5 May 2008
CEOs: "nothing more than hired help"
MBAs not helping matters either.
A new book, From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession discusses CEOs and the changing role of MBAs (Master of Business Administration).
The author, Rakesh Khurana (pictured, right), an associate professor at Harvard Business School, says that over the last 30 years, CEOs have come to be considered as "nothing more than hired help".
The CEO is a role that has had to submit to investors who only want to maximize shareholder value – generally in the short term. Recent business scandals have been fuelled by the greed of business leaders and led to a public loss of confidence in the corporate world.
Elevating management study
Khurana makes the case that the first university-based business schools such as Wharton (University of Pennsylvania), Tuck (Dartmouth College) and Harvard were trying to elevate the field of management study. But today’s business education has lost sight of that early vision – to develop a class of business leader who saw their vocation as a profession.
Khurana believes MBAs were originally meant to professionalize business leadership. Instead, he says business schools have lost their way in producing top leaders, and instead turn out consultants and business analysts.
Once, the MBA was an unusual qualification in the ranks of corporate executives. Now it’s a 'must-have' across the globe.
Once, the MBA was an unusual qualification in the ranks of corporate executives. Now it’s a “must-have” across the globe and provides an excellent income stream for business schools.
MBA concerns
In recent times, organization recruiters have been voicing their concern that MBAs aren't ensuring a better quality of executive. Would this change if MBA programs could be compared more closely with other professional qualifications such as medicine, law or engineering?
Khurana’s book lays out the historical development of university-based business schools and says they've failed to define the managerial knowledge needed to do an effective job. Not only is a clear definition of what's required lacking, but academics can also disagree among themselves.
This move "away from an aspiring profession with social obligations to a narrow self-interested group that has to be bribed to do the right thing, obviously takes the halo off any aspiration for students to be managers," Khurana says.
"You’re fired!"
He says students at the top business schools aren't interested in using their MBAs as a springboard to pursue a career in management.
They're more interested in firing CEOs than in actually being one.
The desire for high-start salaries and short-term gains may explain why they're using their MBAs to get jobs as management consultants or work in the financial markets. “They're more interested in firing CEOs than in actually being one," Khurana says.
Have your say
Do you agree with Professor Khurana’s criticism of business schools, MBAs and the people that study for them? What of CEOs – are they out for short-term gain?
Can you see MBAs becoming the qualification of choice for a career in internal communication? Many people interviewed for Melcrum’s reports say that internal communicators need to become better “business players” – is an MBA the way to do it?
Discuss these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
Other recommendations:
TOOL: The New York Times Company’s leadership communication competencies
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