I am working on a project for the MBA program (I need to have it completed
by Tuesday, so if people could respond sooner, that would be great!).
Specifically, the project is this:
The UIUC MBA program wishes to increase its rank by accepting higher
quality students. To this end, it is recruiting from grad students in
Ph.D. programs on campus. However, there are a fair number of people in
academia (specifically humanities and pure science) who hold many negative
stereotypes regarding business management and managers, and MBA programs
in general.
Some of the stereotypes I have encountered in my (limited) questioning
and observation so far are:
* "business managers are unethical by the very nature of their job"
* "the pursuit of profit is immoral/unethical/ignoble"
* "business managers are brainless me-too'ers"
* "Ph.D. candidates who move over to the MBA program are sellouts, or else
couldn't cut it in their academic program"
* "the MBA program must involve lots of brainless busy work, and jumping
through pointless bureaucratic hoops"
Here is where I need your help:
If you agreed with any of the above statements, to any degree, or have any
other opinions about business/business managers/MBA programs that might be
considered negative, I want to hear from you. I would like to know what
opinions you have on this topic, and what you think shaped those opinions
(previous direct experience, hollywood, personal philosophy, etc)
Also, if you are considering getting an MBA in addition to or instead of a
Ph.D., but have not yet made up your mind OR if you know there is
absolutely no way you would be interested in the MBA program, I have
questions for you, as well.
I don't care if you respond personally to me, or if you post to the list;
perhaps if heated debate is started on this, more useful insights could
follow.
Thanks in advance for your input!
-- .oooO .oooO Scott David Weitzenhoffer ( ) ( ) permanent email: sdw6@cornell.edu \ ( \ ( www: http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/~weitzen/ \_) \_)"Some people like the oddest things" - Trillian