The Decline and Fall of the Business Major: Is It Inevitable? (original) (raw)
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Examining Student Perceptions of Business Majors in the US
The International Journal of Management Education, 2018
Changes in the mix of business majors could result from perception shifts or from changes in the factors students consider when choosing majors. Two student surveys, distributed six years apart at a large US business school, were analysed to understand student choices. First-and secondyear students were asked about their perceptions of all the business majors available and what major they were most likely to pursue. Models could explain some major choices (e.g., management) better than others (e.g., marketing). Over time, students appeared to place less emphasis on employment prospects and more emphasis on how exciting classes were and how interesting careers will be. Results may explain some changes in the mix of majors, help attract more students to some majors, and improve communications about majors.
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 b SELECTING A BUSINESS MAJOR WITHIN THE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
This study employed a survey in examining the important influences that shape a student's selection of a major in the College of Business (COB). In particular, it compared these influences, by major, to assess which items were most (and least) important to the students majoring in accounting, general business, finance, management, marketing, and MIS. The influences, totaling 37, included internal influences (e.g., interest in the field), external influences (e.g., projected salary), and interpersonal influences (influence of significant others). Some of the findings were consistent with those of prior studies. For example, interesting work was highly important for all business majors, and specific interpersonal influences such as parents, high school teachers, and peers were relatively unimportant. The findings presented herein suggest that the overall impact of interpersonal influence may have been underestimated in previous studies. Unlike many previous studies, this study showed that job availability and job security were more important to students than interest in the field. This study augments the extant literature in that the survey was conducted right after the 2009 recession, which allowed an analysis of student decision making during a period of high unemployment and lingering economic uncertainty. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.
The business schools: 50 years on
Education + Training, 2008
PurposeThis paper aims to offer a critique of the development of university business schools over the last 50 years and provide a perspective on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of the journal Education + Training.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is critical and reflexive, reviewing the historical growth of business schools and focusing on questions relating to their changing rationale.FindingsThe main themes of the analysis are that despite the considerable growth of business schools, this is not an unqualified success story, since recurrent doubts have been expressed regarding the central purposes and objectives of advanced business education.Originality/valueThe paper is of value as a critical and succinct summary of the vibrant but heavily contested growth of business schools.
Strategic choice: taking 'business' out of B-schools
2014
This chapter notes the increasing criticism that business schools have faced since the global financial crisis. It has been claimed that they produce graduates trained in a particular form of market knowledge. The thesis pursues the challenge of extending the B-School curricula to include a broader set of subject matter, placing less emphasis on economics and better preparing graduates for an ethical career.
Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 2012
A liberal arts education is touted as a tradition that produces graduates who are humane, interdisciplinary, and have the ability to think critically. While many liberal arts colleges offer business in their degree offerings, it can be seen as antagonistic to a liberal arts education. Can the liberal arts and business education find mutuality? This paper argues that the consideration of this issue is timely due to the recent decline of liberal arts education in favor of technical degrees and the recent criticisms of business education as lagging behind other majors in learning outcomes. An integration framework is offered for business education within liberal arts.
The Reformation of Business Education: Purposes and Objectives.
Business education is at a critical juncture. How are we to justify the curriculum in undergraduate business awards in Aotearoa New Zealand? This essay suggests a philosophical framework for the analysis the business curriculum in Western countries. This framework helps us to see curriculum in a context of global academic communities and national needs. It situates the business degree in the essential tension which modernity (Western metaphysics) creates and which is expressed in an increasingly globalised economy. The tension is between those who insist that the degree is to serve modernity and those who hope that it may contribute to a new era of justice and harmony with nature. One critical battle ground for the business curriculum is the subject Business Ethics. The business ethics curriculum often indicates the intention of the business ethics degree itself. Kant's distinction between heteronomy (rule following) and autonomy (making your own decisions) provides us with a means to judge the purposes of business ethics courses: there are courses which seek to produce reliable and compliant (heteronomous) employees, and there are those which seek to produce independent creative (autonomous) human beings. The question for this conference is: what do we as business educators see as our task?
Torn Between Two Paradigms: A Struggle for the Soul of Business Schools
Business schools today are torn between two paradigms, with a resulting struggle about the nature and value of both teaching and research. Today’s dominant neoliberal paradigm pervades the vast majority of schools with its narrative of profit maximization, free markets, and limited government. Its proponents view competition, growth, and consumerism as the defining characteristics of society. By contrast, the emerging and inchoate “economy in service to life” narrative aims at freedom and dignity for all achieved through shared well-being on a healthy planet. Business schools are increasingly caught between these narratives or paradigms. This results in confusion for students, tensions among faculty members, and discontinuity in institutional leadership when successive deans oscillate from one to the other.
With increased scrutiny over the value and promise of higher education, liberal arts degrees face criticism, in favor of professional degrees like business that position students for a linear career path to lucrative work. Research for this article is based on 20 interviews with college students majoring in Arts and Sciences, who completed a summer program to obtain a business minor. Our findings demonstrate that participants talk about the business minor as a key factor in 'selling themselves' to potential employers by (1) highlighting the discipline required to complete the program, (2) acting as a conversation starter with potential employees, and (3) emphasizing the broad applicability of a business minor. Implications demonstrate the power of professionalism to render specialized knowledge (like business knowledge) insignificant while offering an extension of Williams' ideal-worker norm to young people.
Business education: the challenge of relevance and value creation
2007
Today there is plenty of good news for the providers of business education. Business education now has a dominant position in many educational institutions globally. In the USA undergraduate business degrees grew from 14% of all degrees granted in 1971 to 20% in 2003. The numbers were 18% and 23% for MBAs and Masters programs for the same period (Friga, Bettis and Sullivan 2003). In Australia business and commerce degrees constitute the most popular field of education for award course students in 2005 constituting almost 30% of all higher education courses taught (ABS Year Book Australia, 2007). “Students and business people from around the world continue to flock to business schools” (Lorenzi 2004). The demand is predicted to continue (Friga et al 2003).