Scholarly article on N,N'-Diacetyldianisidine 83310-76-3 from Chemische Berichte p. 112

Professors, Managers, and Human Resource Education

•

65

PROFESSORS, MANAGERS, AND HUMAN

RESOURCE EDUCATION

Mitchell Langbert

This article examines whether Masters of BusinessAdministration (MBA) programs adequately

prepare human resource professionals. It also compares managers’ and professors’ evaluations

of the competencies HR managers will need in the twenty-first century. It finds that both

managers and professors view interpersonal and problem-solving competencies and integra-

tion of HR with bottom line concerns as more important than technical know-how. HR

managers, however, are much more critical of what MBA programs are doing than are HR

Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Some HR

managers have

commented that

Masters of

Introduction

times fail to develop the competencies that

firms need.

Globalization, technological change, and cor-

porate restructuring have underscored human

resource management’s strategic role. Now,

more than ever, firms require human resource

managers who can integrate human resource

management with line management, can man-

age change, and can communicate effectively.

Yet, such competencies are elusive. Some HR

managers have commented that Masters of

Business Administration (MBAs) from even

the best business schools lack the interper-

sonal and problem solving competencies that

their firms need.

Some HR educators have been well at-

tuned to corporate needs, some have not.

While HR educators are committed to supply-

ing firms with graduates who meet corporate

requirements, they may not always know what

is required. Gaps in MBAs’ HR training may

result. In particular, MBA programs may some-

Thus, for years in the literature, both

managers and professors have criticized MBA

programs. For example, taking certain man-

agers’point of view, Muller, Porter, and Rehder

(1988) argue that business schools encourage

students to focus on obtaining credentials for

high-paying jobs rather than on thinking like

broad-minded entrepreneurs. Intheir view, stu-

dents’ narrow vocationalism parallels professors’

narrow interests and impractical pedagogy.

Bloom (1988), a liberal arts professor, makes a

similar point in lamenting that MBA programs

lead able students away from broadening edu-

cation in the humanities toward business

schools’ vocationalism.

Business

Administration

(MBAs) from

even the best

business schools

lack the

interpersonal

and problem

solving

competencies

that their firms

need.

Emphasizing their lack of practical compe-

tencies, Linder and Smith (1992) criticize MBA

graduates for failing to understand politics,

people, and teamwork. Likewise, Livingston

(1971), based on a study of 1,000 Harvard

Human Resource Management, Spring 2000, Vol. 39, No. 1, Pp. 65–78

66

•

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Spring 2000

Business School graduates, concludes that

1. How do HR educators’ evaluations of

the emerging importance of specific

HR functions compare with HR man-

agers’ evaluations?

grades do not predict how well a graduate

will perform in management because MBA

programs do not teach students how to de-

velop requisite competencies such as using

power, thinking broadly, and coping with

emotion. Giauque and Woolsey (1981) cen-

sure academic tenure and incentives that

result in faculty and students who lack

“street experience.”

To address academics’and executives’ con-

cerns, Butler (1986) argues in favor of increased

integration of the humanities with the business

curriculum to enhance the development of com-

petencies such as written and oral communica-

tion. Even Porter and McKibbon (1988), writing

at the request of the American Assembly of

Collegiate Schools of Business, suggest that

business professors’ research focus has had scant

effect on management practice. Like Butler, they

suggest that business schools enrich their cur-

riculum with concepts from all sectors of the

university in order to emphasize globalization,

people skills, and broad thinking.

These concerns are of importance to HR

practitioners and academics for at least three

reasons. First: MBA programs directly affect

the managerial work force and so are of key

concern to those involved with recruiting,

training, and executive development. Second:

HR professionals are themselves drawn from

MBA programs so that MBA programs’

strengths and weaknesses will influence HR

departments’ performance. Third: HR aca-

demics, like academics in general, are deeply

concerned with pedagogical quality, and the

charge that their product does not match their

corporate customers’ quality requirements is

of serious concern.

2. How do HR educators’ evaluations of

the emerging importance of strategy

and change competencies compare

with HR managers’ evaluations?

3. How do HR educators’ evaluations of

the importance of interpersonal and

managerial competencies compare

with HR managers’ evaluations?

4. How do HR managers and educators

rate the quality of MBA graduates’

abilities with respect to the same

competencies?

There is a priori reason for optimism.

Because HRM is interdisciplinary and prac-

tice-based, human resource professors tend

to be practice-oriented. Thus, Van Eynde &

Tucker (1997) contrast the content of HR

textbooks with the views of 24 top human

resource executives and find that the text-

books and the executives emphasize the

same functional issues. These functional

issues include the strategic role of HR, com-

pensation, equal employment opportunity,

performance evaluation, communication,

HR planning, and selection. Van Eynde and

Tucker’s sample is small, however, and is

limited to top managers of large firms. Also,

they only focus on functional issues such

as equal employment opportunity and

compensation and do not discuss executives’

and others’ views on the emerging impor-

tance of managerial competencies to the

HR function.

Competencies

are the

underlying

knowledge, skills,

abilities,

personality traits,

and know-how

that result in

effective

management

practices.

Yet, in contrast with extensive available

documentation of the effects of undergradu-

ate programs, surprisingly little research has

been done on the effects of MBA programs

on graduates (Van Eynde & Tucker, 1997;

Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Feldman &

Newcomb, 1969). This article helps to fill

that gap by reporting the results of a survey

of HR managers’ and professors’ views on

both emerging issues and competencies in

HR and on how well MBA programs address

those issues and competencies. In doing so,

the survey addresses four questions:

The Managerial Competency Movement

and HR Education

During the past 25 years both educators and

managers have begun to think in terms of

managerial competencies and skills. This

trend gained formal attention in the mid-

1970s when theAccreditation Research Com-

mittee of theAmericanAssembly of Collegiate

Schools of Business initiated research into

business schools’ teaching of non-cognitive

skills or competencies (Porter, 1983). Com-

petencies are the underlying knowledge,

Professors, Managers, and Human Resource Education

•

67

skills, abilities, personality traits, and know-

how that result in effective management

practices (McClelland, 1973; Boyatzis,

1982). In the academic sphere, the compe-

tency approach to management education

(Whetten & Cameron, 1983; 1998) has

emerged as a way to better focus organiza-

tional behavior courses on useful,

practical skills rather than on impractical,

abstract theory.¹

At the same time, HR departments have

developed competency-based job analysis

techniques. Such techniques involve analyz-

ing jobs by identifying the competencies rather

than the duties and responsibilities that they

require. For example, Ulrich, Brockbank, and

Yeung (1989a; 1989b) identify five chief cat-

egories of competencies for HR managers:

Goal and action management, functional and

organizational leadership, influence manage-

ment, business knowledge, and HR technical

proficiencies. Similarly, Blancero, Boroski,

and Dyer (1996), working with Eastman

Kodak’s human resource organization, identify

11 core competencies, 6 leverage competen-

cies, and 33 role-specific competencies that

HRM requires.²Thus, both professors and

managers have been improving job analysis,

education, development, and selection with

competency targets that facilitate HR quality

improvement.

With respect to HR, one set of compe-

tencies that researchers have identified is

the ability to think broadly and strategically

and to integrate HR concerns with broad

business concerns (Ulrich, 1997; Alvares,

1997; Beatty & Schneier, 1997). Schuler

(1990) argues, therefore, that environmen-

tal change is causing people issues to become

significant business issues and that HR man-

agers need to develop new competencies to

address them. In his view, HR managers

need to develop a bottom-line orientation;

to broaden themselves to function as busi-

ness executives, not personnel specialists;

to anticipate change; and to develop cre-

ative solutions to business problems.

Schuler’s ideas dovetail well with the

competency approach. Professors need to

help students develop competencies to deal

with change and the interpersonal demands

that change implies.

Methodology

In order to compare HR managers’ and pro-

fessors’ views on emerging HR issues and MBA

programs’ quality, 150 professors and 150

managers were contacted in 1992. To obtain

the sample of professors, graduate business

schools with HRM programs that require the

Graduate Management Admissions Test

(GMAT) were selected randomly fromBarron’s

Guide to Graduate Business Schools (Barron’s,

1990). Course catalogues were obtained from

the institutions selected, and professors teach-

ing HRM were selected randomly from the

course catalogues. Selecting respondents in

this way may have biased the sample toward

better quality schools and faculties since they

are more likely both to be listed in Barron’s

Guide and to require the GMAT examination.

The managers were selected randomly

from Standard and Poors’ Register of Corpora-

tions, Directors and Executives (1991), and

those considered were limited to HR manag-

ers of firms with at least 2,000 employees. The

managers and professors were asked to rank

the importance of 16 HR functions and is-

sues (from one to 16). The response rates for

the 1992 sample were 35.3% for the manag-

ers and 34.0% for the professors.

In 1998 separate samples of 250 manag-

ers and 150 professors were contacted and

asked to rate the importance in 2001 of a

nearly identical list of 17 HR functions on a

scale from one to seven, where one is most

important and seven is least important.³In

addition, the 1998 samples were asked to rate

the importance of three HR strategy and

change issues and six managerial competen-

cies based on Boyatzis (1982), Ulrich, et al.

(1989a; 1989b), Schuler (1990), and Whetten

& Cameron (1998). The strategy and change

issues included the extent to which HR man-

agers have been increasingly expected to think

and act like line managers, to develop broad

business competencies, and to help employ-

ees cope with change. The six managerial

competencies included analytical and prob-

lem- solving skills; proficiency with technical

HR issues; ability to integrate line and HR

concerns; interpersonal communication;

conflict management; and team building.

The competencies chosen were meant to be

68

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Spring 2000

representative rather than exhaustive. For

was not statistically significant, but the

differences within the four categories of re-

sponses were all statistically significant (but

offsetting), so mean-corrected as well as raw

scores are reported.⁴

example, Blancero, et al. (1996) identify 11

competencies. The purpose of this study was

to compare professors’ and managers’ general

expectations about the emerging importance

of a few representative competencies and

the extent to which MBA programs meet

their expectations.

For the 1998, sample the managers were

again selected randomly from Standard and

Poors’ Register of Corporations, Directors and

Executives (1997).Again, only firms with more

than 2,000 employees were contacted. There

was an additional round of follow up for the

managers in the 1998 sample. The professors

were all of those listed in the Membership Di-

rectory of the Industrial Relations Research

Association (Industrial Relations ResearchAs-

sociation, 1994) as teaching human resource

management. One hundred twenty-one man-

agers and 58 professors responded. The re-

sponse rates were 48.4% for the managers and

38.7% for the professors. A copy of the ques-

tionnaire for the managers is shown in

Appendix A.

Although the response rates were healthy

for both the 1992 and the 1998 samples, both

years’sample sizes were small.As with any sam-

pling process, bias may have arisen because of

sampling error, that is, the chance selection of

a nonrepresentative sample. Sampling error is

inversely related to the square root of the sample

size. Thus, to a greater degree than with a larger

sample, interpretation of the findings described

herein needs to take the possibility of sampling

error into account.

As can be seen in Table I, both groups

viewed employee development as a key func-

tional issue—though managers viewed it so

to a greater degree than did professors. In 1992

both groups rated training and development

as the number two issue that would emerge

in 2001, while in 1998 managers rated it first

and professors third. Managers viewed the de-

velopment-related issue of succession plan-

ning fourth in 1998 (up from tenth in 1992)

while their rating of employees’ job satisfac-

tion moved to fifth place in 1998, from twelfth

in 1992. The increased emphasis on employee

development may reflect 1998’s tight labor

market, which also may have resulted in re-

cruiting and selection’s occupying the num-

ber two spot for HR managers in 1998.

Professors ranked productivity and quality

higher than did managers in both years, but

in 1998 managers ranked it third, while pro-

fessors ranked it first.

Sensitivity to economic trends can also be

seen in the drop in managers’ ranking of health

care cost containment from number one in 1992

to ten in 1998. This drop mirrored the reduced

rate of health care cost increases following the

Clinton health care bill’s failure in 1994. The

number one issue for professors in 1992, diver-

sity, also fell for both groups in 1998 (to

number eight for managers and five for profes-

sors). It is possible that relatively tight labor

markets have reduced discrimination concerns,

a process that might reverse itself when the

economic cycle turns downward.

Both groups

viewed employee

development as a

key functional

issue—managers

to a greater

degree than

professors.

Functional HR Issues

Despite professors’ tendency to be slightly more

conservative in their mean response, similari-

ties outweighed differences between managers

and professors in both 1992 and 1998. In 1992,

the respondents were asked to rank the func-

tional issues so the mean response was equal.

For the 1998 sample, where a scaled response

was used (1 = most important, 7 = least), both

managers and professors tended to rate all is-

sues as above average in importance (Van Eynde

& Tucker, 1997, had a similar result). For pro-

fessors, the global mean response was 2.7 and

for managers it was 2.5. The global difference

Managers’ and professors’ ratings were sig-

nificantly different for both raw and mean-

corrected data for only six of seventeen issues

in 1998. Rankings of only four of sixteen is-

sues were significantly different in 1992. The

most important of these differences were

rankings of succession planning, and in 1992,

health care cost containment and weakness

in the educational system.

What emerges from this part of the survey

is that both professors and managers saw

employee development and productivity and

quality as important issues for the next century.

Professors, Managers, and Human Resource Education

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69

Rank in Importance of Functional HR Issues.

1998 Sample

TABLE I

1992 Sample

Managers

(N = 121)

Professors

(N = 58)

Managers

(N = 53)

Professors

(N = 51)

Issue

Training and Development

Recruiting and Selection

Productivity and Quality

Succession Planning

Employee Job Satisfaction

Compensation and Incentives

Globalization/ Competition

Diversity

Restructuring/ Reengineering

Health Cost Containment

Performance Appraisal

HR Regulation

1^a

2^a

3

3^a

6^a

1

2

4

6

2

3

4

4^a

5^a

6

14^a

9^a

2

10^a

12

9

15^a

12

11

7

8

4

5

8

4

1

5

9^c

10

12^b

13

11^c

7

1^a

12

7

6^a

10

9

10

8^b

13

Other Employee Benefit Issues

Weaknesses in Educational

System

13^a

16^a

14

11

16^a

8^a

Occupational Safety

and Health

Union Relations

15

16^c

17^b

16

17^c

15^b

14

—

16

14

—

13

Downsizing and Layoffs

a. The difference between managers’ and professors’ mean ratings is statistically significant at the .05 level for a two-tailed

test for both raw and mean-corrected data.

b. The difference between means is significant at the .05 level for a two-tailed test for mean-adjusted but not raw data.

c. The difference between means is significant for raw but not mean-adjusted data.

There was volatility in managers’ perceptions

of importance, however, probably due to eco-

nomic trends.⁵Managers rated recruiting and

selection fourth in 1992 but first in 1998, while

they rated health care cost containment first in

1992 but tenth in 1998. Mean ratings for em-

ployee benefits (other than health care cost con-

tainment), downsizing and layoffs, occupational

safety and health, and unions were consistently

lower than for the other issues. This finding dif-

fers from that of Van Eynde &Tucker (1997),

possibly because they focus on textbook topics

and interview an elite group of top HR manag-

ers, whose perspectives may be longer term than

the broader range of respondents to this survey.

These findings contradict the concerns of

critics such as Muller, Porter, & Rehder

(1988), who suggest that HR and business

school faculties are out of touch with busi-

ness reality. There are only modest differences

in HR managers’ and professors’ ratings of the

importance of specific HR functional issues.

It is true that between 1992 and 1998 the

managers’ perceptions changed to a greater

degree than did the professors’. That is prob-

ably because managers regularly need to

cope with economic and regulatory shifts.

Professors, on the other hand, likely have a

longer-term perspective. But the differences

are modest.

Strategy and Change Versus

Functional Issues

Both HR managers and HR professors viewed

integration of HR with line management, tak-

ing a strategic view of HR and functioning as

a broad business executive as more important

than the most important functional issue. In

1998, managers rated recruiting and selection

1.9 (where 1 = most important, 7 = least

important) as the most important functional

issue, while professors rated productivity and

quality 2.1 as the most important functional

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•

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Spring 2000

issue. But managers gave a 1.5 mean response

ity to integrate line and HR concerns, and (3)

interpersonal communication skills indicated

that these competencies were viewed as of

equal or greater importance than the most

important functional issues.

and professors a 2.0 mean response to the fol-

lowing statement: “During the past seven years

human resource managers have seen the need

to develop new competencies for themselves in

order to help provide corporations with leader-

ship on HR issues. These new competencies

include functioning as a broad business execu-

tive rather than a personnel specialist, acting

as a change agent, and contributing cost-

control ideas and programs.”

Likewise, managers gave a 1.6 mean re-

sponse and professors a 2.1 mean response to

the following statement: “Compared with seven

years ago, human resource professionals are

increasingly expected to think and act like line

managers and to view human resource activi-

ties from a strategic perspective.”

These findings suggest that, as with their

perceptions of the importance of functional

issues, professors and managers share similar

points of view about the crucial importance

for future HR managers of interpersonal and

strategic competencies. Professors tend to

emphasize the importance of technical com-

petencies to a slightly greater degree than do

managers, and managers tend to emphasize

the importance of interpersonal and strategic

competencies to a slightly greater degree than

do professors. Again, the differences are mod-

est. Both groups see interpersonal and strate-

gic competencies as more important than

technical competencies and rate the relative

importance of specific interpersonal compe-

tencies in similar ways.

Compared with managers, however, pro-

fessors rated the first as significantly less

important and the second as significantly less

important for a one-tailed test.

In addition, both managers and professors

were modest in their evaluation of how well

HR managers are accomplishing these objec-

tives. In response to the statement: “Compared

with seven years ago, line managers are more likely

to believe that human resources (i.e., people) are

important to your firm”, the managers’ mean was

2.5 and the professors’ was 2.8, about 56 % and

33 % lower, respectively, than their responses

to the question on thinking like line managers.

Perceptions of MBA Programs

In addition, the two groups were asked to rate

the quality of MBA programs. Managers were

asked to rate the extent to which recent MBAs

demonstrate the six competencies, and pro-

fessors were asked to rate the extent to which

their MBA programs emphasize the six com-

petencies. In Table II, both groups rated the

quality measures in the middle two columns

somewhat lower than the importance measures

in the left-hand columns, but the managers were

significantly more critical of MBA quality than

were the professors. For all six mean-adjusted

measures (and five of six raw measures), man-

agers rated the MBAs significantly lower in

demonstrating the competencies than the pro-

fessors rated their programs as imparting

them. The biggest differences in perception

of MBA quality appeared with respect to the

competencies that both managers and profes-

sors deemed most important: the ability to

integrate line and HR concerns and interper-

sonal communication.

Managers were

significantly

more critical of

MBA quality than

were the

professors.

Competencies

As with the strategy and change variables, both

managers and professors rated several of the

six competencies as even more important than

the most important functional issue. The left

side of Table II shows that managers and

professors gave similar ratings to the impor-

tance of the six competencies. Managers’ and

professors’ mean-adjusted responses were sig-

nificantly different for only two of the six com-

petencies: proficiency with technical HR is-

sues, which professors rated as more impor-

tant than managers, and ability to integrate

line and HR concerns, which managers rated

as more important than professors.

To illustrate the differences, the right-hand

side of Table II shows the mean of the ratio of

each manager’s and professor’s ratings of the

importance of the six competencies to the mean

MBA quality ratings. The managers’ ratios are

Again, the similarities outweighed the

differences. Both groups’ ratings for (1)

analytical and problem solving skills, (2) abil-

Professors, Managers, and Human Resource Education

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71

Importance of Selected HR Competencies and the Extent to Which MBAs Demonstrate or

MBA Programs Emphasize.^a

TABLE II

Ratio of Importance of

Importance of Selected

Competencies

Competency to

MBA Quality

Mean

Ratio of

Mean

Ratio of

Managers:

Extent

Recent

Professors: Managers’ Professors’

Extent MBA Ratings to Ratings to

Managers’ Professors’

Mean

Rating

Mean

Rating

MBAs

Program

Demonstrate Emphasizes

MBA

Quality

MBA

Quality

Selected Competency

Analytical and

problem solving

skills

1.8

1.9

2.6^c

2.4^c

55.8%^b

70.1%^b

Proficiency with

technical HR issues

2.4^c

1.5^b

1.5

2.1^c

1.9^b

1.8

3.4^b

4.2^b

3.3^b

2.7^b

2.9^b

2.5 ^b

58.6

72.0

Ability to integrate line

and HR concerns

29.0^b

39.0^b

57.2^b

58.7^b

Interpersonal

communication

Conflict management

Team building

2.1

2.2

2.4

4.0^b

3.8^b

2.9^b

2.6^b

42.7^b

44.9^b

65.6^b

81.2^b

a. Ratings are on a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 is most important, 7 least important. One hundred twenty-one managers

responded and 58 professors responded.

b. The difference between managers’ and professors’ mean ratings is statistically significant at the .05 level for a two-tailed

test for both raw and mean-corrected data.

c. The difference between means is significant at the .05 level for a two-tailed test for mean-adjusted but not raw data.

significantly lower than are the professors’ for

both raw and mean-adjusted data.

to their perceptions of MBA quality, manag-

ers were less enthusiastic, the differences were

15 to 30% of the managers’ ratings, and the

differences were statistically significant for

both raw and mean-corrected data.

Whereas HR managers and professors are

in rough agreement about the emerging im-

portance of specific functional issues and of

interpersonal and strategic competencies, they

do not agree as to how well MBA programs

are imparting the competencies. Neither group

is particularly complimentary about MBA

quality, but the managers are more critical

than are the professors.⁶

Table III summarizes these findings.

Managers and professors gave modest but

significantly different mean ratings to the

importance of the four broad categories. On

average, with respect to the competency, stra-

tegic and functional issues, the managers were

somewhat more enthusiastic than were the

professors. On the other hand, with respect

Discussion

It is risky for at least two reasons to draw strong

conclusions from an opinion survey. First,

short-term environmental factors such as

economic trends influence opinions. Second,

response biases may arise from sampling error

(especially because of the small sample sizes),

non-response, and differences in interpretation

of the survey questions. For example, survey

questions that refer to entire programs rather

than specific courses may address professors’

hopes rather than their experiences. Similarly,

72

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Spring 2000

Managers’ versus Professors’ Ratings of Importance of Competencies, Strategy and Change

Issues, and Functional Issues.^a

TABLE III

Managers

N = 121

Professors

N = 58

Mean Issue Rating

Six Competency Variables

Three Strategy and Change Variables

17 Functional Variables

1.9^b

2.6^b

3.6^b

2.4^b

3.0^b

2.7^b

MBAs Demonstrate/MBA Programs Emphasize

a. Ratings are on a scale from 1 to 7 where 1 is most important, 7 least important.

b. The difference between managers’ and professors’ mean ratings is statistically significant at the .05 level for a

two-tailed test for both raw and mean-corrected data.

If, as the survey

findings suggest,

there is a

perceived gap in

HR competen-

cies, the problem

can be addressed

through better

selection or

Policy Implications

in interviews and correspondence connected

with this article, two professors expressed

skepticism about managers’ responses to the

strategy and change variables. They argued

that managers’ claims that HR is being in-

tegrated with line management are rhetori-

cal. In their view, HR jobs are still narrowly

defined and organized along traditional

scientific management lines. Rather than

being broadened, they argued, the HR

function has been politicized, trivialized,

and made more responsive to short-term

corporate goals.

The data developed herein do seem to in-

dicate, however, that employee training and

development has emerged as a crucial human

resource concern, and that productivity and

quality concerns have gained in importance.

Managers and professors can be expected to

have different perspectives, but their assess-

ments of 17 functional HR issues were only

moderately different. (Their mean-corrected

ratings are significantly different for only 6 of

17 issues in 1998 and only four in 1992.) Both

groups rated competencies such as interper-

sonal skills and strategic issues such as the

integration of line with HR concerns as more

important than HR functional issues. There

is considerable consistency in their views. In

fact, both groups were relatively critical of the

quality of MBA graduates and MBA programs,

but managers were much more critical of the

graduates. The most important difference be-

tween managers and professors’ views may be

that managers gave MBAs only 29% on their

ability to integrate line and HR concerns while

professors gave MBA programs 57.2%.

If, as the survey findings suggest, there is a per-

ceived gap in HR competencies, the problem

can be addressed through better selection or

better MBA education in HR. If the problem is

due to selection, responsibility can be added

to the agendas of universities’ admissions

committees, firms’ recruiting and selection

departments, or both.

If HR professors are doing all they can to

impart HR competencies, but admissions crite-

ria overemphasize applicants’ cognitive ability

as demonstrated in the GMAT, then MBA

programs will seem to be underemphasizing

competencies, when the problem is really the

admissions policies. One consistent finding of

both Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) and

Feldman and Newcomb (1969) is that the best

predictor of the quality of educational outputs

(graduates) is the quality of inputs (admitted

students). The finding is likely to apply to

competencies such as broad thinking and

interpersonal communication.

Theoretically, admissions criteria could be

broadened to include personality and compe-

tency measures, but doing so might be difficult

to accomplish because the best available mea-

sures, for example assessment centers, are

expensive. One suggestion might be for busi-

ness schools and the corporations who hire

MBAs to consider working together to finance

a graduate management assessment center that

would generate a set of competency scores, like

GMAT scores, for each MBA applicant.

better MBA

education in HR.

It may not, however, be practical to take

such a step. Assume that business schools lack

Professors, Managers, and Human Resource Education

•

73

the capacity to impart more than marginal

improvements in interpersonal and broad

thinking competencies and that university

administrations already “give their all” in ad-

mission processes. It would then be up to the

corporations that hire MBAs to make more

aggressive use of selection methods such as

assessment centers and personality tests to

select from among the MBA graduates those

applicants who have the competencies they

require. The oft-repeated complaints about the

quality of MBA programs may be at least in

part the result of corporations’ less-than-state-

of-the-art selection tools.

In the course of interviews held with HR

managers as part of this research, one man-

ager for a multinational natural resource firm

stated that his firm uses internships as a

screening device for MBA job applicants in

HR. In his firm, multiple reviewers evaluate

whether the intern/applicant has the drive,

interpersonal skills, and intellectual curiosity

to solve problems and to function as a broad

business executive. In this manager’s view, a

small proportion of HR MBA graduates have

the broad thinking, curiosity, problem solving,

and relationship-building competencies

needed to succeed in HR, so work sampling is

needed to select those who do. A variation of

this approach would be for HR MBA programs

to consider requiring an internship and other

fieldwork as part of the HR major. HR facul-

ties might work with employers in developing

competency goals for their programs.

bears much of the cost of the MBA degree

(National Center for Education Statistics,

1997). In most cases the student, not the firm,

willingly pays tuition. Hence, MBA programs

offer, free of charge, good quality, broadly

educated graduates demonstrably focused on

business careers. Firms ought not and will not

forego such a product.

Three cheers, however, are not enough.

Today’s heightened competitiveness requires

that faculties continuously improve their prod-

uct. True, the data discussed herein suggest that

HR professors are not so lacking in “street ex-

perience” as their worst critics might contend.

But the data also suggest that professors are not

“in synch” with HR managers’ perceptions of

an MBA quality gap, especially with respect to

HR competencies. Professors may be risking

complacency about their product.

Professors need to better ask and answer

the question: How do we improve our teaching

of HRM competencies? Boyatzis, Cowen, &

Kolb (1995) describe one approach at Case

Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead

School of Management. Their MBA program is

based on 22 competencies (for example,

systems thinking, communication, and self-

confidence) and 11 knowledge areas (for

Professors need

to better ask

and answer the

question: How

example, accounting and HR policy) that were

developed through a benchmarking process. In

a managerial assessment and development class,

students determine their own learning agendas do we improve

through sophisticated assessments and feed-

our teaching of

HRM

competencies?

back, then they develop an individualized

learning plan.

Conclusion:

Three Cheers for HR Education

HR professors might consider integration

of competency-based instruction with more

traditional courses and with internships that

provide the opportunity for practice. An HR

competency course might cover key competen-

cies, such as goal and action management,

functional and organizational leadership, influ-

ence management, business knowledge, and HR

technical knowledge, and might follow the kind

of format that Boyatzis, et al. (1995) and

Whetten & Cameron (1998) have pioneered.

A competency course can easily be integrated

into the traditional HR curriculum.

HR managers might be said to owe business

education three cheers. The first cheer might

be for the MBA admissions process, which

provides recruiters with a handy cognitive and

motivational screening measure of MBA gradu-

ates’ quality. The second might be for MBA

programs’ broad analytical perspective and the

professors’ good intentions. Clearly, HR educa-

tors are aware of and supportive of corporate

goals. The third might be for MBA programs’

low cost. Student tuition represents only 27.2%

of the revenues of higher education, so even in

the relatively small percentage of cases where

firms provide tuition assistance, government

At the same time, HR professionals need

to consider whether a strategic investment of

time and expertise in helping HR professors to

design programs is needed. Such an investment

74

•

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Spring 2000

might involve helping HR faculty to develop respect to development of internship programs.

competency targets for MBA programs, possi- Universities and corporations need to better le-

bly by sharing the results of their job analysis verage their skills and know-how in developing

efforts. It might also involve cooperation with the twenty-first century work force.

MITCHELL LANGBERT holds a Ph.D. from Columbia Business School, an MBA from UCLA,

and an AB from Sarah Lawrence College. He has published widely on human resource

and employee benefit subjects. He is Assistant Professor of Business in the Economics

Department of Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He has also taught at

New York University’s Stern School of Business and Iona College. He serves as a manage-

ment consultant and is listed in the Marquis Who’s Who in the World.

Professors, Managers, and Human Resource Education

Appendix A

•

75

Questionnaire on Human Resource Practice and Education

Name and Address:_______________________________________________________________________

Part One. Please answer the following four questions about how human resource management has changed since 1991.

The questions are on a scale from one to seven, where one indicates complete agreement and seven indicates complete

disagreement.

1. Compared with seven years ago, human resource professionals are increasingly expected to think and act like line

managers and to view human resource activities from a strategic perspective.

Circle one number

one two three

2442442442442442442

four five six seven

2. Compared with seven years ago, line managers are more likely to believe that human resources (i.e., people) are important

to your firm.

Circle one number

one two three

2442442442442442442

four five six seven

3. Compared with seven years ago, development of employees’ competencies and skills has become more important be-

cause of technological advance, globalization, enhanced interpersonal demands and competitiveness.

Circle one number

one two three

2442442442442442442

four five six seven

4. During the past seven years, human resource managers have seen the need to develop new competencies for themselves

in order to help provide corporations with leadership on human resource issues. These new competencies (that human

resource managers have had to develop) include functioning as a broad business executive rather than a personnel special-

ist, acting as change agent, and contributing cost-control ideas and programs.

Circle one number

one two three

2442442442442442442

four five six seven

Part Two. Please rate the importance of the following six competencies to success as an HR professional during the first

decade of the new millennium where one is most important and seven is least important. Also, please rate the extent to which

recent MBA’s entering human resource management (during the past three years) have demonstrated these competencies.

Importance to Success as HR Prof.

Extent recent MBAs Demonstrate

Competency

(Circle one number)

Analytical and

2442442442442442442

Problem Solving Skill

one two three four five

six seven one two three four five six seven

Proficiency with

technical HR issues

2442442442442442442

one two three four five six seven one two three four five six seven

Ability to integrate

line and HR

concerns

2442442442442442442

one two three four five six seven one two three four five six seven

2442442442442442442

Interpersonal

Communication

2442442442442442442

one two three four five six seven one two three four five six seven

Conflict

2442442442442442442

Management

one two three four five six seven one two three four five six seven

Team Building

2442442442442442442

one two three four five six seven one two three four five six seven

76

•

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Spring 2000

Part Three. Please rate the importance of the following 17 human resource functions and issues as they will

emerge in 2001. Please circle the appropriate number, where one is most important and seven is least important.

Workplace

Diversity

2442442442442442442