Why Standardize Management Education?

 

The purpose of standardization is to compare things or people with a known standard. Regarding education, standardization ensures consistency and comparability of knowledge in terms of its quality and content and ensures objective measurement and positive evaluation of knowledge. Participants subjected to the standardization process conform to a known standard that is widely recognized as acceptable and usable.

 

 

The landscape of business management education especially for graduate programs (e.g., MBA) varies greatly, thus causing an inconsistent environment. Factors contributing to the variability include:

(1) proliferation of business schools and degrees with different reputation levels,

(2) different curriculum formats with uneven content and quality,

(3) educators focusing more on research (theory) and less on profession (practice),

(4) educators having work experience more in the classroom and less in the real world,

(5) variety of admissions standards, teaching methods, and learning outcomes, and

(6) number of degree formats and specialized programs with different timelines for completion.

 

The variability creates many uncommon denominators in management education. Currently, graduate business education is inconsistent in scope, size, quality, and content thus making it very difficult to compare and contrast between business schools and educational programs they offer.

 

Standardization becomes more important when things are in a constant state of flux or where one person’s knowledge cannot be compared with that of another because of very few common denominators. Until now, employers and recruiters had no objective method of evaluating and differentiating job applicants. A common base of knowledge with one common denominator is clearly defined, accepted, and used in other notable professions such as law, medicine, engineering, and accounting. The Certified Business Manager (CBM) credential, which is a masters-level professional certification, establishes knowledge standards and core management competencies in business management, thus providing one common denominator targeted at the business practitioners. The CBM Exam is a standardized exam based on a practical and usable common base of knowledge called the Common Body of Knowledge for Business (CBKB). The CBKB was developed after analyzing several MBA program syllabuses and job analysis of many practitioners in the business field worldwide. Today, employers and recruiters can feel confident and comfortable in knowing that job applicants with the CBM Credential, with or without an MBA degree, have a common base of knowledge and general management skills that are verified, tested, and validated by an independent organization that is separate from the business school they attended.

 

The CBM Credential enhances the value of business management education, with or without an MBA, and makes the business management a true profession similar to law, medicine, engineering, and accounting.