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Technology and Globalization: A Critical Teaching and Learning Initiative for Business and the MBA
Abstract
The “common body of knowledge” which widely characterizes curricula of Schools and Colleges of Business today dates back to the 1930s—a functional grouping of courses attempting to mirror the major functions of the enterprise: finance, operations, marketing, accounting. Coupled with the obligatory Organizational Behavior and Strategy courses, these subject areas remain the focus of MBA programs across the country today (Kurhana et al, 2005). Even a casual review of other professional curricula (medicine, law, for example) suggests that maintaining the same theoretical perspective for almost 80 years would be a dereliction. Changes in medical and surgical practices, revolutionary court decisions and precedents—no patient or legal client would accept professional services from an individual whose understanding of his or her profession dated back 80 years! No medical or law school would take pride in offering such a program of study. Similarly, few business leaders would agree that the practices (and indeed, the very functions) of business are the same as they were in 1930. Occasionally, an institution has the insight to identify emergent areas which—though outside the traditional functional areas—have an impact so profound as to demand curricular attention. In that light, the E. Phillip Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology, having adopted a mission statement focused on globalization and technology, invited the authors to develop an innovative (and collaborative) seminar titled “Technology and Globalization.” At RIT, the seminar is offered in a team-based, fully integrated, action-learning approach. This means that faculty serve as designers and developers of the learners’ experience and the students learn through active engagement with a series of progressively more complex projects or problems.
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