Cambridge professor Richard Barker writes in Harvard Business Review that “management is not a profession at all and can never be one” and “therefore, business schools are not professional schools.” I’m not persuaded.
To Barker, professional education (presumably delivered by real professional schools) involves three stages, “admission, taught program, and formal assessment.” He describes professional education as pre-experience (one doesn’t practice medicine, then go back to school to learn how to do it), focused on technical knowledge that can be compartmentalized (rather than on developing “attributes” and the “skill of integration”), and conducive to individual assessment (e.g., with tests). Barker then draws a sharp contrast by asserting that [MBA] management education is post-experience, focused on developing attributes and skill of integration, and difficult to assess beyond the more technical subjects like accounting and finance. According to Barker, making MBA education more like professional education would put at risk the rich learning environment that exists in business schools. Business schools are “incubators for business leaders” rather than professional schools.
Missing from Barker’s analysis are two important characteristics; professional education implies a strong link between academic research and practice and a purpose that transcends self-interest. To me, these two characteristics define professional schools much more so than the experience of new entrants, curriculum structure, and ease of assessment. And, if they embrace both characteristics, business schools ought to be called professional schools.
Unfortunately, there are diverging opinions about the relevance of business school education and research to practice and about the overarching purpose of business schools. Seldom have I heard the “ivory tower” criticism hurled at medical schools or law schools. And while it seems most people believe the only or main purpose of business schools is to advance the careers (usually measured by salaries) of graduates, I don’t think many believe the main purpose of medical education is to advance the financial success of doctors or to make the practice of medicine more profitable.
Of course, business schools will never regulate who can become a manager. Management is something almost everyone does and, if your experience has been like mine, can get better at. Accordingly, many institutions and organizations provide management education. Not all can or desire to be professional schools, for it is not easy (or inexpensive) to be both scholarly and deeply connected with practice and provide an education that is defined by a broader social purpose. But positively that is where I believe the best business schools have been moving!