Business Management Profession
A profession is defined as one that contains all of the following elements:
* Requiring a generally accepted body of knowledge. This element is established through APBM’s Common Body of Knowledge for Business (CBKB) for the Certified Business Manager (CBM) Designation. Click here to review the CBKB.
* Requiring long and intense academic preparation. This element is established through CBM Certification.
* Taking an independent and rigorous testing and demonstrating knowledge through certification. This element is established through the CBM Exams administered by an independent computer-based testing partner, Pearson VUE. Click here to review the CBM Exam Testing Procedures.
* Requiring continuing education for life. This element is established through CBM recertification requirements. Click here to review the continuing education and recertification policies.
* Conforming to ethical standards with a mechanism for enforcement. This element is established through APBM’s Code of Professional Ethics, which will lead to either retention or revocation of CBM certificate. Click here to review the Code of Professional Ethics.
* Requiring the whole body of persons engaged in a calling. This element is established with the CBM Designation targeted at business managers worldwide.
A professional is an individual working in a framework of a profession with all the elements of a profession, and engaging in a principal calling or employment. A profession is first established through certification and later licensed or regulated as needed. Certification involves self-regulation whereas licensing involves government regulation.
In this regard, APBM’s mission is to make business management a profession, similar to law, accounting, medicine, and engineering. The CBM Exam is to a business manager, as the Bar Exam is to a lawyer, as the CPA Exam is to an accountant, as the Board Exam is to a doctor, and as the PE Exam is to an engineer.
At present, business management is not established as a profession because it does not contain all of the elements of a profession. At the same time, business managers, whether they have a MBA degree or other education, are not professionals since they do not work in a framework of a profession. A person with a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) does not make him a professional because the MBA degree by itself does not act as a formal entry point into the business management profession although it became a de facto requirement.
Specifically, the MBA degree does not have a generally accepted body of knowledge since each school’s curriculum is different. The MBA is an academic degree, not a professional certification involving a standardized testing. Once an individual graduates with an MBA degree, there is no requirement for Continuing Education in order to keep his knowledge current. Also, there is no prescribed Code of Ethics or ethical standards to which all MBAs adhere, and no standard enforcement mechanism exists. For example, if an MBA is involved in an unethical situation, his degree is not revoked. Therefore, the MBA degree does not provide an exit point since it does not enforce Continuing Education requirements and compliance with Code of Ethics.
Other fields such as law, medicine, accounting, and engineering contain all of the above elements of a profession and have a clear entry point and exit point into and out of the profession. They all have a Code of Ethics and mandatory continuing education.
