The skills and practices taught in a business management course are rich and varied, covering everything from microeconomics to technology in the workplace, managing diversity and corporate law. Within any one course, there are many channels one could move through, focussing on, for example, accounts and finance, marketing, corporate responsibility, or managing change. Most programmes seek to teach specific items of knowledge whilst developing soft skills.
That is often the aim, the reality is often very different. Trish Clifford, a New York based business consultant and strategist says, "As an instructor on management, I've been as guilty as any of giving MBA students the tools without the practical experience of how to use them." The implication is that there are some skills which can only be gained by experience. Understanding different personality types and appreciating the motivations of others are often seen as key areas that business students will only be able to learn out of the classroom.
"The skill of integration distinguishes managers" says Richard Barker in the Harvard Business Review, adding that "integration is not taught but learned." However, it may well be the case that while the skill of bringing together disparate elements – be they skills, departments or individuals – is not frequently taught in business management courses, there is potential for the development of these skills to be brought into the syllabus. Through combining practical projects with pedagogical research, students may be taught competencies which will help them as managers.
Of course, everything of value which is taught is taught continuously. One of the other main differentiators between professions such as law and doctoring and careers like business management is the former's commitment to continual study. Keeping abreast of medical advances and changes to the law is a prerequisite of the job.
All too often business managers see the workplace as the end of their academic learning. That is, they expect to learn the theory in business school then plunge into gaining experience in the workplace, whereas a more effective strategy might be to merge the two together at every stage of one's career. There will always be a new analytical tool which could help a business, or a new psychological theory which offers insight into people management. These can be taught not only in school but afterwards, just as the differences between business theory and working reality can be taught long before the first day in the office.