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Vocabulaire d'anglais, leçon n°21 : MBAs – is the class diverse enough ?

Résumé en français : les classes de MBA reflètent de plus en plus aujourd'hui la diversité ethnique, mais pas encore suffisamment la diversité de pensée...

If you were to walk into an MBA class today, you would not see the 1990s image of a class full of male, middle-class and western students. Instead, you would see a wide range of ethnic groups and nationalities, and a large number of women. At the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, 40% of the new intake is female. There is no doubt that the MBA class is becoming more diverse. However, is it this type of diversity that the business world needs, or an entirely different concept of diversity?

The problem is that even if students now come from different backgrounds, they still share common expectations, attitudes and ambitions. And it is this conformity which risks creating future business leaders who are carbon copies of each other. For many, the MBA needs a shake-up.

Valerie Gauthier, associate dean at HEC Paris, believes that the admission for MBAs needs to change if we want more diversity in the business world. Currently, candidates are selected on prior academic and career performance, numeracy and on their ability to analyse and to solve problems. In order to reflect a picture of diversity, sex and ethnic origin can also become influencing factors. However, schools often miss vital information about an applicant: what makes them tick. This would create a class which also contains diversity of approach and attitude, the diversity that is needed in the world of business. Professor Gauthier believes that schools should not just select the ‘usual suspect’ candidates – those who come from banking, consultancy and industry backgrounds. Instead, they should seek out individuals who have experience in political science, the creative arts or history. This will allow them to put business decisions in a wider context. In her opinion, this sort of grounding equips people with an open mind.

Now more than ever, we need more rounded leaders. (It will come as no surprise that applicant numbers were down for MBA programmes in 2009.) A study carried out by Mannaz, a leadership development company, suggests that there is a shift towards less harsh styles of management, at least in Europe and America. The image of the bully chief-executive is not yet a thing of the past, but things are changing. Increasing numbers of large companies are becoming interested in more collaborative management models, such as those that are commonplace in Scandinavia. The aim of these models is to integrate both the hard and soft aspects of leadership, whilst encouraging devolved accountability and responsibility.

For Gauthier, one way of having more rounded leaders is through the GMAT test for international programmes, as the results give the schools an idea of the applicant’s verbal and quantitative skills. There is a drawback, however. The test tells us little about interpersonal skills, adaptability and integrity. The other option is the GRE test, used by Stanford. This rates a candidate’s teamwork, resilience and creativity. It is hoped that the test may encourage the more ‘unusual suspects’ to apply.

By Bex

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