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- Title
PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL OBSESSION: AN ENDURING YET SHIFTING RHETORIC BY U.S. BUSINESS SCHOOLS.
- Authors
ÜSDIKEN, BEHLÜL; KIPPING, MATTHIAS; ENGWALL, LARS
- Abstract
Over the past two decades, prompted in part by a series of corporate scandals, different views have been voiced about why U.S. business schools have purportedly lost their original ambition to becomep rofessional schools and, thus, tomakemanagementa "true" profession, and how this ambition could be restored. This paper puts these debates into a longer-termperspective by showing that such claims have been present for more than a century. The paper examines the evolvingrhetoric of the protagonists and their critics over five periods, eachmarked by different contexts, which shaped the ambitions of schools of business to be recognized as professional schools. These claims, the paper shows, had a common thread for over 100 years, which was the recurring reference to other professional schools--namely those of medicine and law, and at times engineering, which had already achieved the coveted status when U.S. business schools first originated. We ultimately argue that, given the rhetorical nature of these claims, suggestions that business schools lost theirwayoroughttoreturntosomeidealizedpastarelargelyfutile. Futurediscussions should therefore focus on purpose and power rather than profession.
- Subjects
PROFESSIONAL schools; BUSINESS schools; MEDICAL laws; RHETORIC; HUMAN voice
- Publication
Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2021, Vol 20, Issue 3, p442
- ISSN
1537-260X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5465/amle.2020.0109