inevitable, given the complexity of the subject matter.
Argues that the formal structure of many organizations in post-industrial society dramatically reflect the myths of their institutional environment instead of the demands of their work activities. The authors review prevailing theories of the origins of formal structures and the main problem which those theories confront -- namely, that their assumption that successful coordination and control of activity are responsible for the rise of modern formal organization is not substantiated by empirical evidence. Rather, there is a great gap between the formal structure and the informal practices that govern actual work activities. The authors present an alternative source for formal structures by suggesting that myths embedded in the institutional environment help to explain the adoption of formal structures. Earlier sources understood bureaucratization as emanating from the rationalization of the workplace. Nevertheless, the observation that some formal practices are not followed in favor of other unofficial ones indicates that not all formal structures advance efficiency as a rationalized system would require. Therefore another source of legitimacy is required. This is found in conforming the organization's structure to that of the powerful myths that institutionalized products, services, techniques, policies, and programs become. (CAR)
Government regulation is frequently advocated as a solution to many economic problems. In a review of a number of studies examining the effects of government regulation, it is seen that regulation and occupational licensing have typically operated so as to increase price, restrict entry, and enhance the rate of return earned by the industry or occupation. Some organizational factors accounting for these outcomes are advanced.
This article argues that quality business requires rediscovering pedagogy as a professional calling and studied activity. The authors chronicle forces driving reform in business and higher education. They then explore both the growing importance of reflective learning in professional education and a model that they have developed and implemented for encouraging such practice. The results of their training program are discussed in terms of interventions that promote reflective pedagogy by capitalizing on the competencies that faculty professionals already possess as researchers.
This article addresses two questions: What is the current state of organizational knowledge? What agenda for the field should be proposed for the 1990s? The author points out that the better work in the field of organizational knowledge has come from problem-oriented rather than from theory-oriented research. This point is explored in more detail, and seven suggestions for how best to do behavioral research are offered.
This paper proposes that organizations overcome problems of market uncertainty by adopting a principle of exclusivity in selecting exchange partners. This general proposition in turn implies two specific hypotheses. First, the greater the market uncertainty, the more that organizations engage in exchange relations with those with whom they have transacted in the past. Second, the greater the uncertainty, the more that organizations engage in transactions with those of similar status. A study of investment banking relationships in the investment grade and non-investment-grade debt markets from 1981 to 1987 provides support for the hypotheses. The implications of this analysis for stratification and concentration in the market are discussed.
Made predictions of the annual compensation of 136 alumni of a graduate management program by using years of work experience, graduate grades, and data obtained prior to graduate school admission. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that work experience was more predictive of staff than line compensation. After adjusting for the effect of work experience, graduate grades were significantly correlated to both line and staff earnings, though the incremental predictive validity was much higher for line managers. Several pregraduate academic and nonacademic variables were also significant predictors. Results support the ability to predict managerial compensation prior to career and graduate school entry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Correlations were computed between earnings and each of 15 variables for 196 businessmen who had received the Master of Business Administration degree 15 years earlier. 4 correlations were significant at the 5% level. The highest, .24, was for offices held as an undergraduate. The other 3 were grades in elective graduate courses, Masculinity of the SVIB, and undergraduate professors' ratings. The group was reduced by omitting owner-operators. The remaining group constituted 116 employees. The only variable which correlated significantly with an Administrative-Level criterion was the SVIB scale for Personnel Director. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)