Progress and Regress in the MBA Curriculum: The Career and Practice Skills Gap

Abstract

The question of MBA (master of business administration) curriculum relevancy has extended over many years, but surprisingly there has been little cohesive effort on the part of business schools to modify their approach in preparing students for successful practice management. Our research provides support to the growing concern that managerial and behavioral skills education has been overshadowed by the quantitative orientation emphasized in most MBA programs, despite the weak relationship found between MBA curricula and career success. The results of our study, based upon the perceptions of successful executives, revealed a set of prioritized managerial advancement skills as essential to their business success. However, these skills have not been widely embraced by business schools facing well-entrenched structural impediments to curricula change. We offer some prescriptive measures to help address these issues, with the intention of elevating the relevancy of the MBA curriculum.

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