Organizations and Markets

Glenn Hubbard Defends Business Schools

28 June 2006 at 4:00 pm Peter G. Klein Leave a comment

| Peter Klein |

Columbia’s Glenn Hubbard responds to critics who say that contemporary business education, particularly as taught in US-style MBA programs, is outmoded, irrelevant, and even dangerous. (We’ve been discussing this here, here, and here.) Says Hubbard:

Why, then, is the US adding productivity growth when so many other big economies see negative growth in productivity? Those who say the answer is technology have spent too little time in Tokyo, Seoul and Berlin. The fact is, technology is better in many other countries. So US companies did not become more productive by simply buying faster computers. They became more productive by having managers and entrepreneurs who knew how to integrate these investments with new business models to raise productivity. These abilities to think strategically are teachable; and the central classroom for teaching leaders to “pick these locks” is the business school.

(HT: Mark Thoma)

Update: Here’s Dartmouth’s Paul Danos, responding to “The Management Myth.”

Entry filed under: - Klein -, Teaching.