Ralph Parrish (University of Central Oklahoma) wrote: "I cannot find the
reference right now but several years ago researchers followed the
careers of a group of AT&T employees for a period of (as I recall) 25
years. The finding that stands out in my mind was that liberal arts
majors did much better as far as promotions to, and performance in,
management than did business majors. Apparently, at least some of the
liberal arts do a much better job of helping their students learn to
communicate."
That study is reported in:
Hersh, Richard. 1997. Intentions and perceptions: A national survey of
public attitudes toward liberal arts education. Change, 29,
2(March/April):16-23.
ABSTRACT: To find out more about the root causes of the growing
disaffection with liberal arts colleges, Hersh enlisted the support of
the AT&T Foundation in commissioning a nationwide survey of
constituents. He highlights 12 of the many findings of the survey.
It is possible to buy this article for $4 online at:
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/change/
A heap of excerpts from it are in:
http://www.xu.edu/assess/office/news/newsletter/vol2/vol2no1.pdf
I found a limited amount of discussion of this study on three sites:
An AT&T study found that, because of their interpersonal skills
humanities and social science grads were superior in management skills
to business majors, math majors, and science/engineering majors.
AT&Ts research also found that LAS graduates moved into middle
management faster than the math and science/engineering majors, and that
they were reaching top level management in equal proportions to those
who had a business degree. But what is perhaps more important, is that
the LAS graduate had a higher rate of job satisfaction than the non-LAS
graduates!
http://www.las.uiuc.edu/students/careeraids/business_careers.shtml
The skills most valued by employers are best summed up in a 1996
survey funded by AT&T Foundation. In the survey, business leaders,
including CEOs and human relations managers, overwhelmingly agreed that
they value the long-term outcomes of a college education. Not only does
it prepare you for a first job, but also for a long and variable career.
These employers believe that a broad-based education produces
students of strong character with generalized intellectual and social
skills and a capacity for lifelong learning. Business leaders pointed
out that students with a broad liberal arts background are often better
able to see things in a new light and make sense of ideas in different
contexts. Such students excel at problem solving, critical thinking, and
"learning to learn." They are also better able to communicate in a
clear, coherent manner and work cooperatively with diverse individuals
in a variety of settings (Hersh, 1997).
http://www.indiana.edu/~career/fulltime/selling_liberal_arts.html
According to Hersh (1997), business executives suggest education should
include more internships and work-study opportunities, more emphasis on
oral and written communication skills, self-discipline, time management
and strong work habits, development of independent and critical thinking
skills, and greater emphasis on cooperative work habits and team
problem-solving
http://www.uvm.edu/~vtconn/journals/1998/walbert.html
HOWEVER, THE LIBERAL ARTS WERE FAULTED TOO:
What is an Undergraduate Education All About?
Lois Graff
School of Business and Public Management
The George Washington University
Richard Hersh, President of Hobart and William Smith Colleges,
with support from AT&T, commissioned a study (1994) to assess public
attitudes toward liberal arts education.
Hersh began his study with the long accepted assumption that the
liberal arts represent the best education for meeting the complex
demands of the twenty-first century. He found to the contrary that
today's parents and students placed higher value on salable technical
skills necessary to find and fill the all-important first job. He also
found that although business community gives lip service to valuing a
liberal arts education (e.g., communication skills, foreign languages
and cultural understanding, critical judgment, flexibility, and a sense
of responsibility and ethics), they also report a "disconnect between
current [liberal arts] programs and the ideal." Many business leaders
fault liberal arts programs for not developing good work habits, not
encouraging maturity and independence, not promoting ethical behavior,
and lowering academic standards.
Implications
Whether a liberal arts education or a professional school
education really provides the "best" preparation for life is an old
argument. The point is, that's not the point.
None of the primary concerns voiced by the business community or
the critical values attributed to a liberal arts education correspond to
the content knowledge being delivered. The potential value of an
undergraduate liberal arts degree should be the development of process
skills and character attributes.
However, members of the liberal arts faculty, including those on
college-level curriculum committees, concentrating content and the
relative amount of time allocated to each of the respective content
areas, rather than on so-called life-values.
And why not? The training and preparation as well as the
promotion, tenure, and mobility of an individual faculty member is
closely tied to the content area of expertise. Promoting such things as
good communication skills or a sense of responsibility do not go very
far toward achieving the professional aims of faculty. Nor are they as
easy to assess as whether or not a student knows a particular fact or
can use a given formula.
Let's assume for a moment that we view this from the perspective
of an individual institution that embraces the mission of personal and
professional development of its students.
Its first step would be to define such development and to define the
role of faculty in that process. The institution would have to determine
how to measure success as an institution and a faculty member's success
within the organization.
Even if we wished to uphold former liberal arts standards,
mobility between institutions would demand loyalty to the profession as
defined by content area. The health of the institution, as well as the
satisfaction of the individual, requires that this mobility be
maintained. Adding substantial developmental responsibilities to the
plate would mean allowing some of these duties to the profession to
slip. Also, sharing in the responsibility for curriculum emphases are
many other individuals who complete each student's "board of advisors."
Change is the operative word, or in this case, the cooperative
word for attacking the problem. The challenge is to bring stakeholders
together in open discussion to develop consensus on the objectives of
the system, mutual understanding of what each would like to receive from
the system, and a determination of what each can contribute. This is a
very different model than the faculty-centered processes in place in
most educational institutions today; it requires that faculty let go of
some of its prerogatives in order to meet the needs of the whole. It
implies a more meaningful role for business partners, for university
staff, for parents, and for students, themselves, and, perhaps, a
different definition of an academic "course."
Reference
Marchese, T. (1994, November). What our publics want, but think
they don't get, from a liberal arts education, Ted Marchese interviews
Richard Hersh. AAHE Bulletin, 47 (3), 8-10.
www.camfordpublishing.com/oth/archive/94-95/vol3_no3c.htm (was not
working when I tried but was cached at Google at:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:TZktPVGyacY:www.camfordpublishing.c
om/oth/archive/94-95/vol3_no3c.htm+%22public+attitudes+toward+liberal+ar
ts+education%22+at%26t&hl=en
.
Cybercollegially,
Charles Wankel
Mg-Ed-Dv List Director
wankelc@stjohns.edu