MBA and the Education of Leaders

The New Playing Fields of Eton

Bibliographic Data

ID12883292
AuthorsYannis Gabriel (0000-0002-6265-1699, Imperial College London, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume1
Issue2
Pages147-163
Publication date2005-05-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLeadership (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1742-7150 • E-ISSN: 1742-7169
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1742715005051856
OpenAlexW2033305843
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited33

This article takes a critical look at the management education offered by business schools, seeking to establish whether it encourages the emergence and development of leadership qualities. The author introduces a teaching experiment he carried out as part of an MBA programme aimed at assessing whether it is possible to teach a leadership course in which the students do not assume the role of followers, but rather find themselves leading others, taking responsibility and operating without the conventional safety net provided by the lecturer. The author concludes that the structure, ideology and ethos of MBA programmes are fundamentally opposed to an education of leaders, arguing MBA experience is one for educating followers rather than leaders - committed followers, obstinate, hardened lieutenants perhaps, but not generals. It is in this sense then that MBAs may be seen as a contemporary parallel to the playing fields of Eton. They are uniquely suited to people who can survive and even prosper in the merciless fields of today’s business

Economics · Ethos · Field (mathematics · Ideology · Management · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Law · Management and Marketing Education · Management and Organizational Studies · Management Theory and Practice

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