New Business Graduates Can Talk the Talk: But Can They Walk the Management Walk?

Executive Summary There are those who contend that we may be teaching the wrong things in the wrong way to students in colleges of business administration and management. If this is true, the cause may be a flaw in the pedagogy that drives management education for traditional students. Research in the sciences describes systems theory as a holistic paradigm that may be used as a foundation to be applied in the areas of learning processes and managerial practice. In this article, the author posits a model to describe a learning process that may be applied to the education of business students in academic courses related to the of management in organizations. The premise of the model is found in the academic disciplines of science and philosophy as they relate to management and learning theories. The author concludes the article with examples to support the application of the model in practical settings. It would seem impossible for an individual to graduate from a college of business administration without being fluent in the lexicon of management, inclusive of the latest buzzwords and nouveau paradigms. However, more than one business executive has anecdotally noted that some of these new grads lack the ability to what they have been taught to preach. The impetus for this article is partially based on the contention of noted management research scholar, Henry Mintzberg (2002), who suggests that we may be teaching the wrong things to the wrong people in the wrong way on a global level. In a recent meeting at the Academy of Management Annual Conference in Denver, Mintzberg shared this viewpoint with professors in an appeal to re-think the way management is taught to business school students. This concept is reinforced in the current literature (Mintzberg & Gosling, 2002). Since educators in other professional programs (health care and public administration, for instance) possess the responsibility of teaching management practices as part of the overall curriculum, these comments have implications for them, as well. While business professors provide instruction in management aimed at in general commerce, other professions-based educators profess these same concepts in an industry-applied manner (Tesone, 2000). Mintzberg's contention seems to support the belief that management is not an independent academic discipline, but instead a professional practice based on theories derived from the disciplines of science and philosophy (Tesone, 2001). A comparison could be rendered from the field of medicine, in which the physician has been described as a practicing technician of pre-ordained scientific findings in the areas of biophysics and biochemistry (Zukav, 1979). Just as the physician hones a from applications learned in residency, the manager attains proficiency from trial-and-error applications as a professional practitioner. Mintzberg, a self-professed scholarly renegade, most recently suggests that professors implement experientially based approaches to develop knowledge and skills in the of management. He identifies ongoing collaborative learning projects in Europe, in which he is currently engaged to provide examples of this approach, which he suggests is a radical departure from the more traditional Harvard Business School pedagogy (2002). Mintzberg, who hails from McGill University in Canada, implies that this approach to teaching managerial skills is appropriate for institutions on a global level, which leads the author of this article to further articulate the application of his premise. In this article, the author posits a model to describe a learning process that may be applied to the education of business students in academic courses related to the of management in organizations. The premise of the model is found in the academic disciplines of science and philosophy as they relate to management and learning theories. The author concludes the article with examples to support the application of the model in practical settings. …

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