The MBA—some history(from Economist) ,with some doubts

ttzztt · 发表于 2013-3-31 23:46:20

推荐原因：可以花几分钟高质量地理解和review MBA的发展脉络，因为是经济学人的缘故，特地诟病了英国商学院可能存在的某些问题，希望可以为想去英国读商学院的童鞋提供一点线索。

另外，我个人的一些疑义所在：
1，MBA曾经被认为是二流教育资源下二流的职业教育，现在地位的提升虽然是有目共睹，但如果是因为市场发展需要而异军突起，未必不是空中楼阁，例如排名尚需以毕业后的工资高低ranking，博雅教育的方面是否是有所欠缺？
2，如果意图认为领导力和商业道德可以通过MBA教育习得，那也是纸上谈兵的领导力和纸面上的道德规范吧。

抛砖引玉。

A history of the MBA programme and its increasing importance, from the Economist Intelligence Unit's “Which MBA?”
Oct 17th 2003 |From the print edition

The MBA appeared in the US at the start of the 20th century, developing from the accounting and book-keeping courses introduced as the country lost its frontier image and began to industrialise. It was modelled on the standard American two-year postgraduate academic programme and most students enrolled straight after taking a first degree. This model won rapid acceptance and spread quickly.

Half a century later, MBA programmes were attacked for alleged lack of academic rigour and poor relevance to business issues. Two damning reports appeared in 1959, condemning American graduate management education as little more than vocational colleges filled with second-rate students taught by second-rate professors who did not understand their fields, did little research and were out of touch with business.

Business schools responded rapidly, raising both their admissions and teaching standards and establishing the now well-known American emphasis on academic research. The overall effect was the creation of the classic American MBA model: a first year of required core courses to provide a grounding in the basics of management and a second year of electives to allow specialisation or deeper study.

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At the same time, interest in management education was growing in Europe, especially in the UK, which was looking for an antidote to its economic and industrial decline relative to its major world-trading partners. Business schools, intended as “centres of excellence” and modelled closely on American schools, particularly Harvard, were created within the universities of London and Manchester. The result was not greeted with enthusiasm. It has long been argued that the UK was wrong to copy a system that was then fairly new and was itself a response to particularly American problems. The insistence on an academic regime meant that business schools might ignore the contribution that business itself could make. This division of opinion between academic and industry-leaning business schools continues today.

Not all schools and institutions in Europe copied the American model. IMD, INSEAD, Henley and Ashridge were all started by groups of companies to provide management training. In France, the local and regional chambers of commerce played a big part in establishing and supporting business schools.

The early 1990s saw further changes to MBA curricula and programme design, particularly in North America. These were a reaction to criticism of the degree from business and industry, to press and media reports echoing those criticisms, and to some extent to the growth of media rankings of MBA programmes and business schools. This time the criticism focused on a supposed lack of relevance to modern business. The MBA was said to be too academic, too theoretical and divorced from real-life business practice. MBA graduates were criticised for adopting an analytical and quantitative approach to business issues when companies needed managers with more diffuse skills, such as leadership. Faculty members were said to lack business experience and to be more interested in research than in providing business solutions.

Other factors were also driving change. Recruitment of MBA graduates by management consultants and financial services was in decline so there was a need to develop other job markets. The globalisation of business was making many of the MBA programmes in the US (where business schools were busy satisfying a huge domestic demand) look increasingly parochial. US schools were also facing increased competition from their European counterparts, which, because of the international nature of European society and the closeness of most schools to industry, were already meeting some of the criticisms.

The changes that business schools made in their MBA programmes involved three main elements:

• the introduction of training in soft skills such as leadership, ethics and interpersonal skills;

• an increased stress on internationalism as a pervasive issue in all MBA courses;

• an acknowledgement that MBA programmes should be practical and integrate the various management functions.

Now, in the 21st century, there are signs that the MBA is undergoing change yet again with an increasing emphasis on leadership, business ethics and morality

The MBA—some history(from Economist) ,with some doubts

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