American High School Students Are Having Difficulty Competing

According to a 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Americans are slipping in readiness. Math is on the decline and they are not doing much better in reading or science. The trend is concerning as American students are not preparing to take over highly skilled, technologically advanced and scientific oriented positions in an increasingly difficult and complex world. As intellectual capital declines so does a nations future opportunities.

 Americans dropped to the 26^th slot in math, 21^st slot in science, and the 17^th slot in reading.  The report indicates that nearly 15% of the variance in U.S. students is due to socio-economic issues that include motivation and interest. Students in the country simply view math and hard science as difficult or uninteresting. They do not choose these fields as their occupational approach.

Asian countries are on the rise. China appears to be doing well. Even though American students have not slipped much they have stayed relatively the same despite the increase in scores of other countries. This means their overall performance has stagnated and could possibly start to decline at some point in the future. Asian countries appear to be picking up the pace and moving ahead.

Some should find the report results frightening and start looking toward the root causes. They are deeper than simply “lazy students” but move into a range of topics that include family, beliefs, internal/external motivation, educational approaches, innovation, leadership, income, and many others. Similar reports on high school education indicate the system isn’t working well for the low performing students or the highest capability students. It functions in part for a percentage of those in the average categories.

Solutions are not as simple as people think but may have something to do with how Americans view themselves and their need to focus again on growing a country with basic root value systems that fosters personal and professional growth.  This is an everyone is invited type of approach regardless of their racial, religious, ethnic, or language background. Perhaps our biggest failure is the failure to free our minds to the possibilities of a brighter tomorrow?

Report

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Developing Moral Character in Business Education

Businesses have a crisis in leadership that has been brewing over a few decades. A paper by Crossman, et. al. (2013) delves into the need to develop character and values in business education in order to provide future leaders guidelines for appropriate behavior. From ethical crisis ranging from Lehman Brothers to Enron the business community has important functions in society that also include setting a standard of behavior. 

According to the authors there has been movement on the ethical side of educating business students since major scandals have damaged the country. Yet the movement has not delved deep enough into how students learn about ethics and develop character.  To help them identify what their values are it helps in identifying their moral compass through difficult situations. 

According to (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) an analysis of cultures, religion, moral philosophers and others have revealed some universal values:

Wisdom: The cognitive ability to be creative, love of learning, judgment, curiosity, and perspective.

Courage: Emotional strengths to accomplish goals in the face of resistance that include bravery, perseverance, honesty and zest.

Humanity: The interpersonal skills that include love, kindness and social intelligence.

Justice: Community strengths that strengthen society through teamwork, fairness, and leadership.

Temperance: The skills to avoid excess through forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation.

Transcendence: The strengths that connect to a larger universe that includes appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality.

Certain teaching methods have formed successful values through moral awareness. These include role-playing, collaborative learning, self-reflection, and service learning (Comer & Vega, 2008).  It is through the fostering of a greater understanding of society, working with others, and understanding the self that moral fiber is flexed and grown.

Character is something that is in our core, based within deep seated values. As difficult situations become apparent there is a blending of the situation with our personal values. It is also believed that situations often override character in most cases unless there are clear values that are being violated. That is assuming the person made the distinction. In situations where strong values have developed, character may supersede the situation itself.

There will always be those beyond the reach of ethical decision making. Business students who feel that earning the most money regardless of costs on others or those in excessive need of social approval that always follow the pack are likely to have an ethical malfunction in difficult situations. Despite this, there are others, with proper character training can overcome multiple pressures. To teach the standard sets the expectations for students to reach and may become relevant in their careers.

The authors argue that teaching ethics and moral character in a class is beneficial. It helps students understand moral dilemmas and learn how to reflect on the issues. A greater solidification of the student’s values can help them draw upon those values when the time is needed.

The report brings forward some important concepts. A class on ethics and moral reasoning is beneficial for moral development but is limited. Infusion throughout courses would appear to be the best approach as it becomes laced with other concepts within memory. When moral dilemmas arise and people seek answers they often look for examples and being able to find these important examples through multiple pathways furthers the potential draw and ethical conclusion. The values taught should be universal to cultures, religions and peoples to make them most applicable whereby students can build off the basics in any way they see fit to create personalization of character.

Crossman, M. et. al. (2013). Developing leadership character in business programs. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12 (2). 

Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. 2004. The VIA Classification of Character Strengths. Retrieved from http://www.viacharacter.org/www/en-us/viainstitute/classification.aspx

Comer, D. R., & Vega, G. 2008. Using the PET assessment instrument to help students identify factors that could impede moral behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 77: 129–145.

Is the Ph.D. or DBA more Aligned to Current Business Needs?

Are professional or traditional doctorates more significant in today’s economy? A paper by Banerjee and Morley reviewed the growing trend of professional doctorates and the possibility that they are more aligned to the executive needs of running modern companies. A professional doctorate is more focused on applied type research based within real world business scenarios. Traditional Ph.D.’s are primarily focused on theoretical underpinnings and are more concerned with a broader theoretical base.  Should one earn a DBA or a Ph.D. in business?

Some have argued that the professional doctorate is superior because it focuses more closely on workplace issues and uses theory in a practical and applicable manner.  The traditional Ph.D. is seen as an academic degree most applicable for teaching and academic research. Fundamentally, the two degrees are perceived as having two different purposes with the professional doctorate more in align with corporate needs. 

It is believed that universities face increasing pressure to provide knowledge management skills as offered in a doctorate program. It is believed that PhDs have a greater focus on theory to enhance business school prestige but are not focused on solving practical problems. Thus, an industry-academic divide has been created and the professional doctorate balances the need of turning theory into strategic practice. 

DBAs have the capacity to draw from a wide range of knowledge and use that knowledge to focus on the issues that are currently important in the marketplace. The professional doctorate pushes academia to be more relevant to modern business problems and in turn creates additional support for doctoral education. 

The key to any successful doctorate program is to the ability to use past knowledge and theoretical understandings to create a process whereby the information is blended with professional knowledge to solve practical problems. As graduates develop the research skills they can continue to use knowledge, theory, experience, and professional skills to develop problem solving frameworks. It is seen as a degree of empowered knowledge. 

Even though the paper doesn’t specifically state this concept there are fundamental differences between a Ph.D. and a DBA. The Ph.D. generates theoretical knowledge that creates a deeper underpinning to practical knowledge but is relatively removed from solving direct problems. The DBA is a reflective practitioner that generates knowledge that is more closely associated to a current problem at hand and can be implemented without major processing. It is the difference between asking “What if?” and “How to?”.  The Ph.D. creates the scholar and the DBA creates the scholar-manager.

The process of earning a DBA includes the research, writing, and defending of a dissertation that helps to enhance the analytic, rhetorical, and critical thinking abilities of the graduate. In addition, the training provides an opportunity to learn new writing styles and how to use analytical methods to further ones understanding of day-to-day business practices. Statistics and analytical analysis helps to ensure accuracy of the research in order to push for more relevant results.

One can conclude that a Ph.D. and DBA have two fundamentally different outcomes with one focused primarily on theory and the other on the practical application of that theory. Both share a level of similarity in education and methodology. Even though the report does not indicate this concept, it would seem that the increased need for the practicality of the DBA and the growth of online education show a similar trend. As the majority of online students work for a living, and may already be focused on maintaining their careers, the DBA would be most aligned with their needs as well as the needs of their employers.

Banerjee, S. & Morley, C. (2013). Professional doctorates in management: toward a practice-based approach to doctoral education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12 (2).

Online MBA's Mirror Global Business Needs

A paper by Jonathan Hochberg discussed the nature of online and hybrid MBA classes (2006). As technology becomes more advanced a higher percentage of executives are opting for online based classes due to their need for flexibility and non-location specific learning. The trend upwards in online MBA attendance is increasing as students opt for colleges that offer worker flexibility. 

The paper also indicates that more students are choosing to go to school part-time as they cannot afford to financially leave their jobs while trying to obtain an advanced degree. Their choices are based in either fully online or in hybrid programs. Each has their own particular benefits and detractors but are preferred as two options over traditional educational systems. 

The two models are seen as familiar to executives and working adults as well as beneficial for enhancing skills. The hybrid and online systems are more relevant in a globalizing economy whereby virtual project teams and occasional face-to-face meetings are more likely in multi-national firms. Online education is seen as an enhancement to these needed virtual communication skills. 

Ethics is seen as more important in online educational which emphases avoiding plagiarism and developing original creative work. Ethics in global networks and business helps to ensure that there is a level of trust between the varying workplace entities that may not socialize or relate to each other on a daily basis. Likewise, cross cultural and cross border business with different laws requires basic ethical standards. 

As citizens of developing countries seek access to higher education opportunities and working executives desire to update their skills they will need to balance the needs of their employers with their desire to obtain an advanced degree. New technology, lowering trade restrictions, and virtual communications are likely to continue encouraging the growth of online MBA programs. 

Hochberg, J. (2006). Online mba programs: emulating global business. Distance Education Report, 10 (2).