EMBA students can act as catalysts for change at your firm

Which makes answering the ‘What’s in it for me?’ question easy: an MBA gives updated knowledge, new skills, steeper career and salary curve. But increasingly, MBA applicants are having to make a business case to justify why they should do an MBA as their employers regard the true cost of the programme as not only the course fee but also the time out of work.

This means that the business case has to focus on wider value, and answering the ‘What’s in it for us?’ question.

The organisational benefits of doing an MBA are often either taken for granted and not articulated, or simply disregarded. But the MBA is probably one of the most eclectic of qualifications, ranging from facts and numbers to perceptions and feelings, from subjects such as accounting & finance to people and behaviour in organisations.

Students venture into unfamiliar theoretical territories and learn the languages of each of these disciplinary domains. As a result, they grow in confidence and are better able to make informed contributions in discussions with colleagues and people outside the organisation. MBA students find that their new language and knowledge makes them more able to connect and build rapport across the organisation and beyond. This ability to think more holistically and strategically should be a great organisational strength, but of course this all depends.

There can be a range of attitudes and reactions from employers to their MBA students. This can range from pinning their hopes on the MBA as a panacea for success and growth, to a degree of scepticism regarding the motives of the individual; will they leave us?

These can become self-fulfilling prophecies depending on employers’ attitudes to the MBA and their reactions to the skills and knowledge the MBA student brings back into the organisation.

Anyone believing that new knowledge and skills (in other words, change) are welcomed with open arms in organisations should read the analogy of Plato’s Cave in Gareth Morgan’s book Images of Organisation. Business books are replete with seemingly safe references to ‘comfort zones’, ‘disequilibrium’ and ‘continuous change’ but in reality these are experienced in a visceral and emotional way, as well as cerebral.

MBA students change as a result of their experiences, and this can act as a catalyst for change for others around them.

If the organisation has a culture that is resistant to change, then should we be surprised when MBAs move on? However, if there is a genuine culture of continuous change, then the MBA can become the catalyst for an organisational development programme.

I have witnessed theories, concepts, models and tools from change theory applied by MBAs in their own organisations with powerful effects.

So, what’s in it for me? And what’s in it for us? can have the same answer: increased efficiency (doing things right) but more importantly, increased effectiveness (doing the right things).