Harvard Business School Faculty Vote Concludes Leadership and Learning Curriculum Experiment

After more than two and a half years of review and planning, a faculty-wide decision last month brought to conclusion the Harvard Business School's Leadership and Learning initiative, a comprehensive process begun in 1992 to restructure the school's flagship MBA program.

The third in a series of votes to endorse the effort to revamp the MBA program, the faculty voted to proceed to implement a more integrated curriculum. In the 1992-93 school year, there were 13 required courses in the first-year curriculum.

The decision was reached after thorough consideration by faculty members, says Loretto Crane, the school's spokesperson.

"I believe that the vote would not have taken place if the concerns had not been addressed," Crane says. "Reflection about the changes was long enough and thorough enough."

The new structure "will yield a more decentralized program, where there is more accountability for performance, more customization for both faculty and students and a higher degree of choice," according to a written statement.

Two earlier votes adopted a vision statement, guidelines detailing characteristics and capabilities desired of program graduates and a year-round calender.

The vote will lead to the implementation of a Foundations module, consisting of short classes used to establish a set of terminology, skills and perspectives common to all course of the curriculum.

The program will also consist of required courses focusing on managing business operating activities and coordinating the enterprise with its external environment.

Other elements of the proposal include efforts to integrate "Career Development and Continuous Personal Improvement" into the curriculum, an increased emphasis in internationalization of the MBA Program with more global materials and an enhanced relationship between students and faculty, reported the Harbus News, the Business School's student newspaper.

Applications on the Rise

Although the Business School ranked fifth in the last U.S. News and World Report's annual list of top business schools, a drop from its previous third spot, it does not seem to be losing popularity among applicants.

Leadership and Learning's efforts to realign the MBA curriculum to meet new needs may be a force attracting more applicants.

Despite delays resulting from course changes and the decision to introduce a pilot MBA program next January to kick off the year-round calendar, applications in the first two admission rounds for the class of '97 increased 10 percent over last year, the Business School Admissions Office told the Harbus.

Applicants for the first round were left with only six weeks to submit applications after a two-week delay in the publication of application forms in October, the Harbus reported.

"Many people moved mountains to get their applications in on time," Director of MBA Admissions Jill H. Fadule told the Harbus.

The Business School's admissions policy, however, has shifted toward more personal interactions with the school, Fadule says. More than 70 percent of the students enrolled in the class of '96 were interviewed prior to admissions, she says.

"Our current policy is to do much more interviewing," Fadule told the Harbus. "The applicant pool has become very sophisticated and it has become harder to differentiate candidates on the basis of written applications alone."

According to Fadule, first-round applicants were allowed to indicate their preference for either the traditional September program or the January pilot program designed by Leadership and Learning.

Students' preferences, which will not affect admissions decisions, will be used to create next January's class, officials say.

So far, approximately a quarter of students admitted have stated a preference for the pilot program, Fadule told the Harbus.

A Three-Phase Plan

Announced by Dean of the Business School John H. McArthur in spring of 1992, the Leadership and Learning program calls for a de-emphasis of traditional case-based classroom discussion and places special focus on teamwork and field-based learning.

The program is also designed to encourage development of business leaders rather than to "train managers," according to a newsletter.

Leadership and Learning takes place in three stages, officials say.

Phase I involved data gathering and a clear definition of the case for change in the MBA program. It identified key issues to be addressed by the initiative, including diversity, international content, social responsibility and ethics.

Results found many students, faculty, alumni and recruiters concerned about the Business School's inadequate pace to keep up with dynamic changes in management and the economy.

To design proposals and recommendations based on the findings of Phase I, a Core Design Team and Faculty Development Committee led eight task forces in the second phase to produce two reports outlining the MBA program's vision and standards for its participants.

Chaired by Chapman Professor of Business Administration James E. Austin, the Faculty Development Committee also proposed initiatives to attract a distinctive faculty and to enhance its capabilities.

According to a written statement, the designed teams met more than 50 times between March and October of 1993, including a three-day offsite retreat.

Reports drafted by Phase II committees were opened for school-wide discussion with every member of the faculty assigned to a discussion group.

A poll of second-year students conducted by the Harbus revealed an overwhelming proportion endorsing smaller sections, an increased use of technology, tighter integration of courses, trimesters and other main features of the drafted proposals. Most, however, withhold endorsement of a plan to accept younger applicants.

Leadership and Learning entered its third phase last February, with most of last year spent on reviewing proposals for the design of the actual program, according to Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration Carl S. Sloane.

Implementation

To officially implement Leadership and Learning, the faculty last February approved both a statement of vision and a set of specifications and criteria used to administer the direction of the restructuring, including "Values and Qualities," "Skills" and "Knowledge."

Last October, the faculty also voted to implement a new year-long calendar consisting of three 15-week trimesters during a 12-month period.

Though the program in its final form will consist of multiple matriculation and program completion dates, it will be phased in over at least three years, officials say.

According to a written statement, more than two thirds of the school's faculty members have been directly engaged in Leadership and Learning since its launch. The faculty is currently concentrating on detailed planning and experimentation of the integrated curriculum proposals.

The final faculty vote is just the beginning of the challenge of integrating Leadership and Learning into the existent MBA program, says Professor of Business Administration James I. Cash in a written statement.

"Consistent with our commitment to continuous institutional renewal, there will be no flash-cut to a new program," says Cash, who is also chairs the MBA program. "Instead, we will be experimenting with new ideas, testing new approaches, and applying what we learn."