THE traditionally taught Master of Business Administration (MBA) is today under fire from all sides, and has been forced into a radical re-think of its function.
The heaviest bombardment is coming from its ultimate customers - chief executives of the companies which hire the new graduates.
Corporate complaints about MBA graduates centre on four basic perceptions: They tend to be, or are felt to be, ''arrogant''. The schools emphasise the fine line between arrogance and confidence, while the companies point to the ''crown prince syndrome'' where MBAs behave as if they have the wisdom of Solomon.
They have over-high career expectations and unrealistic salary goals. This appears to be a justified complaint, backed up by research which found that 70 per cent of MBAs believed having the qualification automatically entitled them to higher salaries.
They are difficult to integrate into established company career systems. Employers sometimes view MBAs as disruptive, because they want to do too much, too soon. The schools claim MBAs stand out because there are so few of them in most businesses, and recommend a constant, in-flow of new graduates.
The MBA courses are not relevant to the needs of business. One exceptionally critical assessment of the alleged irrelevance of MBA programmes came from Henry Mitzenberg, professor of management at Canada's McGill University.