Interdisciplinary business education: curriculum through collaboration

Abstract

Purpose -A modern business graduate is expected to have strong disciplinary skills as well as the soft skills of communication and team work. However today's business graduate needs to be more than the traditional "I-shaped" graduate of the past and more of the "T-shaped" graduate employers are looking for. Many undergraduate business degrees profess to offer integration of the curriculum but on investigation this occurs mainly through a capstone subject at the end of the degree. Today's business graduates need a more integrated approach to their learning. This paper aims to outline the transformation of a traditional business curriculum to one that is inter-disciplinary, outlining the necessary steps and conditions including the most challenging -faculty buy in. Design/methodology/approach -The review of the Bachelor of Business degree at University of Technology Sydney (UTS) provided an opportunity to explore the option to embrace an integrated curriculum. The authors outline how the review was shaped, the need for change and the approaches to interdisciplinary business education, and an approach to designing an interdisciplinary curriculum. They also provide two case studies. Findings -Approaches to developing an integrative curriculum can take many forms, but the most effective is one that is embedded throughout an entire degree program. This must start with a cornerstone subject to set the road map for the student's study. This subject needs to demonstrate how each discipline interrelates and how at the end of the degree through a capstone subject, this knowledge is again brought together to deal with more complex issues using the more sophisticated tools studied throughout the degree. There also needs to be a strategy that integrates the various firstyear disciplinary subjects traditionally included in an undergraduate business degree. Originality/value -This paper aims to outline the transformation of a traditional business curriculum to one that is inter-disciplinary and integrated. The outcome of such an approach produces graduates with the inter-disciplinary skills that employers are looking for.

The Integrative Business Experience: Real Choices and Real Consequences Create Real Thinking

“…The Integrative Business Experience (IBE) facilitates critical thinking (e.g., analyzing, applying, and generalizing) by giving students the opportunity to engage in real world business and community service problems. Students are engaged in discipline-based courses, but through the practicum course's project, they construct integrative knowledge that is greater than the sum of its distinctly disciplinary parts (Bajada & Trayler, 2013;Newell, 1998). In the IBE Entrepreneurial Practicum, students engage in a real world business and a community service.…”

The links between competences acquired through interdisciplinary studies and the needs of the labour market

“…Furthermore, Newell (2007) appends that interdisciplinary programmes integrate, but not contrast, whatever they transfer from the disciplines and/or deliberately control this process. Bajada and Trayler (2013) approach this in a simpler way: the content of interdisciplinary study programmes has to be designed on the basis of discipline-based knowledge; however, separate problems analysed within a study programme should not be viewed within the boundaries of a single discipline, but each problem should be simultaneously discussed from the perspective of different disciplines.…”

“…When writing about interdisciplinary studies in higher education, scientists (e.g., Badley, 2009;Bajada and Trayler, 2013;Newell, 1992;Rives-East and Lima, 2013;Wright et al, 2011) usually emphasise the importance of team-teaching for the successful implementation of these studies. Thus, what is team-teaching?…”

Objective: Winning or Learning? A Study of Marketing Simulation Games

“…Prégent, Bernard, & Kozanitis (2012) (p. 1) define a course approach as the organization of course material within the framework of an individualistic program of study where each professor is responsible for preparing and presenting course material to the best of his or her ability. Commonly referred to as the silo approach, this technique turns out traditional I-shaped graduates (Bajada & Trayler, 2013). In contrast, in a program approach "courses are based on a "training project" drawn up and followed collectively and longitudinally by the teaching community with the leaders responsible for the teaching of content in a spirit of continuous collaboration and collegiality" (Prégent, Bernard, & Kozanitis, 2012, p. 1).…”

“…In contrast, in a program approach "courses are based on a "training project" drawn up and followed collectively and longitudinally by the teaching community with the leaders responsible for the teaching of content in a spirit of continuous collaboration and collegiality" (Prégent, Bernard, & Kozanitis, 2012, p. 1). A transdisciplinary perspective such as this is said to generate T-shaped graduates having a more integrated outlook on business processes (Bajada & Trayler, 2013).…”