Should Schools be Doing More to Curb MBA Student Arrogance? : MBA News

The issue of arrogance and the MBA student is one that persists. Is this common criticism of a stereotypical MBA student justified? Is arrogance a bad trait for future business leaders or can it help drive a company forward?

Writing in the Financial Times this week, Hult International Business School professor, Olaf Groth, says the idea that business leaders should be strongly opinionated and self-assured is a legacy of looking up to role-models from the past – when seizing the now to make big decisions lent itself favorably to these characteristics.

World has changed says Hult International Business School professor

Groth’s argument is that now, the world has changed and this approach is no longer apropos. Today’s emerging business leaders are much less likely to be rewarded for making abrupt decisions when they must consider many more factors in increasingly complex and uncertain settings.

Taking a less domineering and superior stance is of particular importance when working with multiple stakeholders that hail from cultures where humility and respect are engrained into business practice, according to the Hult International Business School professor. In his eyes, business schools must do more to refocus their teaching methods to instill greater levels of diplomacy, tact and patience in the MBA student.

It’s a viewpoint that backs up the results of a report from Hult International Business School into MBA employer needs, with the school’s president saying more should be done to meet current shortfalls; “While much has been written about the need for business education to modernize in the face of 21st century change, not much actual change has occurred.”

Future business leaders suffering from ‘self-entitlement’

The characteristics flagged up by the Hult International Business School professor are among the soft skills we know to be sought by international recruiters from QS’s own research. Indeed, the debate over arrogance itself is nothing new. In 2011, research at Appalachian State University revealed that undergraduate business students scored 16% higher than psychology students on a scale rating narcissism to conclude that, “Our future business leaders appear to be even more self-absorbed and entitled,” than those students of other disciplines.

As to whether arrogance or narcissism has a tangible effect on a company’s fortunes, Alex Frino, dean at Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) in Sydney is currently looking at exactly that. In fact, Frino has already found that the least narcissistic business leaders of Australian companies were delivering greater profits and is now applying his method on an international level.

The problem besetting business schools may indeed, as Professor Groth argues, stem from when an MBA student learns from, and even idolizes, what they see as a winning model. However in as much as a changing world threatens to make this model redundant, it may also be contributing to a person’s sense of self-entitlement. For example, social networking research finding Twitter to be encouraging narcissism among those of college age, highlights that the problem can also be linked to the growth and popularity of 21st century technology.