Why Biz Schools Need Some Conflict
The average manager spends about 18 percent of her working day handling conflict, nearly double from the 1980s, making conflict resolution skills of prime importance. But you would never know that judging by the undergraduate curricula of university business schools.
In the Journal of Education for Business, Matthew Lang of Morgan State University reports on his study of 166 U.S. and European business schools. Among U.S. schools, only 44 of the 97 studied clearly identified conflict management as part of a business course, and of those only 18 had a course dedicated to the subject. Of the 69 non-U.S. schools studied, 14 identified dealing with conflict as part of an undergraduate course; only seven offered a required course.
Lang says universities should better equip the next generation of workers for the reality of organizational life. “Completion of a required conflict resolution course should result in better group and team performance, improving management effectiveness for graduates as they move into organizations abundant in conflict.”
Conflict Management: A Gap in Business Education Curricula, by Matthew Lang, Journal of Education for Business (March/April 2009)
Email me for a copy of this paper: Alan [at] AlanMorantz.com
photo credit: Ariston Collander Photography