The Future of the Planet in the Hands of MBAs

As ambitious as it might sound, there is never smoke without fire. Or vice versa. Both statements are true and both need to be considered. Irrespective of the amount of dirt poured over business education over the past few years (particularly in the light of the recent economic crisis - are we there yet?), MBA salaries are picking up, according to the the newly published 2011 MBA salary survey by Global Workplace and there is more and more demand for "freshly-backed" business school graduates. The hungriest regions are, as expected, India and China, followed by Russia and LatAm. In Western Europe and the USA the salaries and demand for MBAs are still lagging.

At the same time, the prestige of business education is crawling up again, as can be seen from various scientific publications and research as the one I am quoting below. An interesting read...

***********

Authors: SLATER, DANIEL J. dslater@uu.edu & DIXON-FOWLER, HEATHER R. dixonfowlerh@appstate.edu

Source: Academy of Management Learning & Education; Sep2010, Vol. 9 Issue 3, p429-441, 13p, 3 Charts

Several critics contend that MBA education is irrelevant to practicing managers (e.g., Mintzberg, 2004), while others suggest it creates a profits-first mentality without regard for moral considerations (e.g., Ghoshal, 2005). Based on these criticisms, we explore the implications for CEOs with an MBA degree—specifically, if and how their MBA education might influence their firms' corporate environmental performance (CEP). Extant literature provides conflicting arguments; therefore, we empirically tested the relationship using a sample of 416 S&P 500 CEOs and found a significant positive association between CEOs with MBAs and CEP, even after accounting for several firm- and individual-level characteristics. In addition, post-hoc analysis revealed that the MBA program ranking had no effect on CEP.