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Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Do Business Schools Value the Competencies That
Businesses Value?
Steven Eric Abraham & Lanny A. Karns
To cite this article: Steven Eric Abraham & Lanny A. Karns (2009) Do Business Schools Value
the Competencies That Businesses Value?, Journal of Education for Business, 84:6, 350-356,
DOI: 10.3200/JOEB.84.6.350-356
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.84.6.350-356
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
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Date: 11 January 2016, At: 22:57
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DoBusinessSchoolsValuethe
CompetenciesThatBusinessesValue?
STEVENERICABRAHAM
LANNYA.KARNS
STATEUNIVERSITYOFNEWYORKATOSWEGO
OSWEGO,NEWYORK
ABSTRACT.Theauthorsusedsurvey
ABSTRACT.
researchtodeterminethecongruence
amongthecompetenciesthatbusinesses
identifyasbeingindicativeofsuccessful
managers,thecompetenciesthatbusiness
schoolsidentifyasbeingindicativeofsuccessfulgraduates,andthecompetencies
thatareemphasizedinbusinessschool
curricula.Theresultsshowthatalthough
businessesandbusinessschoolsessentially
agreeonthecompetenciesthatidentifysuccessfulmanagersandgraduates,business
schoolsdonotemphasizethesecompetenciesintheircurricula.Becauseoneofthe
maingoalsofbusinessschoolsistoprepare
theirgraduatesformanagerialcareersafter
graduation,theseresultssuggestthatbusinessschoolsshoulddomoretoaligntheir
curriculawiththedesiresofbusinesses.
Keywords:businessschoolcurricula,managerialcompetencies
Copyright©2009HeldrefPublications
350
JournalofEducationforBusiness
I
t is clear that one of the goals of
businessschoolsandbusinessschool
education is to prepare graduates for
employmentaftergraduation.Asstated
in the preamble to the Association to
Advance Collegiate Schools of Business’s (AACSB; 2006) Eligibility Procedures and Accreditation Standards
for Business Accreditation, “In this
environment, management education
must prepare students to contribute to
their organizations . . .” (p. 1).To preparestudentsforemploymentfollowing
graduation,itisimperativethatbusiness
schoolsprovidethemwiththeskillsand
competenciesthatorganizationsseekin
theiremployees.
Nearly 21 years ago, however, Porter and McKibbin (1988) discussed
that business school graduates are not
considered to be well prepared for
employment in business following
undergraduate school education. In the
ensuing years, however, researchers
haveechoedthiscontention(Barksdale,
1998;Bennis&O’Toole,2005;Campbell, Heriot, & Finney, 2006; Ghoshal,
2005;Mintzberg,2004;Moberg,2006;
Pfeffer & Fong, 2002). In the present
article, we attempted to examine the
extent to which business schools preparetheirgraduatesforsuccessinbusinessfollowinggraduation.Specifically,
we addressed statistically the extent to
which business schools emphasized in
their curricula the competencies that
businessesfeelareindicativeofsuccessful managers. The present article presentsareviewoftheliteraturethathelps
set the background for this research;
states the problem, method, findings;
discussesthestudy;andthenconcludes
withsomeexplanationsforthefindings
andpossibilitiesforfurtherresearch.
LiteratureReview
Although some researchers have
basedtheircriticismsofbusinessschool
education on subjective analyses, there
have been several attempts to assess
empirically whether business schools
are providing their students with the
skills they need after graduation. For
example,in“HowRelevantistheMBA?
AssessingtheAlignmentofMBACurricula and Managerial Competencies,”
Rubin and Dierdorff (2007) examined
the relevancy of the MBA curricula at
373 schools in comparison with managerial competency requirements. Specifically, Dierdorff and Rubin (2006)
had developed a list of six managerial competencies through an elaborate
analysis of O*NET information, and
surveyed managers to determine the
importance that they assigned to those
competencies.RubinandDierdorffthen
examined the curricula in the MBA
programs at 373 AACSB-accredited
schoolsandinvestigatedstatisticallythe
extent to which the courses in those
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curricula covered the same competencies that managers deemed important.
Theyfoundthatoverall,therewasconsiderablemismatchbetweentheimportancethatmanagersassignedtothesix
competencies they had developed and
the degree to which those same competencies were covered by the courses
requiredintypicalMBAprograms.
In“Professors,ManagersandHuman
Resource Education,” Langbert (2000)
developed a list of 16 human resource
(HR)subjectareasandaskedHRmanagersandprofessorsinMBAprograms
torankthesesubjectsintermsofimportance from 1 to 16. Both groups were
surveyed in 1992 and again in 1998.
Theprofessorsandmanagerswerethen
givenalistofsixcompetencyareasand
werefirstaskedtodeterminetheimportance of these areas and then asked to
determine the extent to which MBA
programs covered these competency
areas. It is interesting that, although
themanagersandprofessorsessentially
agreed on the importance of the six
competencies identified, both groups
felt that MBA programs did not do a
goodjobofemphasizingtheseareas.It
isnotsurprising,however,thattheprofessors surveyed were less pessimistic
about the quality of MBA education
thanwerethemanagerssurveyed.
Last, in “Identifying Core Business
School Competencies,” Sadri (2002)
identified seven core business school
competencies and looked at three questions, one of which is directly relevant
to the present article: “Is the College
of Business and Economics [at CaliforniaStateUniversity,Fullerton]teaching
these competencies?” Sadri investigated
thequestionbysurveyingalumniofthe
university’sschoolofbusinessregarding
whethertheyfeltpreparedinthoseseven
corebusinessschoolcompetencies.Sadri
also asked employers of the school’s
graduates whether they found it necessarytoprovidetraininginthesecompetencies.MuchasinstudiesbyRubinand
Dierdorff(2007)andLangbert(2000),as
wediscussedpreviously,theschoolwas
deemed by the alumni and the employers surveyed not to be doing an overly
effective job teaching the competencies
deemed important. In sum, Rubin and
Dierdorff, Langbert, and Sadri looked
empirically at the extent to which busi
nessschoolswereteachingcompetencies
deemed important in business, and all
threetendedtoconfirmthelong-standing
criticismsofbusinessschooleducation.
StatementoftheProblem
Thegoalofthepresentresearchwasto
compare undergraduate business school
educationwiththeskillsbusinessesseek
intheiremployees,buttheapproachwe
used was unique. Rather than starting
withasetofskillsorcompetenciesthat
wethoughtbusinessesdemandedapriori
andexaminingtheextenttowhichbusinessschoolsandbusinessschooleducation adequately prepared their graduates
with these skills, we asked businesses
which competencies they seek in their
employeesandthendeterminedwhether
business schools were preparing their
graduates with these competencies. In
otherwords,weusedatwo-stepapproach
to assess whether business schools adequately prepare their graduates with the
skills that they need after graduation.
First,wesurveyedbusinessestoascertain
theskillsthattheyseekintheiremployees.Then,wesurveyedbusinessschools
to ascertain the importance they place
onthesecompetenciesandwhetherthey
include these competencies as part of
theircurricula.Specifically,weaddressed
thefollowingthreeresearchquestions:
ResearchQuestion1(RQ1):Dobusiness
schoolsidentifythesamecompetencies as describing “the highly successfulgraduateoftheundergraduate
program(s)at[the]school”thatbusinessesidentifytodescribe“thehighly
successfulmanager/executive?”
RQ2: Do business schools emphasize
thesamecompetenciesintheirundergraduate programs that businesses
identify as describing “the highly
successfulmanager/executive?”
RQ3:Arebusinessschoolsemphasizing
thesamecompetenciesintheirundergraduate programs that they identify
as describing “the highly successful graduate of the undergraduate
program(s)at[the]school?”
METHOD
We conducted the research necessarytoaddressthethreeaforementioned
questionsintwostages.Abraham,Karns,
Shaw, and Mena (2001) described the
firststage,andwereviewitbrieflyinthe
presentarticle.KarnsandMena(1998)
identifiedalistof23competenciesthat
were important to businesses in a pilot
studythatinvolvedexaminingtheperformanceappraisaldocumentsofasample
of organizations. We then used survey
researchtoinvestigatethefollowingtwo
issues:(a)whetherasetofcompetencies
beingusedbyorganizationsasdescribingsuccessfulmanagerscouldbeidentified,and(b)whetherorganizationswere
appraising these same competencies as
part of their managerial performance
appraisalprograms.Becausethesurvey
usedinStage1extendedthepreviously
referencedpilotstudythatidentified23
competencies(Karns&Mena),thesurvey included only the 23 competencies
identifiedinthepilotstudy.Abrahamet
al.reportedthesefindings.
Because the goal of Stage 2 was
to compare the information business
schools provided with the information
thatbusinesseshadprovidedinthefirst
stage,wesoughttodesignasurveythat
wasassimilaraspossibletothesurvey
senttobusinessesinStage1.1ThesurveythatwesenttobusinessesinStage
1 listed the 23 competencies from the
pilot study (Karns & Mena, 1998) and
hadtwocolumns.2ColumnAaskedthe
respondentsto“placeacheckmark...
next to those competencies that you
feel would tend to describe the highly
successful manager/executive working
in your organization,” and Column B
askedtherespondentsto“placeacheckmark [next to those competencies that
are used] to evaluate that executive’s
workperformance.”
The survey that we sent to business
schoolsinStage2listed21of23competenciesfromthepilotstudy(Karns&
Mena,1998)andhadtwocolumns.ColumnA asked the respondents to “place
a checkmark . . . next to those competencies that you feel would tend to
describe the highly successful graduate
oftheundergraduateprogram(s)atyour
school” and Column B asked them to
“place a checkmark if that competency
is currently emphasized as part of your
undergraduate program(s).” In all, we
randomly selected 200 business schools
in the United States and Canada with
undergraduate business programs from
July/August2009
351
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the AACSB International membership
directory to receive the survey.We sent
the survey electronically to the person
identified in the directory along with a
request to have an appropriate person
completethesurvey.Wesentonefollow-
upe-mailrequesttoeachschool.Inall,
wereceivedresponsesfrom42ofthe200
schoolsthatwecontacted,foraresponse
rate of 32%. The respondents’ demographicsarepresentedintheAppendix.
To address the questions of interest,
wemadethreecomparisons:
1.To address RQ1, we compared the
percentage of business schools that
identified a competency as describing “the highly successful graduate
of the undergraduate program(s) at
[the] school” with the percentage of
businesses that identified that same
competency as describing “the highly
successfulmanager/executive.”
2.ToaddressRQ2,wecomparedthe
percentage of business schools that
emphasized a competency as part of
the school’s undergraduate program
with the percentage of businesses that
identified that same competency as
describing“thehighlysuccessfulmanager/executive.”
3.To address RQ3, we compared the
percentage of business schools that
emphasized a competency as part of
the school’s undergraduate program
withthepercentageofbusinessschools
thatidentifiedthatsamecompetencyas
describing“thehighlysuccessfulgraduate of the undergraduate program(s) at
[the]school.”
RESULTS
The results from the present study
are displayed in Tables 1, 2, and 3.
Table 1 addresses RQ1: Column 1
lists the percentage of businesses
thatidentifiedacompetencyasdescribing “the highly successful manager/
executive,” Column 2 lists the percentage of business schools that identified
acompetencyasdescribing“thehighly
successful graduate of the undergraduate program(s) at [the] school,”
Column3liststhedifferences,andColumn 4 lists ts showing the statistical
significance of the difference. Table 2
addressesRQ2:Column1liststheper352
JournalofEducationforBusiness
TABLE1.ComparisonofBusinesses’andSchools’Descriptors
Competency
Businesses’
descriptor(%)
Schools’
descriptor(%)
Difference(%)
(df=317)
92.8
84.5
81.6
87.0
81.6
100.0
40.5
88.1
95.2
83.3
–7.2
44.0†
–6.5
–8.2
–1.7
–4.63
5.52
—
–2.10
—
6.9
89.2
40.9
76.9
81.9
65.3
21.4
97.6
47.6
61.9
88.1
14.3
–14.5
–8.4
–6.7
15.0
–6.2
51.0†
–2.21
–2.79
—
—
—
8.27
5.8
87.7
85.9
66.1
80.1
73.3
47.3
30.0
51.6
50.0
16.7
73.8
97.6
83.3
64.3
64.3
47.6
47.6
64.3
47.8
–10.9
13.9
–11.7
–17.2
15.8
9.0
–0.3
–17.6
–12.7
2.2
—
—
–3.69
–2.66
2.01
—
—
–2.13
—
—
Communicationskills
Customerfocus
Teamworker
Interpersonalskills
Dependable
Foreignlanguage
proficiency
Problemsolver
Purposeful
Technicalexpertise
Flexible/adaptable
Staffdeveloper
Experienceinaforeign
country
Resultsoriented
Leadershipskills
Hardworker
Qualityfocused
Businessexpertise
Timemanager
Professionaldress
Imaginative
Risktaker
Note.Dashindicatesnosignificantdifferenceatconventionallevels(p20%.
†
TABLE2.ComparisonofBusinesses’DiscriptorandSchools’Emphasis
inUndergraduatePrograms
Competency
Businesses’
descriptor(%)
Communicationskills
Customerfocus
Teamworker
Interpersonalskills
Dependable
Foreignlanguage
proficiency
Problemsolver
Purposeful
Technicalexpertise
Flexibleoradaptable
Staffdeveloper
Experienceinaforeign
country
Resultsoriented
Leadershipskills
Hardworker
Qualityfocused
Businessexpertise
Timemanager
Professionaldress
Imaginative
Risktaker
Schools’
emphasis(%)
Difference(%)
t (df=317)
92.8
84.5
81.6
87.0
81.6
90.5
26.2
83.3
66.7
40.5
2.3
58.3†
–1.7
20.3†
41.1†
—
8.10
—
2.61
5.13
6.9
89.2
40.9
76.9
81.9
65.3
14.3
90.5
21.4
81.0
33.3
2.4
–7.4
–1.3
19.5
–4.1
48.6†
62.9†
—
—
2.74
—
6.30
16.90
5.8
87.7
85.9
66.1
80.1
73.3
47.3
30.0
51.6
50.0
16.7
45.2
73.8
54.8
38.1
61.9
28.6
23.8
33.3
23.8
–10.9
42.5†
12.1
11.3
42.0†
11.4
18.7
6.2
18.3
26.2†
—
5.29
—
—
5.29
—
2.44
—
2.30
3.66
Note.Dashindicatesnosignificantdifferenceatconventionallevels(p20%.
TABLE3.ComparisonofSchools’DescriptorandSchools’Emphasisin
UndergraduatePrograms
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Competency
Schools’
descriptor(%)
Schools’
emphasis(%)
Difference(%)
t (df=317)
90.5
26.2
83.3
66.7
40.5
9.5
14.3
4.8
28.5†
42.8†
2.08
2.35
—
4.05
5.45
14.3
90.5
21.4
81.0
33.3
2.4
7.1
7.1
26.2†
–19.1
54.8†
11.9
—
—
3.81
–3.11
7.39
2.35
16.7
45.2
73.8
54.8
38.1
61.9
28.6
23.8
33.3
23.8
0.0
28.6†
23.8†
28.5†
26.2†
2.4
19.0
23.8†
31.0†
24.0†
—
4.05
3.58
4.05
3.81
—
3.11
3.58
4.23
3.41
Communicationskills
100.0
Customerfocus
40.5
Teamworker
88.1
Interpersonalskills
95.2
Dependable
83.3
Foreignlanguage
proficiency
21.4
Problemsolver
97.6
Purposeful
47.6
Technicalexpertise
61.9
Flexible/adaptable
88.1
Staffdeveloper
14.3
Experienceinaforeign
country
16.7
Resultsoriented
73.8
Leadershipskills
97.6
Hardworker
83.3
Qualityfocused
64.3
Businessexpertise
64.3
Timemanager
47.6
Professionaldress
47.6
Imaginative
64.3
Risktaker
47.8
Note.Dashindicatesnosignificantdifferenceatconventionallevels(p20%.
centage of businesses that identified a
competency as describing “the highly
successful manager/executive,” Column 2 lists the percentage of business
schools that identified a competency
as being emphasized in the school’s
undergraduateprogram,Column3lists
the differences, and Column 4 lists ts
showing the statistical significance
of the difference. Table 3 addresses
RQ3: Column 1 lists the percentage of
business schools that identified a competency as describing “the highly successful graduate of the undergraduate
program(s) at [the] school,” Column 2
liststhepercentageofbusinessschools
that identified a competency as being
emphasizedintheschool’sundergraduate program, Column 3 lists the differences,andColumn4liststsshowingthe
statisticalsignificanceofthedifference.
DISCUSSION
PerTable 1, there is a good deal of
similarity between the competencies
that businesses identify as describing
thesuccessfulmanagerandthecompe
tenciesthatbusinessschoolsidentifyas
describing the successful graduate of
thebusinessschoolprogram.Although
there was a statistically significant
difference between businesses and
schoolswithrespectto10of21competenciesthatweexamined,thenumerical difference between businesses and
business schools was small. There
wereonlytwocompetenciesforwhich
thedifferencebetweenbusinessesand
businessschoolswasgreaterthan20%:
customerfocusandstaffdeveloper.For
11of21competencieslistedonthesurvey,thedifferencewaslessthan10%:
communication skills, team worker,
interpersonalskills,dependable,problem solver, purposeful, flexible/adaptable,businessexpertise,timemanager,
andrisktaker.Theseresultsshowafair
degree of congruence between businesses and schools in terms of the
competencies they deem important.
In other words, RQ1 can be answered
affirmatively: Business schools identifythesamecompetenciesasdescribing “the highly successful graduate
of the undergraduate program(s) at
[the] school” that businesses identify
as describing “the highly successful
manager/executive.”
Incontrast,thedatainTable2show
a striking dissimilarity between the
competencies that firms identify as
describing the successful manager and
the competencies that are emphasized
inbusinessschools’undergraduateprograms. Specifically, for 11 competencies, the percentage of businesses that
checked a particular competency as
describing “the highly successful manager/executive” was statistically greater than the percentage of schools that
emphasized that same competency in
their undergraduate programs: customer focus, interpersonal skills, dependable, purposeful, flexible/adaptable,
staff developer, results oriented, qualityfocused,timemanager,imaginative,
and risk taker. Even more important,
someofthedifferenceswerelarge.For
example,65.3%offirmsidentifiedstaff
developerasdescribing“thehighlysuccessfulmanagerorexecutive,”whereas
only 2.4% of schools emphasized that
same competency in their undergraduateprograms.Therewereeightcompetenciesforwhichthedifferencebetween
businessesandschoolswasgreaterthan
20%: customer focus, interpersonal
skills, dependable, flexible/adaptable,
staff developer, results oriented, qualityfocused,andrisktaker.Foronlysix
competencies was the difference less
than10%:communicationsskills,team
worker, foreign language proficiency,
problemsolver,technicalexpertise,and
professional dress. These results show
that business schools are not emphasizing in their undergraduate programs
the competencies that are important to
businesses. In other words, RQ2 must
be answered negatively on the basis
of the data: Business schools do not
emphasize the same competencies in
theirundergraduateprogramsthatbusinessesidentifyasdescribing“thehighly
successfulmanager/executive.”
Last, the data in Table 3 show
that overall, business schools are not
emphasizing in their undergraduate
programs the competencies that they
identify asdescribing “the highly successfulgraduate.”Specifically,foreach
of 15 competencies, the percentage of
schools that identified it as describJuly/August2009
353
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ing “the highly successful graduate
of the undergraduate program(s) at
[the] school” was statistically greater
than the percentage of schools that
emphasized that same competency in
their undergraduate programs: communications skills, customer focus,
interpersonal skills, dependable, purposeful,flexible/adaptable,staffdeveloper,resultsoriented,leadershipskills,
hard worker, quality focused, time
manager, professional dress, imaginative, and risk taker. Alternatively, there is only one competency—
technicalexpertise—thatisemphasized
in schools’ undergraduate programs
but that is not identified by business
schools as describing “the highly successful graduate of the undergraduateprogram(s)at[the]school.”Again,
some of the differences were large.
Specifically, there were 11 competencies for which the difference between
what schools identified and what they
emphasizedintheirundergraduateprogramswasgreaterthan20%:interpersonal skills, dependable, purposeful,
flexible or adaptable, results oriented,
leadership skills, hard worker, quality
focused, professional dress, imaginative,andrisktaker.Alternatively,there
wereonlyfivecompetenciesforwhich
thedifferencewaslessthan10%:communications skills, foreign language
proficiency, problem solver, experienceinaforeigncountry,andbusiness
expertise. These data clearly indicate
thatschoolsdonotemphasizeintheir
undergraduateprogramsthecompetencies that they identify as describing
the highly successful business-school
graduate. Therefore, RQ3 also must
be answered negatively on the basis
of the data: Business schools are not
emphasizingthesamecompetenciesin
theirundergraduateprogramsthatthey
identify to describe “the highly successful graduate of the undergraduate
program(s)at[the]school.”
Insummary,thedatadiscussedpreviouslyconfirmedwhathasbeenfound
inseveralpriorstudies,butaddednew
information as well. Similar to Rubin
and Dierdorff (2007), Sadri (2002),
and Langbert (2000), we found that
business schools were not emphasizing in their undergraduate curricula
the competencies that are relevant to
354
JournalofEducationforBusiness
business. This finding presents reason
forconcern,becauseasmentionedpreviously, one of the goals of business
schoolsandbusinessschooleducation
istopreparegraduatesforemployment
aftergraduation.
The present study also adds new
information that has not been shown
in earlier research. One minor differenceisthatthedatainthepresentstudy
dealt specifically with undergraduate
students and undergraduate business
school curricula, whereas much of the
earlier literature deals with the MBA.
It is important to note that what has
been found in the past with respect to
MBA curricula applies to undergraduatecurriculaaswell.Amoresubstantial
difference between the present study
andearlierliteratureisthatthecompetencies examined in the present article
wereidentifiedasbeingrelevanttosuccess in business by businesses, rather
than by the researchers. Therefore, we
areconfidentthatthecompetenciesthat
we examined in the present study are
importanttobusinesses.
Themostimportantnewfindingthat
data in the present study show is that
businesses and business schools generallyagreeonthecompetenciesthatare
indicative of successful employees. In
other words, even though businesses
and business schools agree on which
competencies are important, business
schools are not emphasizing those
competencies in their curricula. Prior
researchhasnotlookedatwhetherbusinesses and business schools agree on
which competencies are relevant; prior
studies have looked only at whether
businessschoolswereteachingagiven
set of competencies, not whether businesses and business schools agreed on
the importance of those competencies.
Without data showing this to be true,
the discrepancy between the competenciesbusinessesdeemedrelevantand
the competencies business school curricula emphasized could be explained
by business schools not agreeing with
businessesonthecompetenciesthought
to be indicative of successful business
schoolgraduatesoremployees.Inother
words,businessschoolsmaybeemphasizing in their curricula the competencies they deemed relevant even though
thosearenotthecompetenciesbusiness-
es deemed relevant, because business
schools did not agree with businesses
onwhichcompetencieswereimportant.
The data in the present study negate
thatexplanationbecauseitshowedthat
businesses and business schools agree
onthecompetenciesthatareindicative
ofsuccessfulbusinessschoolgraduates
oremployees.Becausebusinessschools
andbusinessesagreedonthecompetenciesdeemedtobeimportant,theremust
be an alternate reason to explain why
businessschoolswerenotemphasizing
intheircurriculathecompetenciesthat
businessesdeemedimportant.
Thefinalnewfindingpresentedinthe
present article is that business schools
are not emphasizing in their curricula
the competencies that they themselves
considered indicative of successful
businessschoolgraduates.Thisfinding
issignificantinandofitself,butitalso
directly supports the finding discussed
previously. Business schools and businessesagreeonwhichcompetenciesare
indicativeofsuccessfulbusinessschool
graduates or employees, but business
schoolsarenotemphasizingthesecompetenciesintheircurricula.
Conclusion
Given that the mission of business
schools is to prepare their students for
employmentaftergraduation,researchersshouldwonderwhythereweresuch
significant discrepancies between the
competencies businesses valued and
thosebusiness-schoolcurriculaemphasized. Unfortunately, the data do not
allow us to explain why these discrepancies exist; we can merely conjecture
aboutthepossiblefactorsthatmaycontributetothem.
One possible explanation may be
that there is a basic difference in focus
between respondents in a business and
thoseinabusinessschoolwhentheyare
asked to respond to a survey listing the
importance of specific managerial competencies. Business respondents may
place their focus on competencies that
leadtosuccessinthebusiness,whereas
business school respondents may focus
on technical-skills development and
general education requirements across
thecurriculum.Inotherwords,business
schools may have a wider focus that
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encompasses students in many degree
paths leading to a more generalized
concept of managerial competencies.
Furthermore, business schools may be
influenced by the time constraints of
whatcanbeincludedrealisticallyinthe
typical4-yearcurriculum.Trade-offsare
sometimesnecessarywhenschoolsstrive
tomeetsimultaneouslytherequirements
ofaccreditingagencies,theexpectations
for professional certification, and local
generaleducationrequirements.Inthese
situations, school administrators may
assume that some general competencies such as communications skills are
embedded across the curriculum withoutaspecificfocus.Therefore,although
somegeneralcompetenciesmaybeseen
as necessary and expected, they are not
seenasbeingemphasizedinthecurriculumperse.
In addition, business schools may
be placing undue emphasis on current
high-interest topics, such as strategic
integration, entrepreneurship, or global
management, at the expense of more
common managerial competencies such
as leadership, oral communication, and
quantitative skills that businesses see as
necessary to ensure that the business
schoolgraduatewouldbesuccessfulina
managerialposition.
The explanations presented in the
present article are mere conjectures.
Further research should examine why
business school curricula do not place
moreemphasisonthecompetenciesthat
areidentifiedasimportanttobusinesses,
especially when business schools themselvesrecognizetheimportanceofthese
competencies. Business schools should
attempttoincludethesecompetenciesin
thecurricula.
NOTES
1.Thesurveyssenttobusinessesandbusiness
schoolsareavailablefromtheauthorsonrequest.
2. Unfortunately, we included only 21 of 23
competencies on the business survey sent to
schools;weomittedsafetyconsciousanduncompromising from the school survey because of a
technical error. Although this prevents the comparisonfrombeingideal,thedataandresultsare
useful,nonetheless.
Steven Eric Abraham is a professor in the
School of Business at the State University of
NewYorkatOswego.Heteacheshumanresource
management, labor relations, and employment
law. His research interests are the same, and he
often uses event study methodology to investigatetheseissues.
Lanny A. Karns is a professor at the State
University of NewYork at Oswego. He teaches
leadership,businessethics,andmanagement,and
hisresearchinterestsarebusinessethicsandcompetencytheory.
Correspondence concerning this article should
be addressed to Steven EricAbraham, 316 Rich
Hall,Oswego,NY13126,USA.
E-mail:abraham@oswego.edu
REFERENCES
Abraham,S.E.,Karns,L.A.,Shaw,K.,&Mena,
M. (2001). Managerial competencies and the
managerialperformanceappraisalprocess.JournalofManagementDevelopment,20,842–852.
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of
Business (AACSB) International. (2006). Eligibilityproceduresandaccreditationstandards
forbusinessaccreditation.Tampa,FL:Author.
Barksdale,K.(1998).WhyweshouldupdateHR
education. Journal of Management Education,
22, 526–530.
Bennis,W.G.,&O’Toole,J.(2005,May).How
businessschoolslosttheirway.HarvardBusinessReview,2005,96–104.
Campbell, N. D., Heriot, K. C., & Finney,
Z. R. (2006). In defense of silos: An argument against the integrative undergraduate
businesscurriculum.JournalofManagement
Education,30,316–332.
Dierdorff,E.C.,&Rubin,R.S.(2006).Towarda
comprehensiveempiricalmodelofmanagerial
competencies. McLean,VA: MER Institute of
theGraduateManagementAdmissionCouncil.
Ghoshal,S.(2005).Badmanagementtheoriesare
destroying good management practices. Academy of Management Learning and Education,
4,75–91.
Karns,L.A.,&Mena,M.A.(1998).Sharpening
theperformancemanagementfocususingcore
competencies:Apilotstudy.Paperpresentedat
the Academy of Business and Administrative
Sciences, Emerging Economic International
Conference,Budapest,Hungary.
Langbert, M. (2000). Professors, managers, and
human resource education. Human Resource
Management,39,65–78.
Mintzberg,H.(2004).ManagersnotMBAs:Ahard
lookatthesoftpracticeofmanagingandmanagementdevelopment.London:PrenticeHall.
Moberg, D. J. (2006). Best intentions, worst
result:Groundingethicsstudentsintherealities
oforganizationalcontext.AcademyofManagementLearning&Education,5,307–316.
Pfeffer,J.,&Fong,C.T.(2002).Theendofbusinessschools?Lesssuccessthanmeetstheeye.
Academy of Management Learning & Education,1,78–95.
Porter, L., & McKibbin, L. (1988). Management education and development: Drift or
thrust into the 21st century? New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Rubin,R.S.,&Dierdorff,E.C.(2007,August).How
relevantistheMBA?Assessingthealignmentof
MBA curricula and managerial competencies.
Paper presented at the Annual Academy of
ManagementMeeting,Philadelphia,PA.
Sadri,G.(2002,December5).Identifyingcorebusiness school competencies. Exchanges: Online
Journal of Teaching and Learning in the CSU.
RetrievedFebruary20,2008,fromhttp://www.
exchangesjournal.org/print/print_1044.html
July/August2009
355
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APPENDIX
BusinessSchoolRespondentDemographics(%)
356
Positiontitle
Dean
Assistant/Associatedean
Departmentchair
Facultymember
57.1
26.2
2.4
14.3
Numberofstudentsintheundergraduate
programinbusiness
1,500
7.3
17.1
24.4
51.2
Campusdescription
Public
Private
83.3
16.7
Businessprogramdescription
Undergraduateonly
Undergraduateandmaster’sonly
Undergraduate,master’s,anddoctorate
Master’sanddoctorateonly
2.4
66.7
28.6
2.4
AssociationtoAdvanceCollegiateSchoolsof
Businessaccreditationstatus
Businessonly
Businessandaccounting
Candidacy
Other
50.0
50.0
0.0
0.0
JournalofEducationforBusiness
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Do Business Schools Value the Competencies That
Businesses Value?
Steven Eric Abraham & Lanny A. Karns
To cite this article: Steven Eric Abraham & Lanny A. Karns (2009) Do Business Schools Value
the Competencies That Businesses Value?, Journal of Education for Business, 84:6, 350-356,
DOI: 10.3200/JOEB.84.6.350-356
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.84.6.350-356
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 121
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Citing articles: 14 View citing articles
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Date: 11 January 2016, At: 22:57
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:57 11 January 2016
DoBusinessSchoolsValuethe
CompetenciesThatBusinessesValue?
STEVENERICABRAHAM
LANNYA.KARNS
STATEUNIVERSITYOFNEWYORKATOSWEGO
OSWEGO,NEWYORK
ABSTRACT.Theauthorsusedsurvey
ABSTRACT.
researchtodeterminethecongruence
amongthecompetenciesthatbusinesses
identifyasbeingindicativeofsuccessful
managers,thecompetenciesthatbusiness
schoolsidentifyasbeingindicativeofsuccessfulgraduates,andthecompetencies
thatareemphasizedinbusinessschool
curricula.Theresultsshowthatalthough
businessesandbusinessschoolsessentially
agreeonthecompetenciesthatidentifysuccessfulmanagersandgraduates,business
schoolsdonotemphasizethesecompetenciesintheircurricula.Becauseoneofthe
maingoalsofbusinessschoolsistoprepare
theirgraduatesformanagerialcareersafter
graduation,theseresultssuggestthatbusinessschoolsshoulddomoretoaligntheir
curriculawiththedesiresofbusinesses.
Keywords:businessschoolcurricula,managerialcompetencies
Copyright©2009HeldrefPublications
350
JournalofEducationforBusiness
I
t is clear that one of the goals of
businessschoolsandbusinessschool
education is to prepare graduates for
employmentaftergraduation.Asstated
in the preamble to the Association to
Advance Collegiate Schools of Business’s (AACSB; 2006) Eligibility Procedures and Accreditation Standards
for Business Accreditation, “In this
environment, management education
must prepare students to contribute to
their organizations . . .” (p. 1).To preparestudentsforemploymentfollowing
graduation,itisimperativethatbusiness
schoolsprovidethemwiththeskillsand
competenciesthatorganizationsseekin
theiremployees.
Nearly 21 years ago, however, Porter and McKibbin (1988) discussed
that business school graduates are not
considered to be well prepared for
employment in business following
undergraduate school education. In the
ensuing years, however, researchers
haveechoedthiscontention(Barksdale,
1998;Bennis&O’Toole,2005;Campbell, Heriot, & Finney, 2006; Ghoshal,
2005;Mintzberg,2004;Moberg,2006;
Pfeffer & Fong, 2002). In the present
article, we attempted to examine the
extent to which business schools preparetheirgraduatesforsuccessinbusinessfollowinggraduation.Specifically,
we addressed statistically the extent to
which business schools emphasized in
their curricula the competencies that
businessesfeelareindicativeofsuccessful managers. The present article presentsareviewoftheliteraturethathelps
set the background for this research;
states the problem, method, findings;
discussesthestudy;andthenconcludes
withsomeexplanationsforthefindings
andpossibilitiesforfurtherresearch.
LiteratureReview
Although some researchers have
basedtheircriticismsofbusinessschool
education on subjective analyses, there
have been several attempts to assess
empirically whether business schools
are providing their students with the
skills they need after graduation. For
example,in“HowRelevantistheMBA?
AssessingtheAlignmentofMBACurricula and Managerial Competencies,”
Rubin and Dierdorff (2007) examined
the relevancy of the MBA curricula at
373 schools in comparison with managerial competency requirements. Specifically, Dierdorff and Rubin (2006)
had developed a list of six managerial competencies through an elaborate
analysis of O*NET information, and
surveyed managers to determine the
importance that they assigned to those
competencies.RubinandDierdorffthen
examined the curricula in the MBA
programs at 373 AACSB-accredited
schoolsandinvestigatedstatisticallythe
extent to which the courses in those
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:57 11 January 2016
curricula covered the same competencies that managers deemed important.
Theyfoundthatoverall,therewasconsiderablemismatchbetweentheimportancethatmanagersassignedtothesix
competencies they had developed and
the degree to which those same competencies were covered by the courses
requiredintypicalMBAprograms.
In“Professors,ManagersandHuman
Resource Education,” Langbert (2000)
developed a list of 16 human resource
(HR)subjectareasandaskedHRmanagersandprofessorsinMBAprograms
torankthesesubjectsintermsofimportance from 1 to 16. Both groups were
surveyed in 1992 and again in 1998.
Theprofessorsandmanagerswerethen
givenalistofsixcompetencyareasand
werefirstaskedtodeterminetheimportance of these areas and then asked to
determine the extent to which MBA
programs covered these competency
areas. It is interesting that, although
themanagersandprofessorsessentially
agreed on the importance of the six
competencies identified, both groups
felt that MBA programs did not do a
goodjobofemphasizingtheseareas.It
isnotsurprising,however,thattheprofessors surveyed were less pessimistic
about the quality of MBA education
thanwerethemanagerssurveyed.
Last, in “Identifying Core Business
School Competencies,” Sadri (2002)
identified seven core business school
competencies and looked at three questions, one of which is directly relevant
to the present article: “Is the College
of Business and Economics [at CaliforniaStateUniversity,Fullerton]teaching
these competencies?” Sadri investigated
thequestionbysurveyingalumniofthe
university’sschoolofbusinessregarding
whethertheyfeltpreparedinthoseseven
corebusinessschoolcompetencies.Sadri
also asked employers of the school’s
graduates whether they found it necessarytoprovidetraininginthesecompetencies.MuchasinstudiesbyRubinand
Dierdorff(2007)andLangbert(2000),as
wediscussedpreviously,theschoolwas
deemed by the alumni and the employers surveyed not to be doing an overly
effective job teaching the competencies
deemed important. In sum, Rubin and
Dierdorff, Langbert, and Sadri looked
empirically at the extent to which busi
nessschoolswereteachingcompetencies
deemed important in business, and all
threetendedtoconfirmthelong-standing
criticismsofbusinessschooleducation.
StatementoftheProblem
Thegoalofthepresentresearchwasto
compare undergraduate business school
educationwiththeskillsbusinessesseek
intheiremployees,buttheapproachwe
used was unique. Rather than starting
withasetofskillsorcompetenciesthat
wethoughtbusinessesdemandedapriori
andexaminingtheextenttowhichbusinessschoolsandbusinessschooleducation adequately prepared their graduates
with these skills, we asked businesses
which competencies they seek in their
employeesandthendeterminedwhether
business schools were preparing their
graduates with these competencies. In
otherwords,weusedatwo-stepapproach
to assess whether business schools adequately prepare their graduates with the
skills that they need after graduation.
First,wesurveyedbusinessestoascertain
theskillsthattheyseekintheiremployees.Then,wesurveyedbusinessschools
to ascertain the importance they place
onthesecompetenciesandwhetherthey
include these competencies as part of
theircurricula.Specifically,weaddressed
thefollowingthreeresearchquestions:
ResearchQuestion1(RQ1):Dobusiness
schoolsidentifythesamecompetencies as describing “the highly successfulgraduateoftheundergraduate
program(s)at[the]school”thatbusinessesidentifytodescribe“thehighly
successfulmanager/executive?”
RQ2: Do business schools emphasize
thesamecompetenciesintheirundergraduate programs that businesses
identify as describing “the highly
successfulmanager/executive?”
RQ3:Arebusinessschoolsemphasizing
thesamecompetenciesintheirundergraduate programs that they identify
as describing “the highly successful graduate of the undergraduate
program(s)at[the]school?”
METHOD
We conducted the research necessarytoaddressthethreeaforementioned
questionsintwostages.Abraham,Karns,
Shaw, and Mena (2001) described the
firststage,andwereviewitbrieflyinthe
presentarticle.KarnsandMena(1998)
identifiedalistof23competenciesthat
were important to businesses in a pilot
studythatinvolvedexaminingtheperformanceappraisaldocumentsofasample
of organizations. We then used survey
researchtoinvestigatethefollowingtwo
issues:(a)whetherasetofcompetencies
beingusedbyorganizationsasdescribingsuccessfulmanagerscouldbeidentified,and(b)whetherorganizationswere
appraising these same competencies as
part of their managerial performance
appraisalprograms.Becausethesurvey
usedinStage1extendedthepreviously
referencedpilotstudythatidentified23
competencies(Karns&Mena),thesurvey included only the 23 competencies
identifiedinthepilotstudy.Abrahamet
al.reportedthesefindings.
Because the goal of Stage 2 was
to compare the information business
schools provided with the information
thatbusinesseshadprovidedinthefirst
stage,wesoughttodesignasurveythat
wasassimilaraspossibletothesurvey
senttobusinessesinStage1.1ThesurveythatwesenttobusinessesinStage
1 listed the 23 competencies from the
pilot study (Karns & Mena, 1998) and
hadtwocolumns.2ColumnAaskedthe
respondentsto“placeacheckmark...
next to those competencies that you
feel would tend to describe the highly
successful manager/executive working
in your organization,” and Column B
askedtherespondentsto“placeacheckmark [next to those competencies that
are used] to evaluate that executive’s
workperformance.”
The survey that we sent to business
schoolsinStage2listed21of23competenciesfromthepilotstudy(Karns&
Mena,1998)andhadtwocolumns.ColumnA asked the respondents to “place
a checkmark . . . next to those competencies that you feel would tend to
describe the highly successful graduate
oftheundergraduateprogram(s)atyour
school” and Column B asked them to
“place a checkmark if that competency
is currently emphasized as part of your
undergraduate program(s).” In all, we
randomly selected 200 business schools
in the United States and Canada with
undergraduate business programs from
July/August2009
351
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the AACSB International membership
directory to receive the survey.We sent
the survey electronically to the person
identified in the directory along with a
request to have an appropriate person
completethesurvey.Wesentonefollow-
upe-mailrequesttoeachschool.Inall,
wereceivedresponsesfrom42ofthe200
schoolsthatwecontacted,foraresponse
rate of 32%. The respondents’ demographicsarepresentedintheAppendix.
To address the questions of interest,
wemadethreecomparisons:
1.To address RQ1, we compared the
percentage of business schools that
identified a competency as describing “the highly successful graduate
of the undergraduate program(s) at
[the] school” with the percentage of
businesses that identified that same
competency as describing “the highly
successfulmanager/executive.”
2.ToaddressRQ2,wecomparedthe
percentage of business schools that
emphasized a competency as part of
the school’s undergraduate program
with the percentage of businesses that
identified that same competency as
describing“thehighlysuccessfulmanager/executive.”
3.To address RQ3, we compared the
percentage of business schools that
emphasized a competency as part of
the school’s undergraduate program
withthepercentageofbusinessschools
thatidentifiedthatsamecompetencyas
describing“thehighlysuccessfulgraduate of the undergraduate program(s) at
[the]school.”
RESULTS
The results from the present study
are displayed in Tables 1, 2, and 3.
Table 1 addresses RQ1: Column 1
lists the percentage of businesses
thatidentifiedacompetencyasdescribing “the highly successful manager/
executive,” Column 2 lists the percentage of business schools that identified
acompetencyasdescribing“thehighly
successful graduate of the undergraduate program(s) at [the] school,”
Column3liststhedifferences,andColumn 4 lists ts showing the statistical
significance of the difference. Table 2
addressesRQ2:Column1liststheper352
JournalofEducationforBusiness
TABLE1.ComparisonofBusinesses’andSchools’Descriptors
Competency
Businesses’
descriptor(%)
Schools’
descriptor(%)
Difference(%)
(df=317)
92.8
84.5
81.6
87.0
81.6
100.0
40.5
88.1
95.2
83.3
–7.2
44.0†
–6.5
–8.2
–1.7
–4.63
5.52
—
–2.10
—
6.9
89.2
40.9
76.9
81.9
65.3
21.4
97.6
47.6
61.9
88.1
14.3
–14.5
–8.4
–6.7
15.0
–6.2
51.0†
–2.21
–2.79
—
—
—
8.27
5.8
87.7
85.9
66.1
80.1
73.3
47.3
30.0
51.6
50.0
16.7
73.8
97.6
83.3
64.3
64.3
47.6
47.6
64.3
47.8
–10.9
13.9
–11.7
–17.2
15.8
9.0
–0.3
–17.6
–12.7
2.2
—
—
–3.69
–2.66
2.01
—
—
–2.13
—
—
Communicationskills
Customerfocus
Teamworker
Interpersonalskills
Dependable
Foreignlanguage
proficiency
Problemsolver
Purposeful
Technicalexpertise
Flexible/adaptable
Staffdeveloper
Experienceinaforeign
country
Resultsoriented
Leadershipskills
Hardworker
Qualityfocused
Businessexpertise
Timemanager
Professionaldress
Imaginative
Risktaker
Note.Dashindicatesnosignificantdifferenceatconventionallevels(p20%.
†
TABLE2.ComparisonofBusinesses’DiscriptorandSchools’Emphasis
inUndergraduatePrograms
Competency
Businesses’
descriptor(%)
Communicationskills
Customerfocus
Teamworker
Interpersonalskills
Dependable
Foreignlanguage
proficiency
Problemsolver
Purposeful
Technicalexpertise
Flexibleoradaptable
Staffdeveloper
Experienceinaforeign
country
Resultsoriented
Leadershipskills
Hardworker
Qualityfocused
Businessexpertise
Timemanager
Professionaldress
Imaginative
Risktaker
Schools’
emphasis(%)
Difference(%)
t (df=317)
92.8
84.5
81.6
87.0
81.6
90.5
26.2
83.3
66.7
40.5
2.3
58.3†
–1.7
20.3†
41.1†
—
8.10
—
2.61
5.13
6.9
89.2
40.9
76.9
81.9
65.3
14.3
90.5
21.4
81.0
33.3
2.4
–7.4
–1.3
19.5
–4.1
48.6†
62.9†
—
—
2.74
—
6.30
16.90
5.8
87.7
85.9
66.1
80.1
73.3
47.3
30.0
51.6
50.0
16.7
45.2
73.8
54.8
38.1
61.9
28.6
23.8
33.3
23.8
–10.9
42.5†
12.1
11.3
42.0†
11.4
18.7
6.2
18.3
26.2†
—
5.29
—
—
5.29
—
2.44
—
2.30
3.66
Note.Dashindicatesnosignificantdifferenceatconventionallevels(p20%.
TABLE3.ComparisonofSchools’DescriptorandSchools’Emphasisin
UndergraduatePrograms
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:57 11 January 2016
Competency
Schools’
descriptor(%)
Schools’
emphasis(%)
Difference(%)
t (df=317)
90.5
26.2
83.3
66.7
40.5
9.5
14.3
4.8
28.5†
42.8†
2.08
2.35
—
4.05
5.45
14.3
90.5
21.4
81.0
33.3
2.4
7.1
7.1
26.2†
–19.1
54.8†
11.9
—
—
3.81
–3.11
7.39
2.35
16.7
45.2
73.8
54.8
38.1
61.9
28.6
23.8
33.3
23.8
0.0
28.6†
23.8†
28.5†
26.2†
2.4
19.0
23.8†
31.0†
24.0†
—
4.05
3.58
4.05
3.81
—
3.11
3.58
4.23
3.41
Communicationskills
100.0
Customerfocus
40.5
Teamworker
88.1
Interpersonalskills
95.2
Dependable
83.3
Foreignlanguage
proficiency
21.4
Problemsolver
97.6
Purposeful
47.6
Technicalexpertise
61.9
Flexible/adaptable
88.1
Staffdeveloper
14.3
Experienceinaforeign
country
16.7
Resultsoriented
73.8
Leadershipskills
97.6
Hardworker
83.3
Qualityfocused
64.3
Businessexpertise
64.3
Timemanager
47.6
Professionaldress
47.6
Imaginative
64.3
Risktaker
47.8
Note.Dashindicatesnosignificantdifferenceatconventionallevels(p20%.
centage of businesses that identified a
competency as describing “the highly
successful manager/executive,” Column 2 lists the percentage of business
schools that identified a competency
as being emphasized in the school’s
undergraduateprogram,Column3lists
the differences, and Column 4 lists ts
showing the statistical significance
of the difference. Table 3 addresses
RQ3: Column 1 lists the percentage of
business schools that identified a competency as describing “the highly successful graduate of the undergraduate
program(s) at [the] school,” Column 2
liststhepercentageofbusinessschools
that identified a competency as being
emphasizedintheschool’sundergraduate program, Column 3 lists the differences,andColumn4liststsshowingthe
statisticalsignificanceofthedifference.
DISCUSSION
PerTable 1, there is a good deal of
similarity between the competencies
that businesses identify as describing
thesuccessfulmanagerandthecompe
tenciesthatbusinessschoolsidentifyas
describing the successful graduate of
thebusinessschoolprogram.Although
there was a statistically significant
difference between businesses and
schoolswithrespectto10of21competenciesthatweexamined,thenumerical difference between businesses and
business schools was small. There
wereonlytwocompetenciesforwhich
thedifferencebetweenbusinessesand
businessschoolswasgreaterthan20%:
customerfocusandstaffdeveloper.For
11of21competencieslistedonthesurvey,thedifferencewaslessthan10%:
communication skills, team worker,
interpersonalskills,dependable,problem solver, purposeful, flexible/adaptable,businessexpertise,timemanager,
andrisktaker.Theseresultsshowafair
degree of congruence between businesses and schools in terms of the
competencies they deem important.
In other words, RQ1 can be answered
affirmatively: Business schools identifythesamecompetenciesasdescribing “the highly successful graduate
of the undergraduate program(s) at
[the] school” that businesses identify
as describing “the highly successful
manager/executive.”
Incontrast,thedatainTable2show
a striking dissimilarity between the
competencies that firms identify as
describing the successful manager and
the competencies that are emphasized
inbusinessschools’undergraduateprograms. Specifically, for 11 competencies, the percentage of businesses that
checked a particular competency as
describing “the highly successful manager/executive” was statistically greater than the percentage of schools that
emphasized that same competency in
their undergraduate programs: customer focus, interpersonal skills, dependable, purposeful, flexible/adaptable,
staff developer, results oriented, qualityfocused,timemanager,imaginative,
and risk taker. Even more important,
someofthedifferenceswerelarge.For
example,65.3%offirmsidentifiedstaff
developerasdescribing“thehighlysuccessfulmanagerorexecutive,”whereas
only 2.4% of schools emphasized that
same competency in their undergraduateprograms.Therewereeightcompetenciesforwhichthedifferencebetween
businessesandschoolswasgreaterthan
20%: customer focus, interpersonal
skills, dependable, flexible/adaptable,
staff developer, results oriented, qualityfocused,andrisktaker.Foronlysix
competencies was the difference less
than10%:communicationsskills,team
worker, foreign language proficiency,
problemsolver,technicalexpertise,and
professional dress. These results show
that business schools are not emphasizing in their undergraduate programs
the competencies that are important to
businesses. In other words, RQ2 must
be answered negatively on the basis
of the data: Business schools do not
emphasize the same competencies in
theirundergraduateprogramsthatbusinessesidentifyasdescribing“thehighly
successfulmanager/executive.”
Last, the data in Table 3 show
that overall, business schools are not
emphasizing in their undergraduate
programs the competencies that they
identify asdescribing “the highly successfulgraduate.”Specifically,foreach
of 15 competencies, the percentage of
schools that identified it as describJuly/August2009
353
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:57 11 January 2016
ing “the highly successful graduate
of the undergraduate program(s) at
[the] school” was statistically greater
than the percentage of schools that
emphasized that same competency in
their undergraduate programs: communications skills, customer focus,
interpersonal skills, dependable, purposeful,flexible/adaptable,staffdeveloper,resultsoriented,leadershipskills,
hard worker, quality focused, time
manager, professional dress, imaginative, and risk taker. Alternatively, there is only one competency—
technicalexpertise—thatisemphasized
in schools’ undergraduate programs
but that is not identified by business
schools as describing “the highly successful graduate of the undergraduateprogram(s)at[the]school.”Again,
some of the differences were large.
Specifically, there were 11 competencies for which the difference between
what schools identified and what they
emphasizedintheirundergraduateprogramswasgreaterthan20%:interpersonal skills, dependable, purposeful,
flexible or adaptable, results oriented,
leadership skills, hard worker, quality
focused, professional dress, imaginative,andrisktaker.Alternatively,there
wereonlyfivecompetenciesforwhich
thedifferencewaslessthan10%:communications skills, foreign language
proficiency, problem solver, experienceinaforeigncountry,andbusiness
expertise. These data clearly indicate
thatschoolsdonotemphasizeintheir
undergraduateprogramsthecompetencies that they identify as describing
the highly successful business-school
graduate. Therefore, RQ3 also must
be answered negatively on the basis
of the data: Business schools are not
emphasizingthesamecompetenciesin
theirundergraduateprogramsthatthey
identify to describe “the highly successful graduate of the undergraduate
program(s)at[the]school.”
Insummary,thedatadiscussedpreviouslyconfirmedwhathasbeenfound
inseveralpriorstudies,butaddednew
information as well. Similar to Rubin
and Dierdorff (2007), Sadri (2002),
and Langbert (2000), we found that
business schools were not emphasizing in their undergraduate curricula
the competencies that are relevant to
354
JournalofEducationforBusiness
business. This finding presents reason
forconcern,becauseasmentionedpreviously, one of the goals of business
schoolsandbusinessschooleducation
istopreparegraduatesforemployment
aftergraduation.
The present study also adds new
information that has not been shown
in earlier research. One minor differenceisthatthedatainthepresentstudy
dealt specifically with undergraduate
students and undergraduate business
school curricula, whereas much of the
earlier literature deals with the MBA.
It is important to note that what has
been found in the past with respect to
MBA curricula applies to undergraduatecurriculaaswell.Amoresubstantial
difference between the present study
andearlierliteratureisthatthecompetencies examined in the present article
wereidentifiedasbeingrelevanttosuccess in business by businesses, rather
than by the researchers. Therefore, we
areconfidentthatthecompetenciesthat
we examined in the present study are
importanttobusinesses.
Themostimportantnewfindingthat
data in the present study show is that
businesses and business schools generallyagreeonthecompetenciesthatare
indicative of successful employees. In
other words, even though businesses
and business schools agree on which
competencies are important, business
schools are not emphasizing those
competencies in their curricula. Prior
researchhasnotlookedatwhetherbusinesses and business schools agree on
which competencies are relevant; prior
studies have looked only at whether
businessschoolswereteachingagiven
set of competencies, not whether businesses and business schools agreed on
the importance of those competencies.
Without data showing this to be true,
the discrepancy between the competenciesbusinessesdeemedrelevantand
the competencies business school curricula emphasized could be explained
by business schools not agreeing with
businessesonthecompetenciesthought
to be indicative of successful business
schoolgraduatesoremployees.Inother
words,businessschoolsmaybeemphasizing in their curricula the competencies they deemed relevant even though
thosearenotthecompetenciesbusiness-
es deemed relevant, because business
schools did not agree with businesses
onwhichcompetencieswereimportant.
The data in the present study negate
thatexplanationbecauseitshowedthat
businesses and business schools agree
onthecompetenciesthatareindicative
ofsuccessfulbusinessschoolgraduates
oremployees.Becausebusinessschools
andbusinessesagreedonthecompetenciesdeemedtobeimportant,theremust
be an alternate reason to explain why
businessschoolswerenotemphasizing
intheircurriculathecompetenciesthat
businessesdeemedimportant.
Thefinalnewfindingpresentedinthe
present article is that business schools
are not emphasizing in their curricula
the competencies that they themselves
considered indicative of successful
businessschoolgraduates.Thisfinding
issignificantinandofitself,butitalso
directly supports the finding discussed
previously. Business schools and businessesagreeonwhichcompetenciesare
indicativeofsuccessfulbusinessschool
graduates or employees, but business
schoolsarenotemphasizingthesecompetenciesintheircurricula.
Conclusion
Given that the mission of business
schools is to prepare their students for
employmentaftergraduation,researchersshouldwonderwhythereweresuch
significant discrepancies between the
competencies businesses valued and
thosebusiness-schoolcurriculaemphasized. Unfortunately, the data do not
allow us to explain why these discrepancies exist; we can merely conjecture
aboutthepossiblefactorsthatmaycontributetothem.
One possible explanation may be
that there is a basic difference in focus
between respondents in a business and
thoseinabusinessschoolwhentheyare
asked to respond to a survey listing the
importance of specific managerial competencies. Business respondents may
place their focus on competencies that
leadtosuccessinthebusiness,whereas
business school respondents may focus
on technical-skills development and
general education requirements across
thecurriculum.Inotherwords,business
schools may have a wider focus that
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encompasses students in many degree
paths leading to a more generalized
concept of managerial competencies.
Furthermore, business schools may be
influenced by the time constraints of
whatcanbeincludedrealisticallyinthe
typical4-yearcurriculum.Trade-offsare
sometimesnecessarywhenschoolsstrive
tomeetsimultaneouslytherequirements
ofaccreditingagencies,theexpectations
for professional certification, and local
generaleducationrequirements.Inthese
situations, school administrators may
assume that some general competencies such as communications skills are
embedded across the curriculum withoutaspecificfocus.Therefore,although
somegeneralcompetenciesmaybeseen
as necessary and expected, they are not
seenasbeingemphasizedinthecurriculumperse.
In addition, business schools may
be placing undue emphasis on current
high-interest topics, such as strategic
integration, entrepreneurship, or global
management, at the expense of more
common managerial competencies such
as leadership, oral communication, and
quantitative skills that businesses see as
necessary to ensure that the business
schoolgraduatewouldbesuccessfulina
managerialposition.
The explanations presented in the
present article are mere conjectures.
Further research should examine why
business school curricula do not place
moreemphasisonthecompetenciesthat
areidentifiedasimportanttobusinesses,
especially when business schools themselvesrecognizetheimportanceofthese
competencies. Business schools should
attempttoincludethesecompetenciesin
thecurricula.
NOTES
1.Thesurveyssenttobusinessesandbusiness
schoolsareavailablefromtheauthorsonrequest.
2. Unfortunately, we included only 21 of 23
competencies on the business survey sent to
schools;weomittedsafetyconsciousanduncompromising from the school survey because of a
technical error. Although this prevents the comparisonfrombeingideal,thedataandresultsare
useful,nonetheless.
Steven Eric Abraham is a professor in the
School of Business at the State University of
NewYorkatOswego.Heteacheshumanresource
management, labor relations, and employment
law. His research interests are the same, and he
often uses event study methodology to investigatetheseissues.
Lanny A. Karns is a professor at the State
University of NewYork at Oswego. He teaches
leadership,businessethics,andmanagement,and
hisresearchinterestsarebusinessethicsandcompetencytheory.
Correspondence concerning this article should
be addressed to Steven EricAbraham, 316 Rich
Hall,Oswego,NY13126,USA.
E-mail:abraham@oswego.edu
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APPENDIX
BusinessSchoolRespondentDemographics(%)
356
Positiontitle
Dean
Assistant/Associatedean
Departmentchair
Facultymember
57.1
26.2
2.4
14.3
Numberofstudentsintheundergraduate
programinbusiness
1,500
7.3
17.1
24.4
51.2
Campusdescription
Public
Private
83.3
16.7
Businessprogramdescription
Undergraduateonly
Undergraduateandmaster’sonly
Undergraduate,master’s,anddoctorate
Master’sanddoctorateonly
2.4
66.7
28.6
2.4
AssociationtoAdvanceCollegiateSchoolsof
Businessaccreditationstatus
Businessonly
Businessandaccounting
Candidacy
Other
50.0
50.0
0.0
0.0
JournalofEducationforBusiness