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MBAs are strongly associated with the theory that managers can "manage" competently with no domain knowledge whatsoever. This is unpopular conceptually with pe
by gchpaco 17y ago
MBAs are strongly associated with the theory that managers can "manage" competently with no domain knowledge whatsoever. This is unpopular conceptually with people who do have domain knowledge, and those folks can point to scads of examples of situations where a newly minted MBA decided he understood something important and fucked everything up.
I think your "industry has found them useful" argument is undermined by the realization that MBAs tend to hire other MBAs, rather like a virus spreading.
- gaius 17y agoThat's relatively recent thing. In the early days of the MBA, in the 1950s, the point of them was to teach real actual engineers the skills they would need to move up the organization (e.g. if you were a civil engineer who knew all about concrete, the MBA would teach you about the commercial aspects of dam construction so you could manage the whole project). The modern MBA is a rite of entry into a club and not much more.
- ryanwaggoner 17y agoYeah, I've heard this comment quite a few times on here before, but the MBA was created around the turn of the century, not in the 1950s, and it was created because more companies wanted a scientific approach to management, not to teach "real actual engineers" management skills.
- known 17y agoEngineers live in ideal world. MBAs live in real world.
- philwelch 17y agoWhat does that even mean?