As someone with an MBA, let me state the opposing view, especially since the thread is mostly negative on MBA’s.
Managing involves a lot of skills that are not specific to engineering. The view that one can pick up these skills through self study or at seminars is as valid as stating that one can pick up the same skills as a MSc obtains by self study or attending seminars.
Yes both can be done. However as with all self taught subject areas, one would have great gaps in one’s knowledge of all areas.
When I hear this type of discussion going on about if a MBA is equal to a MSc. I often wonder about the basic common sense of the participants. The two degrees are totally different subject areas. They are designed for people with totally different career aspirations. To directly compare the two is to try to compare apples and oranges. If you want vitamin C eat an orange, don’t curse apples for not having enough.
As I have stated in other threads that the real purpose of an education is not to train you to do specific tasks but to train you to think. The specific skills that you learn are incidental to the training of your mind. If you want to be a technical engineer, than take advanced courses in your subject area so that you will think like a senior engineer. If you want to become a manager then take courses in management so that you will think like a manager.
Some of the worst managers that I have met are also some of the best technical engineers I know. The reverse is also true. The ones that are happy have found which role they prefer and are able to stay in this role.
You also have to differentiate between management and leadership. In another thread some described the difference as in traveling through a jungle, management is keeping the machete’s sharp, leadership is picking the direction to travel and motivating everyone to work towards that direction.
Leadership is not well taught in any schools that I know of. Even the military, in my experience, does a poor job of actually transferring leadership skills to its junior officers. Don’t slam MBA’s because they are poor leaders. Their education is geared towards the need to keep the machete’s sharp. Don’t slam MSc’s because they are poor leaders either. The technical engineer may know how to sharpen the machetes, but without true leadership, no one knows which way to go.
Both MBA’s and MSc’s often get caught up in planning to keep the machetes sharp and in how best to sharpen them. They then lose sight of the fact that the team is going in circles and is still lost in the jungle.
Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng
Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
