MBA studies sharpen management skills, but can’t create managers on their own

Some scholars have argued that MBAs serve business school bottom lines more than they benefit students, writes Ann Peng in the Kansas City Business Journal. Other studies have quantified significant financial benefits for those who hold these degrees. But the MBA doesn’t make the manager, and Peng suggests that recruiting MBA students based on their leadership experience instead of their years of general work experience can facilitate their leadership development. To support this argument, Peng points to the research of Professor Henry Mintzberg, who argues that using the classroom to help develop people already practicing management is a fine idea, but pretending to create managers out of people who have never managed is a sham.