Re-imagining the MBA: an arts-based approach

The Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) degree is a long-standing, globally recognised qualification that has almost become a requirement for many aspiring business leaders. Yet, the qualification has changed little over its history, despite substantial changes in the role and practice of business. These changes were brought into sharp focus by the financial crisis in the early part of the 21st century. However, despite much introspection, many MBA programmes have not been transformed. It is unsurprising that many programmes have not fundamentally changed as they are a staple of most business schools and are valuable, monetarily and reputationally, even in their current form. Nevertheless, a management qualification intended to tackle the wicked problems that now beset contemporary organisations requires the adoption of a pedagogy based on an epistemology of practice and the incorporation of design thinking within the MBA curriculum. Solutions also need to consider the inclusion of more responsive values, and a wider range of knowledge. This paper considers these issues and posits a solution which draws on Biggs’ constructive alignment approach to progranme design, and has been enacted in a new arts-based MBA programme which is used as an example throughout

Factors of Employees’ Effective Voice in Corporate Goverance*

Traditionally, corporate governance has focused on the problem of crafting mechanisms to align the interests of owners and managers. The key characteristic has been to minimize the potential for managers to act in their own self-interest at the expense of shareholders. The purpose of this paper is to focus on employees as stakeholders in the governance process. We argue that creating an environment where employees have help in behaving ethically, in the course of their work, is the first step in encouraging them to voice observations of wrongdoing. Seven groups of professionals in the accounting and insurance fields were surveyed during a 10-year period and asked to indicate the extent to which 14 items were helpful in dealing with ethical challenges. Over 2700 responses were analyzed. The findings indicate that professionals think that their organizational culture and policy for voice was more helpful in dealing with ethical dilemmas than was their professional association. Copyright Springer 2005boards of directors, corporate governance, ethics, employee voice, stakeholders,