Should MBA students care about their professors’ research?

I think Moham Ran is right, if all people want to learn are techniques, stories, and checklists of all kinds, the Web can provide that, one-day seminars can provide that, and talking with colleagues over a beer can accomplish much more than an MBA degree can deliver.

The real DISCONNECT here is between education and training. MBA schools are supposed to deliver busness EDUCATION but students only want business TRAINING. The benefits of Education are long lasting but intangible cognitive development, techniques are temporal but tangible. BUSINESS RESEARCH ENHANCES BUSINESS KNOWLEDGE BUT IT DOES NOT CONFER THE BENEFITS OF TECHNIQUES.

But busness schools have no one but themselves to blame. In the rush to make education more practical, they have reinforced the confusion between education and training. Isn't it "Strategy 101" that institutions are supposed to set their strategy by answering the basic question: what business are we in? So, are business schools in the business of 'education' or are they in the business of 'training'?

So far, business schools have been sending out mixed messages, because, professors are promoted based on their achievements in academic research and NOT the transmission of practical know-how (because quite frankly a significant number of tenured and tenure-track business professors have zero practical know-how in business), and yet, business schools are promoting themselves as the source of serious business insights. In the minds of practical managers, 'insight' means techniques, stories and checklists, but in the minds of academics and educators, 'insight' means general principles, developed trends, and empirical testing of already-known facts through the use of quantitative models. Practitioners want 'prescriptions' but educators focus on 'cognitive development' and that is the biggest disconnect between the two groups.

It is unreasonable to expect professors to teach techniques and prescriptons and it is dishonest for business schools to pretend that professor can do that.

Professors should focus on research, lecturers should focus on teaching what professors have researched, and students should know that they come to business schools to learn how to think more logically and cogently about business matters, and they are not there to learn business tips and tricks.

There are some great teachers, with little research output. They only purvey other people's ideas effectively. Then there are fine researchers who do not care for teaching. The ideal is somewhere in between, professors with a solid record of contemporary research with interest in being effective techers. They transmit knowledge and stimulate original thinking among students.

Tenure definitely should be biased towards research record but should check whether the candidate is a competent teacher. A good MBA school will be a healthy mix of research and teaching.

The Economist is grossly in error, in not taking into account research output, in evaluating managment schools. Great researchers who are competent teachers is the need of the schools. If management education is only teaching of techniques and current knowledge, one can get by with handbooks and do it yourself kits.

Captain Mohan Ram

I have seen too many good teachers, who have to leave their universities due to insufficient research outputs. Good teachers learn new knowledge in reading articles, assimilate and deliver effectively it to the students. However, professors in universities conduct research all the time and teach old knowledge as they don't have time to update the teaching materials. Handbooks or written textbooks can not teach you how to manage people, but, by using effective teaching methods, good teachers can.