Do business schools have a future?
(MoneyWatch) This week, the accrediting body for business schools -- the AACSB -- will introduce new standards, aiming to update their requirements. Instead of 21 standards, there will now be just 15; that has to be a good thing. Other changes include:
- Demonstrating a dynamic connection between schools and the real live business community. This is overdue but welcome. It's astonishing to me how many academics have scarcely set foot inside a functioning company and how much of their teaching derives from case studies they didn't write and from research done from their desks. Business is not a pure science -- it isn't a science at all -- and reality should be where it starts and stops.
- Fundraising strategies must be allied to mission. In other words, business schools are now required not just to have fundraising plans and targets -- but strategies that link action to purpose. Many business schools teach strategy but don't practice it, so this must be a welcome development.
- Stricter guidelines on publishing means academics can't pursue pet projects but must conduct research that supports the school's mission. Top tier journals alone count. The world of academic business research feels a little bit like Macy's on a Saturday afternoon: A lot of random stuff thrown around, some selling well and a lot left on the floor. It isn't clear who reads this stuff and many Deans have confessed that, probably, no one does. This standard clearly aims to bring a bit more logic into the world of academic business publishing but I'm not sure it goes far enough.
As you might expect, there's also a lot about new technology, online teaching and MOOCs (massive open online course), the hot topic du jour. What the AACSB doesn't address, however, are some of the tough issues that beset business schools and have left them with a tarnished reputation. These include:
- Teaching. What is the value of great teaching if tenure still depends on publication? Who do business schools exist for? Their students or their faculty? If students, then surely teaching should come first.
- Multi-disciplinary work. Most real work in real companies is cross-disciplinary. Most of the top tier journals are not, which means most academics can't afford to delve into the stuff that really matters. In part this is physics envy: The desire of these academics to practice a pure subject. It's doomed and undesirable. We should be educating business people about realities.
- Conflicts of interest. These are rife within b-schools. Many academics hold positions that allow them to sell high priced consulting services to large corporations that then become donors and the subjects of case studies. The many HBS case studies eulogizing Enron were a case in point, so too the HBR article which celebrated RBS as masters of acquisitions. (The latter was written by the current dean of HBS.) Both turned out to be spectacularly misguided -- but consultants and academics are highly motivated to flatter their clients and subjects. They want continuing access, engagements and donations. This is a huge problem at the heart of all business schools.
- Accountability and responsibility. We are still living through the wreckage caused by a lot of thinking and many individuals trained at business schools. There has been soul searching but no mea culpas. A little curriculum adjustment but no wholesale change. Where is the evidence that anyone cares about the consequences of their teaching?
In the interests of full disclosure, I must say that I teach at a number of business schools around the world. I love teaching because the students are bright, committed and energetic. Most of them -- in stunning contrast to five or eight years ago -- look upon business as a way of making the world a better place. I'd like to help them do that and so do my colleagues. But truly to deliver on their promises, business schools need to practice what they teach: Strategic coherence, ethical courage, enlightened skepticism, corporate responsibility and customer-focus. There is still a long way to go.
