Building Bridges To Connect The Disconnects: An Analysis Of Business Program Design Processes

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze current trends of design processes and redesign efforts for business programs. A review of the literature suggests business schools are not preparing graduates of their programs with the necessary knowledge, skills and dispositions as deemed appropriate to succeed in the world of work. Some research studies indicate that business schools have lost their relevancy and that there is a significant disconnect between higher education and the corporate world. This study suggests, through examples, that a certain segment of the higher education industry, consisting of the small private independent sector, is on target in preparing their students to succeed not only in the world of work, but also in the world of living. This analysis builds on previous research studies in this area which emphasize the importance of using gap analysis in program design initiatives and extends this work by providing an additional conceptual model for educators to use to ensure that our business programs not only meet the needs of our students, but also exceed employers expectations. This model emphasizes that to meet the constantly changing workforce needs of employers, business professors must build programs that enable each student to achieve the unique combination of industry, disciplinary and cross-disciplinary performance standards (learning outcomes) appropriate to a given sector of the economy through the integration of best practices in life-long learning and continuous quality improvement. To build the bridges that connect the disconnects, business professors and employers must work together to create business programs that effectively prepare the workforce for the 21st Century.

Student learning opportunities in traditional and computer-mediated internships

“…This issue arises because more realistic simulations are more likely to achieve learning outcomes that are comparable to those of traditional internships (Bayerlein, 2015). However, the increasing removal of educators from the work environment into which graduates will enter (Fleming, 2008;Jackson and Chapman, 2012) means that HEPs may not have the capacity to develop authentic workplace simulations without extensive industry assistance (Bayerlein, 2015). As a result, the creation of an authentic workplace simulation, as well as the identification of the skills and knowledge that students should develop within the simulation (de la Harpe and David, 2012), requires extensive interactions between employers and HEPs.…”

“…More recently, the development of skills and knowledge required for students' successful transition from education to the workplace has received growing attention (for example, see: Arum and Roksa, 2011;Rosenberg et al, 2012;Jackson et al, 2014). A subset of this literature argues that students are unlikely to be prepared for contemporary workplace challenges if their degree focuses on the transfer of a finite set of knowledge (Coll and Zegwaard, 2006;Fleming, 2008;Bayerlein, 2015;Jackson et al, 2017). A modification of traditional knowledge focused degree programmes that is thought to address this shortcoming is the integration of internships into the curriculum (Business Industry and Higher Education Collaboration Council, 2007;Knouse and Fontenot, 2008;Burritt et al, 2010).…”

The potential of computer-mediated internships for higher education

“…Degree programs with this focus are unlikely to adequately prepare students for the workplace (Bayerlein, 2015;Coll and Zegwaard, 2006;Fleming, 2008;Jackson et al, 2017), and internship experiences are, regardless of their format, thought to be a suitable way to address this gap (Knouse and Fontenot, 2008).…”

Curriculum innovation in undergraduate accounting degree programmes through “virtual internships”

“…However, the dearth of suitably skilled graduates (Sondergaart and Murthi, 2012) continues to be highlighted by graduate employers as well as the accounting profession. This criticism is likely to be an artefact of the technical focus (Boyce et al, 2012;Gray and Collison, 2002), lack of appropriately contextualised work-experience opportunities (Fleming, 2008;Guile and Griffiths, 2001), and limited soft-skill development opportunities (Fleming, 2008) in traditional accounting degree programmes.…”