Recalling executive MBA degrees unfair

A past graduation ceremony at Embu University. PHOTO: FILE

When I read in the pages of this esteemed paper that the Executive Master of Business Administration degree programme (as opposed to the regular MBA degree) could be recalled, I remembered Shakespearean literature from my high school days.

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is a frequently referenced part of William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet seems to argue that it does not matter that Romeo is from her rival’s house of Montague, that is, that he is named “Montague.”

So what is in a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA)?

Let us start by looking at the history of the MBA degree.

The degree is said to have originated in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, US, in 1881. This is when the country industrialised and companies sought scientific approaches to management.

Given the different departments in industry headed by different specialties, it made sense that any holder of any bachelor’s degree would be accepted into an MBA course.

The clear message here is that industry requires scientific management. No wonder the Kenya Government found it necessary to declare that nobody can be a vice or deputy vice chancellor in a public university without an MBA.

Consequently all VCs and DVCs in public Kenyan universities hold either an MBA or an EMBA.

The MBA is today an internationally-recognised degree designed to develop the skills required for careers in business and management and whose value is not limited strictly to the business world.

An MBA is also useful for anyone pursuing a managerial career in the public sector, Government and other areas.
The general entry requirement for an MBA is a first degree in any discipline.

The target group for the MBA programme is students looking forward to future careers in management.

With time, however, the need arose to introduce an Executive MBA to cater for managers who were already in industry.

Thus in 1943, the first EMBA programme for working professionals was introduced at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

Different levels of management have different needs and an EMBA is usually targeted at older, more experienced professionals wanting to enhance their proficiency in functional management as well as their management skills.

The pioneering EMBA programme focused on business but over time, other areas were introduced.

Thus there is, for instance, an Executive Master of Business Administration in healthcare, which focuses on building business expertise while also instilling specific healthcare knowledge essential to development as an executive leader in healthcare.

It is clear that the key differences between the MBA and EMBA lie in the entry and exit requirements, the target groups, the content and the process.

An MBA is more general in nature and strives to prepare business associates for executive level management positions and also for further studies.

An EMBA on the other hand is designed specifically for experienced managers (but it is not necessarily a watered down version of an MBA).

Since EMBA students are typically already in executive level positions, there are no extended introductory courses.

The general objective of an EMBA programme is therefore to meet the educational needs of mid-to-senior level managers and enable them to broaden their business perspective and sharpen their managerial and leadership skills.

Globally, the average age of EMBA students ranges from 32 to 38 years old.

An Executive MBA programme may be a lot like a regular MBA programme, only that it is designed to educate working executives, managers, entrepreneurs and other business leaders.

The EMBA content and methods of delivery are tailored for people with experience.

The robust EMBA curriculum is accelerated, interactive and peer-oriented. It is by and large devoid of robust theoretical underpinnings.

However, because the EMBA is strictly focused and devoid of generalities, and because it has deficiencies in theoretical underpinnings, it is therefore terminal.

This means a holder of an EMBA cannot use it for further studies, for instance, for entry into a PhD programme.

Such a person may also not be well qualified to be a lecturer, but could make a very good guest speaker during lessons.

My bone of contention then would be: if someone obtained an Executive Master of Business Administration degree properly and is practising it in industry, does it make any sense to recall it?

And who should be held accountable for the present state of affairs? Is it the Commission for University Education that approved the curriculum, the lecturers (and I am one of them) who taught it, and set and marked the examination, or the university senate that awarded the degree?

Should it be only the grass to suffer?