Learning to Manage While Learning About Management: A Transition to a Competency-Based Management Curriculum

Traditional management education may not be preparing undergraduate students for employment as well as it could. Porter and McKibbin (1988) found that (a) employers were seeking hires with better leadership and interpersonal skills than most business school graduates had and (b) businesses were seeking employees who could "hit the ground running." In this article, the authors describe how one institution revised its management curriculum to focus on applied, skill-based knowledge to prepare students for operational, tactical, and strategic levels of management. The authors discuss the current state of management education, the process of revising this institution's curriculum, the new courses, and general guidelines.