Back to School Time – MBA, MPA, MANM, Whatever
A couple of weeks ago The Financial Times posted an online article, MBAs lift non-profit sector, which sings the praises of MBA degrees for those seeking leadership roles at nonprofits. The article portrays those with MBAs as possessors of a set of skills and abilities that have been unavailable to nonprofits. The FT article and similar postings over the past few months have generated a variety of responses, both from fans of MBAs and from contrarians. There’s the “nonprofits need to be more business-like” school of thought, and then there’s the “but we’re really different” argument. At the PhilanTopic blog, Tracy Kaufman posted What’s so great about an MBA? with a skeptical view of MBAs. She hits it exactly right, I think, with this comment, “But to suggest that what nonprofits really need to be effective is a couple of MBAs and more business discipline strikes this nonprofit employee as, well…beside the point.”
Exactly. It is beside the point what degrees the leaders or staff have. It’s the skills and knowledge that matter, and the ability to use those skills, knowledge, experience, etc. to effectively impact the community. It’s worth considering why this needs to be a debate at all. Is this an example of a chip on the shoulders of the nonprofit sector?
The best hope for the next era of leadership depends, I think, on flexible, adaptable, and smart people of all stripes. The Future Leaders in Philanthropy blog has a nice post that describes the benefits of, and distinctions between, MBA and MPA degrees. My advice is that (1) graduate degrees are great for learning, opening your mind to new and emerging ideas, and working collaboratively with different people; (2) any professional degree program with rigor will be a good experience; and (3) you should pursue the degree program that sounds like it will get you where you want to be.
Disclaimer: After two decades in a for-profit business, I spend my days helping nonprofit organizations navigate the most business-like aspects of their organizations – the finances. I’m pretty good at it. I do not have an MBA.
I agree 100% that the “next era of leadership depends…on flexible, adaptable, and smart people of all stripes” and that many degrees can get you there. What I find troubling about the belief in a more ‘business-like’ approach is that it presumes the most challenging forces confronting nonprofits are about internal operational capacity. My research and those of many others suggest that while these elements are important, the policy environment — what it offers, how it creates opportunities and constraints, the networks of resources organizations can draw upon, the amount of political power — is very deterministic of nonprofit organizational operation and effectiveness. Nonprofits have many different public accountabilities which private industry does not have to deal with. Some graduate programs (those in public affairs, public policy, public administration) help you understand, analyze, and hopefully develop ‘flexible, adaptable, and smart’ responses to such problems. Most business schools won’t.
Jodi Sandfort (Associate Professor of Public Affairs, U of Minnesota).
Comment by Jodi Sandfort — August 13, 2008 @ 10:12 am
Jodi -
Thanks for the post. I agree that nonprofit leaders have to employ strategies and approaches that are not generally required in business. Graduate programs that include analysis, research, and understanding of public policy and collaboration offer a type of learning not found in business schools. I must defend my business brethren, though, in that business leadership is not just internal operations. Business strategy and understanding of markets is more like nonprofit strategic thinking that you may think.
Comment by Kate Barr — August 14, 2008 @ 7:40 pm