Volume 16, Number 1 Article by Fran Siemensma March, 2004
Values and the MBA: The Implications of Gender :
Current political and global pressures make it essential to rediscover perspectives which promote justice, equity and inclusiveness. Given the MBA's brief to produce effective managers, it is appropriate to examine the style which such people are expected to acquire. A research project was undertaken to examine the values which students and staff brought to and derived from their experience of the MBA. This article discusses the gender angle of the research. The analysis is based on individual and group interviews with staff and both local and international students involved in the programme in Australia, as well as perceptions from MBA students in India. Gender concerns expressed by local and international MBA students in Australia are contrasted with those of students in India. Drawing on techniques used in ethnography, group and individual interviews were recorded and transcribed between 1995 and 1997. These interviews provided varying, sometimes conflicting, perspectives on gender.
The central areas of enquiry were how women and men saw themselves as MBA students, teachers and leaders, and how systems of organisational management - affecting both personal identity and society - were promoted through the MBA programmes. Themes taken from feminist theory were used to examine the MBA from three distinct perspectives: the normative concepts (often implicit) associated with the programme; the role of women within the MBA and within management more generally; and the leadership roles implicitly associated with the MBA programme to see whether a culturally constructed 'masculine' label was applicable within the MBA. Both students and staff provided insight into issues as diverse as how the university was structured and controlled, the power of men and women in both work and family relations and, finally, management style. The constraints associated with addressing gender resulted in this paper largely reflecting those who expressed clear opinions about it.
The MBA was seen to be gendered. Analysis of the various perspectives indicates that new approaches to leadership which recognise the influence of gender are desirable, and can assist business and society to become more flexible and more cooperative.
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