The MBA does not have to be an oxymoron
Graduate students often contact us in order to enquire about whether it is worth doing an MBA. Our frequent answer is that we are not able to answer this question as it depends on the person’s aspirations and how they want to use their MBA degree. However, we understand that doing an MBA has now become an ‘oxymoron’. This means that the MBA title itself carries immense ambiguity about its added value and what someone can get out of it.
An oxymoron is defined as a contradiction in its own terms and is used to indicate irony and ambiguity.
This newsletter focuses on how the MBA does not have to be an oxymoron. This is done by elaborating on how the creation of added-value is a very important concept and is largely dependent on your approach and perception.
Some students believe that by having an MBA they will be able to achieve new work opportunities. This might be the case in those corporations where the qualification is really important for applying for a specific job role. In some public administrative departments having an MBA offers you to get that extra tick you need. However, in the majority of cases the process is not so straightforward. People are often seeking to change their career by studying for the MBA. However, such decision can fatally ignore changes within the labour market and how employers are changing in the way they are recruiting. In particular, employers want to have educated workforce.
However, they are aware that qualifications might not directly impact on the quality of the work they are doing. Hence, they are questioning qualifications that only have a title and they are not coupled up with more specific experience and achievements that can support how and why the MBA title can make the difference in the working environment.
The difference between value and added-value
It is important to remember that one of qualities that the employers really value in their employees is their capacity to communicate a perspective that has the potential to spark creativity and positive change. Managers want suggestions and not complaints.
Management and employees alike are too close in fulfilling their day-to-day operations. Policies and procedures often lose their real value and they become part of daily routines. For example, an organization might have a procedure in place for how employees can improve their performance targets. However, after the excitement fades away management and employees realise that procedures just remain so on paper.
A change of human behaviour requires more than writing things in a formal way. It requires engagement and participation that is self-led.
Taking initiative is a good sign of an employee who is motivated. However, the management can become weary of employees that do not have a clear plan for how to make a difference to the work place. This issue brings to the point between a) having information and knowledge and b) achieving a new development state where you put ideas in action.
The Big Problem
The real big problem is that students who want to do an MBA focus on the qualification and its title often ignoring the issue of one’s development of the self.
The capacity to make a difference to the work place is not based on your qualification, but on the creative experience that emerges from your qualifications. Put differently, the information and knowledge you acquire needs to make a difference to your personal development so that you are able to product judgements in a way that you did not do so before.
This means that attention should not just be placed on the method(s) with which you acquire information but on the way with which you are able to enhance your experience it ‘with’ it and ‘through’ it. Thus, the main problem with MBA students who are not realising their potential is not because they do not have the appropriate motives but because they underestimate the impact that their study should have on them as individuals. The reason for which personal development becomes more important than formal education is because one’s behaviour is not the result of predictive actions. Judgements are the mixed result between knowledge and experience which cannot be predicted. Hence, your contribution and impact onto the organization is an experience that depends from your own personal creativity that resulted from engaging yourself with different learning opportunities. It is not dependent on how many qualification titles that you have.
You might be thinking at this point “all this sounds find with me…what do I need to do now?”
We believe that you need to think carefully about how your study experience can be converted into a personal development opportunity where you are not recording information but where you can put this information into good affect.
How can this be done?
It can be done by getting into habit of questioning how and why the information you are receiving can make a difference to the decisions that you and other people make within the working environment.
You can really help yourself by envisaging possible scenarios where you and your colleagues face specific challenges and opportunities. Think about the specific situation at hand and how the information and knowledge that you acquire NOW can be of use.
Unless you get into the habit of thinking along these lines you will not be able to develop the relevant behaviour where you can see how and why your information is applicable to yourself and to others.
MBA Winner and Your Development
We set up MBA Winner with the intention of assisting people to develop themselves supporting them in their completion of assignments. In contrast to the general view, we are bold to believe that yes universities can be greedy institutions. Some of them all they think about is how to maximise their income. In doing so they undermine the quality of the student experience.
We received lots of complaints from students about the lack of ongoing support they were receiving from tutors. Tutors did not have the time and often argued that it was not their responsibility to “give out” what the student should know. Hence, students struggled to understand how to make progress with their work and often feeling unnecessary pressure and frustration with trying to find the right direction.
MBA Winner cannot substitute the learning experience and education someone needs to receive from a formal educational establishment. However, it can make a difference to the quality of the learning experience in those occasions where students are genuinely struggling with their work.
We believe that institutions can be slow to react to student demands and that students can run the risk of jeopardising their studies because of the university tutors and their lack of engagement. Hence, we identify that this is an ongoing issue and we do not blame the university tutors for such outcome. However, our position is that a highly personalised approach that engages with the student on a deeper level can become a steppingstone for enabling the student to make the needed transition. The nature of our newsletters is not designed in order to undermine the students’ individual responsibility for producing the academic work. However, our aim is to fill-in inevitable service gaps that exist in the educational sector and which cannot be bypassed by unfulfilled university claims about ‘student-excellence’.
What Happens Next?
If you have not spent considerable time reflecting on your own experience and how they can be of use within the working environment, then we encourage you to start thinking about it. No matter what type of work experience you had, surely, you dealt with obstacles in your experience. Remember that the value of the MBA is dependent on how much you actually want to put into it and not just want to get out of it. This means, that developing scenarios where you can think about the use and application of concepts is not something that can come from the tutors themselves. If you really want to make a difference in the future and after you receive your MBA start to think about all the issues discussed in this newsletter.
Email us at support@mbawinner.com in order to discuss how we can help you. Alternatively give us a call on the following free number 0330 3112801 and we will be happy to place a specific development plan together. Remember that it is high time that you make the best out of your experience and for advancing your personal career development opportunities.
MBA Winner is the leading MBA Essay Service Provider in the UK www.mbawinner.com support@mbawinner.com
In a nutshell we will help you:
- Identify a suitable research topic appropriate of an MBA assignment or/and dissertation
- Provide you with the relevant academic sources so that you obtain the information you need
- Develop a methodology approach for collecting and analysing primary data
- Structure a well-supported argument that contains strong analysis and discussion and which can adequately tackle a well-defined research question.
