How Can Business Schools Be Made More Relevant?

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Warren Bennis and James O’Toole raised questions about whether business schools in general have lost their relevance by following "the scientific model" of graduate schools of arts and science as opposed to "the professional model" of medical and law schools. The professional model combines practice and theory and presumes that most or all teachers will have some practical experience.

Jeffrey Garten, dean of the Yale School of Management, said in a recent New York Times interview, "The real question is how to be relevant. . . . I was an investment banker for fifteen years. I was in four presidential administrations. But this job has been the most difficult of all." These questions are perhaps made more significant by the fact that the leadership of both Harvard Business School and the Yale School of Management will change soon.

Why are questions regarding the relevance of today’s business schools being raised? Bennis and O’Toole trace origins of the argument back many years, but point especially to two studies in 1959 supported by the Ford and Carnegie Foundations. These studies suggested greater emphasis on the study, research, and application of the underpinnings of a management "discipline"—mathematics, economics, sociology, and psychology, among others.

Professor Jim Heskett

Full Discussion: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4886&t=heskett&oid=4886&rid=-1&hid=-1&aid=-1