By Prestegard, Steve
This story begins the Marketplace MBA series, which will take readers each issue through the steps of earning a business-related master's degree.
As recently as 15 years ago, a new college graduate wanting to get a Master of Business Administration degree often would proceed from commencement directly to a postgraduate program.
A second group of people wanting a master's degree in a business- related field would work a few years, and then take master's classes part-time while working and fulfilling other life obligations.
In Northeast Wisconsin, the second group now comprises nearly all of the students in any of the five area business-related master's degree programs. In fact, a 25-year-old holding an MBA diploma and no significant work experience is almost unheard of today. The percentage of full-time master's students at Northeast Wisconsin colleges is in the low single digits.
"The problem was that MBA graduates were overqualified by virtue of their education, but underqualified by virtue of their experience," says Lynn Mozingo, director of operations for the Master of Business Administration program at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
"Work experience between a bachelor's degree and an MBA is critical because it provides context," says Michael Tippins, director of UW-Oshkosh's MBA program. "The concepts become more relevant and more understandable."
Northeast Wisconsin's five business-related master's degree programs all are targeted at people looking to get graduate degrees while in the workforce, either to advance within their own employers, or to get better positions at other employers. In many cases, employers pay for at least part of their employees' tuition to attend master's-level classes.
"Right now, the marketplace is being extra competitive," says Suzanne Lawrence, director of the Master of Science in Management and Organizational Behavior at Silver Lake College in Manitowoc. "So initially, if a person has a bachelor's degree, that's going to set them apart. If you have a master's degree, that's going to set you apart."
"It used to be that the bachelor's degree was the ante for entry- level or middle-level management," says Tippins. "Now everybody has a bachelor's degree and an MBA is becoming more expected for mid- level managers."
"We strongly recommend that a person goes out and works for two or three years before starting an MBA program," says Mozingo. "The reason is, number one, being able to give back to the classroom in terms of your own work experiences, and number two, being able to contribute what you've learned to your company."
People who want to attend a full-time MBA program have three options, none in this area - the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette University in Milwaukee.
The typical student in a business-related master's program looking for career advancement now is around 30 years old, with up to eight years work experience. Mozingo says half of UW-Oshkosh's MBA students have business bachelor's degrees.
"Most are coming from some kind of business background, whether it's educational or in business," says Erin Kohl, director of the Green Bay Center of Lakeland College in Sheboygan. "They're working generally full-time on some kind of management or leadership track in their work, and are trying to fit in some kind of MBA program in their schedule."
MBA programs began in the late 19th century as an effort to bring a scientific approach to business management. Courses covered the state of the art, as it existed at a particular time, in such areas as economics, accounting, finance, marketing, corporate structure and organizational behavior.
UW-Oshkosh's MBA program is accredited by the American Academy of Collegiate Schools of Business, an international accreditation. It also uses a higher percentage of full-time professors and more professors with Ph.D.s than other master's programs in this area, according to Mozingo.
UW-Oshkosh's MBA curriculum was revised in 1995 after changes in the AACSB accreditation process.
"It used to be that any AACSB-accredited MBA program looked like every other AACSB-accredited program; it was that restrictive," says Mozingo. "Instructors keep their courses up to date, so as the Enron stuff happened and the Arthur Andersen stuff happened, that went directly to the classroom."
"Our faculty are practitioners in their field, so every day they're bringing in situations into the classroom," says Kohl. "We consider our program to be applied in nature, so it's really helpful so students can apply that information to their professional lives."
Lakeland's MBA program is an example of its BlendEd approach, in Kohl's words a "student-driven approach to learning," in which students can decide whether to attend classes in person or online.
Master's-degree programs that are not MBA programs tend to be more broad and less quantitative in nature.
"MBA programs are very quantitative in nature - accounting, economics, finance, marketing," says Lawrence. "What we found when we started going into businesses, what they said to us was that MBAs were a dime a dozen. We saw a common theme that was developing, that a lot of employees lacked people skills - poor communication, poor teamwork, a lack of motivation, a lack of enthusiasm for restricting programs. So that's when we decided to develop a program that was people-oriented."
"People that are promoted in silos - finance, marketing, accounting - at some point are promoted to management, and they have to be able to relate to people in other silos; they have to be able to relate to other middle management," says Meir Russ, chair of the Master of Management degree at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
"The main difference is that rather than specializing in a specific program, our program specializes in a broad-brush view," says Tracy Qualmann, director of marketing and admission for the Professional, Adult and Continuing Education Program at Marian University in Fond du Lac. Marian offers a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership and Quality degree. "It's really about developing the leader within."
Marian's OLQ program culminates with a group project, in which team members are paired with an organization, usually a nonprofit, to deal with an issue the organization is facing. "At the end of the program, there's a true application of what was learned throughout," says Qualmann. "It's not some hypothetical situation you're looking at; you're working with a real live organization where you can have some impact."
"We are focusing on the soft side of management," says Russ. "It's two parts - a basic background that every business person should have; we accept people from every undergraduate degree. And then we are focusing on management, innovation, decision-making, etc. - the marketplace and how to relate to customers; how to promote creativity in the workplace."
"Our intention is to teach them something Thursday evening that they can put to work Monday."
With five options in Northeast Wisconsin, and other online options, a prospective student has some decisions to make based on the prospective student's short-term and long-term goals.
"Ultimately, a student has to decide what's best for them," says Lawrence. "If they want to work in the accounting area or in finance, those are areas where people-choose MBA programs. But to succeed in a management position, technical skills are not enough - they have to have people skills."
"A lot of it is the feeling you have from the program or the institution," says Qualmann. "If someone comes to me and says they want an MBA and they're stuck on an MBA, then I don't have what they're looking for. If they're looking for a master's program that delves into several aspects of their organization, then we do have what they're looking for."
A master's degree does not have to be the last degree a business person earns. Lawrence says some master's-degree holders go on to teach, but others go on to doctorate programs. Others go on to other master's programs "because they find they miss being in the classroom. Education is such a privilege."
Source: Marketplace
