Fostering Cross-Functional Skills and Attitudes in Business Administration Students

This study presents the results of a descriptive survey mailed to 660 deans at schools of business in the U.S. to develop answers to the following research questions: (1) What integrative instructional methods are graduate business educators using at U.S. universities and colleges?; (2) What teaching methods are most effective in fostering students' integrative skills and capabilities?; (3) What is the level of difficulty for implementing these methodologies?; and (4) What are the implications for designing faculty reward systems and developing promotion and tenure criteria? Responses were received from 179 deans (27.12% response rate). Findings reveal that other forms of integrating experience are practiced besides the more traditional capstone course. There is a wide spread agreement that inductive teaching methods are more effective in developing integrative skills and attitudes in students. However, these methods are believed to be the most difficult to implement in terms of time and effort. This suggests that adequate incentives must be in place to encourage faculty to adopt these methods. We hope that those schools contemplating revision and pedagogical development of faculty will find the study's findings timely and valuable. (Contains 3 tables.)