Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/111663
In the past few decades, business schools have adapted their curricula speci���cally to meet employer demands. But how well have they aligned their programs with the needs of industry? DAVE CUTLE R A BY F. FRANK GHANNADIAN s employers in Europe and the U.S. try to navigate the troubled global economy, they hope to hire new business graduates who can hit the ground running without requiring periods of long training. Are business schools providing them with the employees they want? Some critics say no. A famous 2005 Harvard Business Review article by Warren Bennis and James O���Toole claimed that MBA programs didn���t instill useful skills in students, failed to prepare leaders, and didn���t teach the norms of ethical behavior. Similar points were made in the 2010 book Rethinking the MBA, written by Srikant Datar, Patrick Cullen, and David Garvin. The authors claimed that business schools��� excessive emphasis on quantitative and theoretical analysis had created academic wizards of numbers rather than leaders of business. And yet, corporate employers continue to hire our graduates at a steady rate, even during tough economic times, which suggests that by and large business schools are indeed designing coursework that prepares students for the corporate world. Over the past 30 years, as employers have called for graduates with better leadership skills, stronger writing skills, and a deeper understanding of ethical issues, business schools have responded with core courses on those topics. But does that mean that we can ignore the critics? Not at all. Our work on the business curriculum isn���t done. We can be certain that the years to come will present program necessities that we can only guess BizEd March/April 2013 41