Many people find the subject of business management to be fascinating, but they often find the context that is used to teach

and promote business education intimidating and unapproachable. Based on the authors' experiences, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and non-traditional adult students who can contribute a great deal to the field are interested in pursuing business education, but they veer away from such an endeavor because they often believe they lack the necessary background to pursue a Master of Business Administration degree (MBA). Moreover, the cost of tuition, entrance exams, professional references and letters of recommendation often serve to further entrench a student's impression of an unachievable goal. To attract more diverse MBA students, the image and language that are used to promote business programs need to be more inclusive. The universities that promote and teach traditional MBA degree programs need to consider the diverse population that is not currently being serviced. The purpose of this article is to review MBA traditions and challenges facing inclusive MBA education.

The Traditional MBAThe history of advance business education started with

Dartmouth College. Dartmouth College introduced

the first advanced degree in the study of business

in 1900 (Hahn, 2006). In 1908 Harvard University

followed along Dartmouth’s footsteps by offering

the first MBA degree, which was further developed in

1925 by Stanford University. According to Hahn, the

MBA program then struggled as a career enhancement

alternative for students until the Carnegie Corporation

and Ford Foundation concluded that the MBA program

required more analytical education after conducting a

thorough research investigation. The study supported

the application of analytical practices to deal with

business problems and they recommended that more

academic research projects be introduced into the

MBA curriculum. In 1991 AACSB, the business school

accreditation organization, revised its standards on

required business curriculums, removing management

science from its accepted position as part of the canon

of the MBA. Many business programs replaced the

management science courses with leadership and

organizational behavior courses. These changes were

correlated to MBA programs trying to adapt to the

current business trends and the needs of practitioners.

During this time there was also a huge enrollment decline

in MBA students throughout universities in the nation.

A report issued by the Graduate Management Admission

Council (GMAC, 2004) reported that 78 per cent of

institutions offering traditional two-year MBA programs

experienced a decline in enrollment in 2004/05.

Dr Emad Rahim and Dr Amine Ayad

How Non-traditional MBA Programs Foster an

INCLU IVEpace

The universities that promote and teach traditional MBA degree programs need to

consider the diverse population that is not currently being serviced.

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There is a strong movement growing in the business

world that supports a more individualized business

program. Many successful corporate leaders are speaking

out against traditional MBA curriculums, pointing out

that MBA graduates often lack communication and social

skills. They are also emphasizing that many graduates are

having difficulty applying theory into practice. Corporate

leaders feel that many MBA programs focus too much on

functional technicality and not enough on the organizational

environment of businesses. They urge for a broader

MBA curriculum that allows a diversity of study options.

According to an article printed in News Week titled “MBA

programs are getting extreme makeovers” (MacDonald,

2005), many respected traditional business schools are

developing more well-rounded curriculums that combine

soft-skills, such as communication and listening skills, with

technical analysis skills. It was only in the last two decades

that nontraditional business degree programs started

appearing as executive or online options for students.

Tom Peters (2006), CEO and founder of the Tom

Peter’s Company, a business solution consulting firm

that is recognized and used by large companies such

as Trump Corporation and Boeing, believes that the

traditional MBA degree is no longer relevant in today’s

business market because it is lacking creativity, design

and innovation in its teaching delivery and curriculum.

Adapting to the current needs and behaviors of businesses

and practitioners, many MBA degree programs are now

taking on an action (Action MBA, Hardin-Simmons

University), practicing (Colorado Technical University)

and personal/professional (Personal MBA – Changethis.

com, Professional MBA – Cal Poly Pomona College of

Business Administration) driven approach in their

teaching. Due to the unethical behaviors of corporations

like Enron, Tyco and Worldcom, and the downsizing

of manufacturing companies, the majority of this

generation distrusts corporations and no longer feels

secure working until retirement for the same corporation

or within the same industry. More students are entering

MBA programs with aspirations of starting or running

their own business. These students that are often working

full-time and have family and community obligations

require flexible MBA programs that respond to their

needs and non-traditional educational background. Many

of the online and Executive MBA (EMBA) programs are

focusing their attention on entrepreneurship practices

verses traditional business theories. Students entering

these programs will participate in workshop-style

courses, which require participation in written and verbal

presentations, group project management and career

planning processes as well as structured experiences

that foster time management practices, polish listening,

interviewing and interpersonal skills, and address conflict

management and the effectiveness of meetings. The

lecturing approach to learning is replaced with more of

a practice-learning style that is delivered online or in a

hybrid format.

Contemporary managers require a business program

that is compatible with their particular needs; especially

their busy time-schedule. Thus, the action-driven MBA

program’s approach to management education claims

to be more incisively pertinent to the contemporary

management of enterprises, irrespective of their

geographical location. With the age of the Global

Economy, International MBA programs have been

developed, allowing diversity and language courses into

their curriculum (Thunderbird University, Toronto

University, etc.). MBA candidates are expected to diagnose

problems, analyze data and situations, apply theory and

concepts to gain insight and understanding and make

decisions and recommendations without having to

relocate to the university’s campus. These new programs

use case studies and simulation exercises in an attempt to

provide students with “real-world” practical application.

The students learn to apply theory to management

practices in ways that are analytically rigorous and

managerially decisive.

The Executive MBAThe goal of every school of management must be to attract

and keep the best future managers in order to build the

reputation of the school through their alumni base (Garson,

2004). Many of the alumni of these EMBAs already

hold major positions in academia, business, consulting,

government, healthcare, public health, community settings,

research institutes and major universities around the

globe. They provide the financial support and networking

opportunities that are so important to current students’

success. Universities rely on alumni networks to provide

classroom speakers, career mentors and recruiting and

networking opportunities that add tremendous value to

the classroom experience. Industry professionals lead panel

discussions on a range of business issues and teach classes

through bringing the “real-world” into the classroom. A

business advisory council made up of alumni in various

business roles meets with faculty, deans and students

quarterly to guide the school to best serve the economic

needs of the region.

A survey conducted by the University of Minnesota’s

Carlson School confirms that alumni are powerful

economic partners. Carlson School alumni have founded

more than 1,800 Minnesota based businesses that employ

more than 110,000 people and generate annual revenues

of $21.2 billion. These annual revenues are equivalent

to the state’s entire manufacturing industry, and the

employee base is about the same as that of the combined

legal, accounting, architectural and technology industries

in Minnesota (University of Minnesota, 2005). Similarly,

a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni survey

showed approximately 2,600 alumni-founded active

companies in Massachusetts, employing more than

175,000 people and generating approximately $46 billion

in annual revenue (MIT, 2006).

In schools of business with part-time programs, the

part-time and EMBA students make up the bulk of

paying students (Winer, 1999). This is because their

companies often subsidize their graduate education

and these students are not eligible for the scholarships

that full-time students are. Therefore, in order to

remain financially sound and academically successful,

professional business schools must help part-time

MBA students improve the abilities they identify as

most valuable and in which they require the most

improvement. This necessitates, of course, discerning

which abilities part-time MBA students perceive as

most valuable and as needing improvement. A study

conducted at Pace University (Winer, 1999) revealed

that less than half of part-time MBA students would

recommend the program to friends because they felt core

courses were not valuable in helping them to develop

interpersonal skills or market themselves. The belief

among top graduate schools of business is that in order

to maximize prestige and funding, schools must do

everything possible to engage MBA students during their

matriculation in order to create an active and committed

alumni (DePaul, 2004).

Many EMBA programs follow the cohort model, where

students are grouped into small teams. These cohorts will

stay together throughout the lifecycle of their EMBA

program. Cohorts provide each other with motivation,

support and guidance. During the attendance of classes

and residencies they may also be assigned to complete

group assignments, presentations and capstone projects.

According to Edgar Schein (1999), characteristics of

organizational culture are important for group identity.

We looked at several of these characteristics that we felt

were missing from the part-time program:

1. "Intensity of the group’s experiences of learning together." EMBA and evening classes are scheduled at

separate times and are conducted in a separate facility.

Not until the final semester do participants mingle with

other business students in elective courses. Although the

intensity of the learning is high, the feeling of learning

together seems to be missing from these groups due to

physical separation.

2. "Strength and clarity of assumptions held by founders or leaders." Directors of the evening and

EMBA programs have held onto high standards of

academic excellence and years of work experience

for admission to the program, resulting in high

expectations for participants.

Financial burden of MBA educationByrne (2011) illustrated that MBA students at top business

schools are borrowing more money than ever to pay for

their degrees.

Further, Byrne (2011) made two critical points:

1. “Conspicuously absent from the list are the debt numbers

for Columbia Business School, MIT’s Sloan School of

Management, the University of Southern California’s

Marshall School, and Washington University’s Olin

School. These institutions apparently did not disclose this

data to U.S. News. But it’s a sure bet that all of them would

be among the top 25 if they had provided the information,

given their high tuition rates and similar student pools.”

2. “Once you add an effective interest rate of 7.65 per cent

from government loan programs, these debt burdens grow

quickly over the years. If a Wharton MBA paid down his

$110,000 debt over the next 10 years, the total cumulative

payments would come to more than $180,000. With a

repayment schedule over 25 years, the debt would balloon

to more than $280,000 -- not accounting for any deferrals

or penalties for missing a payment.”

In personal correspondence with John Byrne, we asked:

“Are you aware of any statistics/information that correlate

‘education’ and ‘income’, especially for MBA programs?”

Byrne answered: “All of the schools publish starting salary

and bonus numbers for their graduates, but whether this

is ‘correlated’ to the actual education they received is hard

to tell. It may be more of a reflection of the quality of

the incoming students along with the brand value of the

university that granted the MBA degree. Hard to tell!”

Many hiring managers tell us that the reputation of

the university that grants the degree is considered in the

interviewing process, but it is certainly not the deciding factor

in the interviewing process, let alone the hiring process.

Corporate leaders feel that many MBA programs focus too much on

functional technicality and not enough on the organizational environment

of businesses.

School 2010 Average Debt 2009 Average Debt

1 UPenn (Wharton) $109,836 $105,489

2 Dartmouth (Tuck) $98,292 $85,917

3 Duke (Fuqua) $92,827 $88,050

4 Michigan (Ross) $92,734 $84,798

5 Northwestern (Kellogg) $87,256 N/A

6 Cornell (Johnson) $86,900 $83,700

7 Yale School of Management $86,895 $99,418

8 New York University (Stern) $85,198 $78,887

9 Georgetown (McDonough) $82,577 $76,746

10 Vanderbilt (Owen) $80,857 $76,957

11 Chicago (Booth) $79,539 $86,758

12 Texas-Austin (McCombs) $77,644 $69,552

13 North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) $77,124 $75,251

14 Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) $75,570 $87,592

15 California-Berkeley (Haas) $73,186 $63,748

16 Harvard Business School $73,110 $76,958

17 Virginia (Darden) $72,027 $66,272

18 Stanford $71,403 $80,677

19 George Washington $68,959 $66,989

20 Pepperdine (Graziado) $66,242 $71,680

21 Thunderbird $64,381 N/A

22 Notre Dame (Mendoza) $62,858 $65,295

23 UCLA (Anderson) $62,711 $64,030

24 Wake Forest (Babcock) $61,846 N/A

25 Emory (Goizueta) $60,435 $58,440

Source: Business schools reported to the U.S. News and World Report’

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Benefits of online educationToday there is a great deal of interest in online education

and the level of quality that non-traditional education

provides to students. Online education is still in its infancy

stage. However, it offers students the opportunity to expand

their awareness of the world and culture and embrace

the internet as an instructional tool. For-profit higher

education corporations have spent millions on marketing

their programs through mass media and some of the most

extensive marketing and sales programs. From marketing

concept store fronts to television and online advertising, the

competition is growing and getting stronger.

Whereas traditional education is regarded as professor

or research centered, online education is viewed as student

centered. This becomes even more important in for-profit

education where numbers are critical to success and

continuity. In an online environment, the instructor is

viewed as a facilitator more than a traditional instructor in a

“bricks and mortar” campus. Universities such as Colorado

Technical University and the University of Phoenix have an

applied approach to their curriculum, requiring students to

work on group projects applying theory into practice using

scenario type questions and case study assignments. Research

has shown that inclusion and participation during the

education process tends to produce more active and involved

students and alumni, which enhances the prominence of the

university (DePaul, 2004).

Recommendations to universitiesTo advance MBA education, our top three

recommendations to universities are:

1. Adopt a flexible hybrid platform that is accessible to

diverse and non-traditional students

2. Adopt a program that is action-based and/or responsive

to industry needs

3. Include a diverse advisory board made up of industry

leaders and hire more professionally qualified faculty

who are practitioner-scholars vs. those who only focus

on research

Recommendations to studentsTo earn and benefit from your MBA we recommend that you:

1. Get some work experience before enrolling in an

MBA program

2. Get the most out of the degree by finding a program that

is tailored to your needs

3. Develop your soft skills (communication, critical thinking,

emotional intelligence, leadership, etc.) in addition to your

hard/technical skills while pursuing your MBA

Biographies

Ø Emad Rahim, DM, PMP is Dean of Business and Management at Colorado Technical University. Follow him on Twitter @CTUBusiness.

Ø Ayad Amine, DM is an established leadership author and currently works as a Divisional Merchandising Director at Wal-Mart.

Contemporary managers require a business program that is compatible with

their particular needs; especially their busy time-schedule.

References

` Anvari, M., Speech to Faculty and Staff of Weatherhead

School of Management, Case Western Reserve

University, Cleveland, OH (August 2004).

` Byrne, J (2011). 25 B-schools that lead to the most

student debt. Retrieved Sep 30, 2012 from: http://

management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/26/25-b-

schools-that-lead-to-the-most-student-debt/

` DePaul University, Retrieved June 2009 from: http://

www.alumni.depaul.edu/aboutarn.asp

` Hahn, B (2006). The MBA is Far From Dead. Rutland

Herald. Retrieved July 5, 2008 from: http://www.

rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040906/

NES 409060303/1011/BUSINESS

` MacDonald, J (2005). MBA Programs are Getting

Extreme Makeovers. USA TODAY. Retrieved July 5, 2008

from: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-

04-19-mba-usat_x.htm

` MIT, Retrieved September 2008 from: http://www.

mitadmissions.org/topics/pulse/notable_alumni/

` Winer, L., “Why Business Schools Need to Know what

MBA Students Want to Learn and How to Find Out” (NY:

Pace University, 1999).

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