Reassessing the Curriculum-Competency Alignment in MBA Programs

Abstract

The paper seeks to assess the alignment between the focus of the MBA curricula and the managerial competencies required on the job, across two different nations: India and USA. The data for the study was gathered by visiting the website of business schools which were ranked on the basis of the placement figures as reported by the surveys done by Wall Street Journal (b-schools in India) and Financial Times (b-schools in USA). The b-schools were grouped into three categories: Top tier b-schools and second tier b-schools from India, and top tier b-schools from USA. The core courses in the MBA programs were identified and coded to fall under distinct competency categories. Data was coded with high intercoder reliability and put through statistical tests to draw conclusions. The study found that there indeed is a misalignment between required course curriculum and managerial competencies across the three groups of business schools, and that there is no difference in the required curricula across different tiers of b-schools. It was also found that no correlation exists between average salary offerings and the required curricula.