Comparing the German and American Systems
Business History Review › Vol. 82 Nbr. 2, July 2008
Linked as:
Summary
Before 1940, two university-level business-education systems emerged in the world: one in the US, which author Rakesh Khurana covers; another in Germany, which he ignores. Both attempted to make business studies a science rather than mere vocational training. But they differed significantly. After World War II, American business schools flourished. Khurana notes that the GI bill fueled enrollments. He also ascribes the radical restructuring of business schools, through the addition of the MBA and doctoral programs and the revolution in curriculum content, to external factors. Lacking a management educational milieu that is concerned with general welfare, contemporary US business schools, despite their technical excellence, can hardly be admired, except by the self-serving. Civilized people need more. Perhaps this is why Chinese reformers, in their rush to educate a managerial profession for a dynamic economy, look not to Milton Friedman for lessons on human behavior, but to Confucius.
See the full content of this document
Extract
Comparing the German and American Systems
Before 1940, two university-level business-education systems emerged in the world: one in the United States, which Khurana covers; another in Germany, which he ignores.7 Both attempted to make business studies a science rather than mere vocational training. But they differed significantly. Haldor Byrkjeflot notes that "the relative 'statelessness' of American society" before World War II accounts for the difference between the American and the German systems.8 Unlike the Germans, Americans had little experience with, or consciousness of, the state as a directing force in society.
Khurana describes how people in American civil society aspired to create a management profession whose ranks would be filled by university business-school graduates who were equipped educationally to serve the interests of both the profession and the nation. The agents behind this project were managers in the new corporate ...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
