Researched By

Muhammad Ahmed (2010) Researched By

Muhammad Ahmed (2010)

In the past few decades, business schools have realized that traditional graduate degrees in business such as an M.A. in business administration are not marketable because of their program design. Therefore, most business schools around the world are now focusing on the star of the business school’s product portfolio, the MBA program. The goal of the MBA program is to prepare learners for business and management. This paper presents the ten steps that business school must take to prepare the learner for business and management. The paper is a triggered research paper, and the research concludes that business schools must foster a culture of continuous learning, and work with facilitators (faculty), corporate partners, and accrediting agencies as a team to prepare MBA learners for the world of business and management

1. Understand the reason for the universal design of the program.2. Clearly explain the rationale for each course included in the

program and how they relate to each other and to the learners.3. Show learners how the knowledge gained from all the courses

will be combined to make management decisions in a capstone course at the end of the program

4. Develop course descriptions and syllabuses that are based on the goals of the program

5. Formulate and implement classroom strategies to achieve the course goals.

6. use appropriate evaluation tools that will determine whether there was an addition to the learners’ knowledge.

7. Prepare facilitators to be creative and innovative in sharing knowledge with learners.

8. Build a culture of continuous learning at the school.9. Develop corporate partnerships.10. Use case studies, team work, and business simulations in all

the functional courses and the capstone course.

MBA degree is a universal degree; it doesn't matter where the degree is offered, the goals are the same, to prepare learners how to manage a business or to be part of a management team 

The goal of management is to maximize the wealth of the organization. To maximize the wealth of the organization, the managers have to focus on the five basic functions of the organization

 Five Basic Functions of the Organization

The  importance  of  five  functions  in  the  wealth  maximization  process  may  be  one  of  the   reasons,   that   gradutebusiness   programs,   such   as   MBA   programs,   around   the  world   include   at   least one   course   on   each   of   the   five   functions of   the   organization.  

In the MBA  program, courses  besides marketing, finance, operations, human   resources, and information  technology are needed to build a  rational   framework for  making management decisions in   the   five   functional areas of the business. The following exhibit   shows the courses needed for building a rational framework for management decisions.

Foundation for Making Rational Functional Decisions

At the end of the program in the capstone course is essential. This will help the learner to understand the importance of all the courses included in the MBA program, and the learner may then use learning and retaining strategy rather than a program strategy just to pass the course. A clear explanation of the relationships and inter relationships between the courses will help the MBA learner to see the importance of each course in the program and its contribution to creating value for the firm. The following exhibit illustrates that the knowledge from all the functional areas is utilized in the capstone course.

Combing Knowledge in the Capstone Course

A description of the course must be based on the present changes in the field of business and not just on the minimum contents required by the accrediting agencies. Every course syllabus must include an explanation on why the course should be part of the MBA program, and how the course will improve the business and management skills of learners. There should be a relationship between the course description and the outcomes of the course.

To achieve the goals of the course, the facilitator needs to develop effective classroom strategies. These classroom strategies must include the 3C’s- Contents, Clarity, and Communications. The contents involve the textbooks, case studies, simulations, videos, digital platforms, and lectures. In developing a classroom strategy, facilitators must To achieve the goals of the course, the facilitator needs to develop effective classroom strategies. These classroom strategies must include the 3C’s- Contents, Clarity, and Communications. The contents involve the textbooks, case studies, simulations, videos, digital platforms, and lectures. In developing a classroom strategy, facilitators must

6. use appropriate evaluation tools that will determine whether there was an addition to the learners’ knowledge.

7. Prepare facilitators to be creative and innovative in sharing knowledge with learners.

8. Build a culture of continuous learning at the school.9. Develop corporate partnerships.10. Use case studies, team work, and business

simulations in all the functional courses and the capstone course.

Evaluation and control are a challenging task for the facilitator in a digital environment.

Traditional way of questioning are not Enough for the determination of learners ability .

For the Evaluation the facilitators need to design some tools that determines weather the ability of the Learner is increasing in the class or not. Is he capable of Doing Executive Decisions ?

Facilitators constantly Monitor the Learners Ability , analyze the problems and Find it’s solution.

To prepare the learner to be successful in business, facilitators have to use evaluation tools such as case analysis, scenario analysis(alternatives world), essays(written mistakes by others like criticism) ,peer evaluation(one by problem solving), current business situation analysis, and simulations(model) to determine the level , of comprehension of materials covered in the course and the ability of the learner to apply the knowledge and skills gained in a given business situation.

In older days there was the monopoly of Books if learner had any question or need any clarification he used to follow text books referred by the subject teacher.

Now a days Learners gather more from External Sources rather then text books These days million of snippets are available on just single click In this era Reading test books, material on internet slides presentation by the Facilitators

are not enough. Sometimes, textbooks become obsolete by the time they are published in certain areas of

business. As the traditional professors have been changed as Facilitators. So, To be successful in

preparing an MBA learner to manage a business, the facilitator has to develop personal communication (ground and online), an understanding of human behavior (face-to-face, and virtual) for interacting with the learners in both real and virtual classroom.

Lastly, they must be able to adapt to a changing environment and creatively use technology to share knowledge with the learners

In every organization, there is a chance for the existence of sub culture, which sometimes works as a driving force for the organizational culture or sometimes as a distraction to the organizational culture. A distraction from a sub culture of the organization to the organization's culture will limit the organization's ability to achieve its goals.

A learning culture could be evolved in a business school by: i. Breaking the distance and divisions among the facilitators;ii. Defining and sharing the meaning of the business research; and,iii. Understanding the importance of team work in preparing MBA learners to mange a

business.

All facilitates must be join together as a team for MBA Learners Regardless their position, they Should make a team for output continuous learning.

Business school should always focus on productive business research. All facilitators should work in a Team so that they Fully satisfy the learners and

indirectly to organization

A business school’s corporate partnership is similar to a partnership between a supplier of raw materials and a corporation.

Business school are the supplier of Human capital to the Corporation. They are the important in upper part(revenue, cost of production) and Lower Part

(overhead and period cost)

As previously stated, the goal of an MBA is to prepare learners for business. The best way to achieve this goal is to develop internship programs for MBA learners.

Learners should consider their Mba as full time Mba. The limitation of internships is that the exposure and time span is limited. Other

practical alternatives for preparing MBA learners in business schools are the use of case studies, teamwork, functional simulations in functional courses, and business simulations in the capstone course.

The team also learns the important lesson that teamwork and group decisions are an integral part of successful business and management.

In the last decade, thousands of universities all around the world have adopted business simulations in their capstone course.

Business simulation provides an excellent opportunity for learners to understand how to prepare a plan for the business, set goals, formulate a strategy, and implement the strategy. In addition, they learn how competition and the external environment influence the business.

Business school exist to prepare MBAs. They provide human capital to the organizations so, they should

provide according to market need i.e creative and innovative because market always demand for exceptional no matter how much the worse economy is…

Preparing MBA is a team work which involves facilitators business schools, corporate partners, accrediting agencies, and the supplies of contents.

ABOVE ALL: The most effective tools for preparing MBA learners for business and management are case studies, teamwork, and business simulations.

The MBA learners must be teach in a virtual manner of worst conditions: NOT IN IDEAL ONE