The balancing act: A study of academic and professional influences at the Branche School of Management.

摘要

Business schools, as professional schools in higher education, are influenced by both the academic community and the business world. Each group influences business schools in different, and sometimes competing, ways. Maintaining an appropriate balance between these two influences is something that a former University of Chicago business school dean Sidney Davidson, named his most challenging leadership task (Cheit, 1985, p. 53). This study examines how one business school--the Branche School of Management at Lindsey University--works to balance these competing influences.;This qualitative case study is shaped by the following questions: "How do administrators and faculty members at the Branche School identify and respond to influences from the academy and the business profession?" and, "How does the Branche School, as an institution, address any differences between those influences?".;This account of the Branche School comes from research conducted between the Spring of 1994 and the Fall of 1995. Data collection included both document review and semi-structured interviews with 39 members of the Branche School and Lindsey University.;The study's findings indicate that, as it works to become more in tune with the business world, the Branche School does so in ways that will not jeopardize its academic respectability. The result of this "balance" is a complex mix of responses that speaks to both the pressures of a changing environment and the pull of strong university norms.;Four activities--faculty research, faculty teaching, the MBA program, and external relations--illustrate the interplay of academic and professional influences at the Branche School. Overall, there is more opportunity for faculty members to be more responsive to the business world in teaching than in research at the Branche School. In its MBA program, faculty members' efforts to simultaneously address academic and professional influences result in a revised program that is both academically sound and professionally relevant. Through external relations, the Branche School administrators execute a carefully orchestrated strategy that increases attention and support from the business profession, but carefully controls the extent of its influence on core aspects of the Branche School.