Mg-Ed-Dv-ers,
I am engaged by the below invitation from Scott
scott.jaschik@chronicle.com to join the fray of discussion at the Chronicle
of Higher Education's site. This discussion centers around an article in
the current issue "The New M.B.A.: Business-school professors shift programs
to emphasize relevance and flexibility," by Katherine S. Mangan
katherine.mangan@chronicle.com (one of my favorite Chronicle journalists):
http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i33/33a01201.htm
The article is very stimulating though I found it dismaying that the
research reported in Jeffrey Pfeffer
pfeffer_jeffrey@gsb.stanford.edu and
Christina T. Fong
cfong@stanford.edu , "The End of Business Schools? Less
Success Than Meets the Eye," Academy of Management Learning and Education,
1, 1(2002): 78+ is attributed only to Pfeffer. (When I see a doctoral
student co-author I assume they did a bit of the work.) My favorite moment
in that article is "Leavitt asserted that 'we have built a weird, almost
unimaginable design for MBA-level education' that distorts those subjected
to it into 'critters with lopsided brains, icy hearts, and shrunken souls'
(1989: 39)." [Leavitt, H. J.
hjleavitt@earthlink.net Educating our MBAs: On
teaching what we haven't taught, California Management Review, 31, 3(1989):
38-50]. An article that Pfeffer and Fong quote quite a bit is J. S.
Armstrong
armstrong@wharton.upenn.edu , "The devil's advocate responds to an
MBA student's claim that research harms learning," Journal of Marketing, 59(
1995): 101-106. They cite Armstrong (p. 104) for "At Wharton, for example,
less than one percent of the students fail any given course, on average ....
the probability of failing more than one course is almost zero. In effect,
business schools have developed elaborate and expensive grading systems to
ensure that even the least competent and least interested get credit."
Well, you can see that I am getting carried away by the prospect of
joining the fray in this discussion at the Chronicle:
http://forums.chronicle.com/colloquy/read.php?f=1&i=1788&t=1788
I hope you do too!
Cybercollegially,
Charles Wankel
Mg-Ed-Dv List Director
The Academy of Management Management Education and Development Discussion
Forum
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?SUBED1=mg-ed-dv&A=1
-----Original Message-----
From: Management Education and Development Discussion
[mailto:
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU] On Behalf Of Scott Jaschik
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 6:51 AM
To:
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Subject: online discussion on changes in MBA curriculums
The Chronicle of Higher Education is sponsoring
an online discussion this week on changes being
made in the MBA curriculums of many business
schools. The Chronicle invites members of this
list to read an article on the changes and to join
the discussion at:
http://forums.chronicle.com/colloquy/read.php?f=1&i=1788&t=1788
Scott Jaschik
Editor
The Chronicle of Higher Education