{"id":64863,"date":"2020-09-09T00:25:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-08T21:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-the-pandemic-may-change-how-mba-programs-are-taught\/"},"modified":"2020-09-09T00:25:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T21:25:00","slug":"how-the-pandemic-may-change-how-mba-programs-are-taught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-the-pandemic-may-change-how-mba-programs-are-taught\/","title":{"rendered":"#How the pandemic may change how MBA programs are taught"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a26221c1a7df\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a26221c1a7df\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-the-pandemic-may-change-how-mba-programs-are-taught\/#2021_MBA_Guide\" >2021 MBA Guide<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-the-pandemic-may-change-how-mba-programs-are-taught\/#2021_EMBA_Guide\" >2021 EMBA Guide<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#How the pandemic may change how MBA programs are taught<\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\nEven before COVID, business schools were starting to question an idea that had seemed almost unchallenged until quite recently: the idea of an interconnected global economy<\/p>\n<div>\n                                                                        In the novel <em>A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag <\/em>by the Canadian author Gordon Korman, the protagonist writes a political <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a> report on the governmental structure of an obscure monarchy whose ruler is overthrown and executed on the day the report is due. All the hero can do is add \u201cUNTIL YESTERDAY\u201d to the title.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the kind of uncertainty Canada\u2019s business schools may be facing when they reconvene in the fall. They\u2019re coming back in the middle of a pandemic that is threatening to reset the economy back to an era before globalization, and MBA and EMBA students may find themselves reading information in their textbooks that has nothing to do with the world they now live in. Business students do a lot of learning through case studies, which illustrate principles by showing their <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>lication by a real-life business. David Dunne, director of MBA programs for the Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria, says that cases might need to be replaced or updated even more than usual now: \u201cIf you\u2019re teaching a case that is about the pre-COVID world, the students are going to say, \u2018Well, things have changed.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recessions are not a bad time for business school enrolment, as more people choose to focus on education rather than enter the job market. Jim Dewald, dean of the University of Calgary\u2019s Haskayne School of Business, says that his school\u2019s applications for graduate management programs \u201care up over 50 per cent for this fall.\u201d But as business school administrators scramble to figure out how to deliver the fall courses, and students wonder whether networking is still possible when they aren\u2019t on campus, the question that hasn\u2019t quite been answered yet is whether the curriculum will change as radically as the delivery methods.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>NEW: Our updated 2021 MBA Guide<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, in the short term, the pandemic can\u2019t help but influence what people choose to study. Dewald says that faculty \u201chave completely shot the lights out in shifting research to COVID-related studies.\u201d The situation has even created new approaches to entire buildings: when COVID hit, McGill University\u2019s Bensadoun School of Retail Management was opening up a 2,300-sq.-foot Retail Innovation Lab to study the experience of retail businesses. Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou, dean and professor of finance at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill, says that the lab has been retrofitted for the era of physical distancing, allowing students and faculty to simulate \u201chow customers can complete their purchasing journeys without interacting with anyone or touching a single object in-store.\u201d She also notes that the school is launching a Master of Management in Retailing program next year, which is already revising its curriculum to be more pandemic-conscious, including new courses on risk management and turning around troubled companies.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s less clear whether the basic theories or assumptions of business education, like the need to maximize productivity and profits in the most ethical way possible, will change at all. One approach might simply be to go on teaching and learning the same things as before; after all, pandemics eventually end, and when this one is over, the economy could go right back to the way it was before, as it did after the emish flu. In an article published in early July by Indian business <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>paper <em>Mint<\/em>, Rashmi Menon wrote that the country\u2019s top business schools have been mostly \u201cunfazed\u201d by the new reality: \u201cWhile there will be short-term impact on classes and executive programmes, the economy will recover by 2022, they believe.\u201d Why adjust their approach for what might prove to be merely a short-term change?<\/p>\n<p>A structural reason why MBA and EMBA programs are, as Dewald puts it, \u201cnot prone to quick shifts in understanding,\u201d is that a lot of the curriculum is built around principles that are expected to apply for decades or even centuries. Thinking too much in terms of current or recent events is frowned upon. Dunne says that introductory courses are taught \u201cat a level that, ideally, should be able to accommodate pretty much anything that happens. When we teach economic theory, for example, it should be able to handle recessions, depressions, crashes.\u201d Pandemics \u201cwere not high on the radar in terms of threats,\u201d he adds, but that may simply mean that professors will use more pandemic-related examples, rather than change anything fundamental.<\/p>\n<p>However, not all disruptions are temporary. While it\u2019s too early to know the long-term effects of COVID-19, the pandemic has often been described as a trial run for the effects of the climate-change crisis\u2014and that\u2019s a threat that actually has changed business school curricula in a lasting way. Dunne says that, in recent years, every business school has added some courses that focus on sustainability, \u201cand that\u2019s partly because faculty have become more aware of it, and partly because students demanded it; they thought the old paradigm no longer applied.\u201d Dewald also points out that ethics, and especially \u201chuman behaviours tied to ethical leadership,\u201d have become a more important part of the curriculum since the 2008 financial crash.<\/p>\n<p>And while pandemics mostly bring short-term change, they can exacerbate or speed up changes that were already happening. Dunne says that, even before COVID, business schools were starting to question an idea that had seemed almost unchallenged until quite recently: the idea of an interconnected global economy. \u201cUp to 2016,\u201d he recalls, \u201cit seemed inevitable that economies around the world would become increasingly interconnected as trade barriers fell.\u201d Then came the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump, and suddenly borders mattered again. By disrupting global supply chains and causing countries to seal themselves off from one another, the pandemic is emphasizing that trend even further.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>READ:\u00a0Canada\u2019s economy may never return to what it once was<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>COVID-19 has highlighted other issues, such as income inequality and the effects of sudden economic shutdowns, which may remain a priority for a new crop of business school students. \u201cNew students are bringing in a much more nuanced consciousness of what the business world is about,\u201d Dunne says. \u201cThey\u2019re much more idealistic than business students 10 or 15 years ago would have been. It\u2019s not all about making a quick buck on Wall Street or Bay Street; it\u2019s very much about changing the world. In time, that will turn into pressure on the curriculum, so the economics of inequality may well become a bigger part of that in the future.\u201d COVID isn\u2019t what got these students concerned about inequality, but it can certainly do its part to convince them they were right to be concerned.<\/p>\n<p>Even at this very early stage, there are already some ideas about what business schools might do differently to respond to these changing demands. Bajeux-Besnainou, for her part, thinks that they\u2019ve been placing too much emphasis on case studies, and that the pandemic should be a wake-up call to place more of an emphasis on skills-based learning, where students learn how to become experts at data analysis and research. \u201cCase studies look to the past,\u201d she says, while students need to prepare for a post-COVID economy where \u201cthere is no blueprint to draw information from.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The dangers of complacency, of thinking we already know what\u2019s coming next, may be the big takeaway from the pandemic. \u201cCertainly COVID caught me by surprise, and it shouldn\u2019t have,\u201d Dunne says. He now sees the increased importance of \u201cchallenging the so-called wisdom you\u2019re getting from the hierarchy. I plan to push students to really challenge ideas instead of taking the narrow route.\u201d No matter how much the economy and the global supply chain get back to \u201cnormal,\u201d people will know that the definition of what\u2019s normal can change any minute. Dewald says that, because students are currently learning under such unprecedented strain, it \u201cwill make them stronger and better equipped to deal with the unexpected when it next comes around.\u201d That could be the mission statement of all business education from now on, even after COVID ends.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2021_MBA_Guide\"><\/span>2021 MBA Guide<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>British Columbia<br \/><\/br>Prairies<br \/><\/br>Ontario<br \/><\/br>Quebec<br \/><\/br>Atlantic Canada<br \/><\/br>Online<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2021_EMBA_Guide\"><\/span>2021 EMBA Guide<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>British Columbia<br \/><\/br>Prairies<br \/><\/br>Ontario<br \/><\/br>Quebec<br \/><\/br>Atlantic Canada<br \/><\/br>Online<\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/hr>\n<p><em>This article appears in print in the September 2020 issue of<\/em> Maclean\u2019s <em>magazine with the headline, \u201cBusiness (school) as usual?\u201d Subscribe to the monthly print magazine here.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>if you want to <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">watch Movies<\/a> or Tv Shows go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/dizi.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dizi.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a> <\/span> for forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/education\/mba\/how-the-pandemic-may-change-how-mba-programs-are-taught\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#How the pandemic may change how MBA programs are taught&#8221; Even before COVID, business schools were starting to question an idea that had seemed almost unchallenged until quite recently: the idea of an interconnected global economy In the novel A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag by the Canadian author Gordon Korman, the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22974,1545,1356,5069,67806,10574,67858,67867,67847,67860,67849],"class_list":["post-64863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-canada","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-economy","tag-editors-picks","tag-education","tag-emba","tag-how-the-pandemic-may-change-how-mba-programs-are-taught","tag-mba","tag-mba-guide","tag-mba-guide-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}