The differences between educators and business managers and their perceptions of educational preparation: An empirical investigation.

摘要

This research project focuses on the opinions of academicians and human resource professionals. The investigation compares perceptions of educators to those of business managers relative to the importance of specific college courses and related topical issues. The project began with a field study to collect information about the types of issues and courses that should be investigated. One hundred and ninety-eight United States businesses were randomly selected from a database maintained by a national Human Resource Management organization. These businesses were large, medium, and small and they were a combination of for-profit and not-for-profit. One hundred and ten colleges were randomly selected from a national database. These were a combination of two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and universities. A self-administered questionnaire was mailed. The overall response rate was approximately 35%. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were used to analyze the data obtained. Measures of central tendency, mode, variability, standard deviation, and ranking were determined to compare and contrast the two populations. Findings indicated that while there is general agreement about the importance of many courses, significant disagreement does occur in several areas. Business managers and educators consistently disagreed on the importance of quantitative and analytical skills and courses. Educators considered statistics, algebra, and calculus to be of higher importance than did their business counterparts. Educators also tended to rate the need to be bilingual and to have courses in international finance, international management, economics, and global marketing higher than did business managers. Conversely, business managers rated business ethics, and people oriented teaming such as sensitivity training and conflict resolution higher than did educators. Business managers also rated items such as change management and leadership styles to be more important. The results would suggest that business managers are more concerned with people skills and strong leadership to cope with the rapid pace of change. The application of the results of this research project may assist educators in rethinking curricula and fine-tuning course topical considerations.