In a study called “How Relevant is the MBA? Assessing the Alignment of MBA
Curricula and Managerial Competencies,” Robert S. Rubin and Erich C. Dierdorff examined how well the MBA curriculum aligns with real workplace expectations. Rubin and Dierdorff are both assistant professors of management in the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University.

Looking at curricula at 373 business schools, the study found that “MBA programs are perhaps more relevant than many of the critics would lead one to believe. That is, they accomplish much of what they set out to do, namely, develop general managers.”

At the same time, though, the researchers found significant gaps between what is required for managerial work and what MBA coursework requires. The gaps focus squarely, the study found, on people-focused competencies—the ability to manage human capital and decision making, for example.

Ironically, the paper suggests, an over-reliance on student preferences might be the cause of a curriculum that does offer adequate training in the so-called “soft skills.” This led the researchers to observe:

“Programs may find themselves at a relevancy crossroads as criticism continues to rise. Determining which criteria of “relevancy” institutions deem as most important is at the heart of selecting a direction to pursue, and as with most strategic choices, often comes with significant trade-offs. For example, if trends remain, institutions choosing to heavily rely on student preferences to make their programs more attractive in the name of relevancy may actually face the unintended consequences of becoming less relevant to real managerial work. Conversely, institutions driving their curriculum design choices based on actual managerial requirements may increase their true relevancy, all the while appearing less relevant to their primary consumers – students. In all, it is clear that the tensions surrounding the issues of relevancy will continue to impact how business schools design, implement, and evaluate their graduate management educational programs.”

The work was presented in August at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management.

Having had a little time to reflect on the paper’s reception and impact, Rubin says “we've been very pleased with the conversations that have been sparked. In particular, we've been pleased to see people acknowledge that the research brings actual evidence to bear on issues of relevancy.”

To date, Rubin says, few critics have approached the issue of MBA relevancy empirically, “in a way that one might draw broad and generalizable conclusions.” Moreover, he says those who have looked at this question have tended to look only at the top 25 tier of institutions as rated in the media. But in a related study, yet unpublished, Rubin and colleagues found that “across 373 MBA programs, the top-ranked programs were no more or less likely to offer relevant—that is, aligned with managerial competencies—curricula than any other MBA program.”

The researchers were surprised that media reports about their study focused on recruiter opinions of critical managerial competencies. “Interestingly,” Rubin says “our research discusses previous research in this area, but does not investigate recruiter opinions directly. The competency importance ratings in our study are derived not from recruiters, but from actual incumbent managers.” That development, though, sparked the researchers to begin investigating the perceptions of recruiters and other stakeholders.

In addition, Rubin and Dierdorff hope to explore another dimension of relevancy, this time looking at specialized MBA programs. Noting the recent popularity of such programs, Rubin says that “although such a curricular innovation may prove to increase managerial relevancy, to date no systematic research has examined their nature and alignment with managerial competencies. We hope to shed significant light on whether or not such specialized programs serve to increase (or perhaps dilute) the relevancy of management education.”