The Structure of Management Education in Europe

Transcription

1 C E MP The Creation of European Management Practice A Research Programme Supported by the European Union Executive Committee: Professor Lars Engwall, Sweden (chair), Professor José Luis Alvarez, Spain, Professor Rolv Petter Amdam, Norway, Dr. Matthias Kipping, United Kingdom. Executive Secretary: Dr. Cecilia Pahlberg, Department of Business Studies, Box 513, SE Uppsala, Sweden telephone: ; fax: ; Cecilia.Pahlberg@fek.uu.se Home-page: CEMP REPORT No. 8 October 1999 Revised edition March 2001 The Structure of Management Education in Europe by Haldor Byrkjeflot Norwegian Research Center in Management and Organization, University of Bergen haldor.byrkjeflot@los.uib.no TSER Contract SOE1-CT

2 Abstract The American model for management education, exemplified by Harvard Business School and its European offsprings, is a major point of reference in a process of upheaval in European higher education. The degree of Masters of Business Administration (MBA) is now the fastest growing educational format on a global scale. The ongoing race among the world s education institutions, media outlets, accreditations organization and governments to profit from the spread of this format, is going to have wide-ranging consequences for selection practices to management as well as education systems. The various education institutions still have to relate to national labor markets and adopt strategies for change that are legitimate and popular among students and employers in their local environments. They have to differentiate themselves from foreign and national rivals, while they also copy something from them. The major question asked in the second part of the report is how European business managers have been selected, and how the selection processes are changing along with the increasing strength of global capitalism and the introduction of global education standards. It has been more important in Europe to come from the right kind of social background, than to have a specific career type and education. The prospects for the lower classes to move into managerial positions were better in the United States, where business schools played an important role in the selection of managers, and where such institutions also took part in the development of a management profession. It has now almost become a must for European top managers to have a background from higher education, and more managers are recruited from business schools. There are still important contrasts among the European countries, however, in the processes of selection and cultivation of personnel for management positions. The third part of the report presents some of the structural and philosophical particularities of European management education in comparison with the American tradition. I have attributed the more pivotal and celebrated status of American business schools to the relative "statelessness" of American society as well as to the development of "multiversities" and the associated functionalist philosophy of education. It is those parts of Europe that first developed their own indigenous traditions in business education that show

3 the largest resistance to the American model. The preeminent example is Germany, with their own tradition of business economics. This tradition is also strong in the Nordic countries and the other German-speaking countries, as well as in the Italian universities. The Nordic countries have gradually adopted the American business administration model within an organizational setting based on the German model. The French have adopted some American practices, but keep the focus on pre-experience education. A whole range of institutions that have been set up outside of the universities are now offering the American MBA degree. This trend, that has been particularly important in Italy and Spain, has also been spreading to other parts of Europe. The Netherlands show a dual pattern by adopting both the German and American models within university structures, whereas Great Britain has been a late adopter of the American model.

4 Content 1. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY PATHWAYS TO TOP MANAGEMENT IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES 2.1 Introduction The boom in business education The role of Industrial elites in Europe and the United States Management models Managerial backgrounds and career patterns Implications for the new business schools Social origins of managers Educational levels and social background Educational background Career background of managers EUROPEAN RESPONSES TO THE AMERICAN CHALLENGE IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION 3.1 Introduction Business administration and business economics Structure and content of the American mode Structure and content of the continental European model Historical reasons for contrasts between Europe and USA Relative statelessness The productivist vision The structure of the University Educational philosophies Historical developments and paradigms From practical to scientific perspectives Dual traditions From new look to multiple models The impact of the American and German models Resistance: France and Germany

5 3.5.2 The American model as a challenge to university: Italy and Spain The American model Changes a German model: Netherlands and the Nordic countries Late Adoption of the American Model: Great Britain Conclusion Appendix 1: Acronyms explained and access to further information Appendix 2: Financial Times Top 50 Business Schools Appendix 3: Educational background of top executives in French firms Appendix 4: Educational bakground of top executives in French firms Appendix 5: Milestones in Nordic Business Education Appendix 6: Early establishments in European business education Appendix 7: Early establishments in business education in the United States Appendix 8: Early MBA-providers in Europe Figures 2.1 Number of MBA Programs in Europe Recruitment and promotion practice in Norway and Europe Recruitment and promotion practice in the United States The selection process to a French Management Grandes Êcole Paradigms and models for management education Tables 2.1 Social Origins of business leaders Educational level of managerial class and top managers in Europe

6 2.3 The relation between managers' social background and level of education Educational Background of top managers in Europe in Proportion of top managers with business, engineering, and law degrees Educational Background of Nordic managers in the 1970s Historical development of Educational Background of Nordic managers Job mobility of American and European business leaders Structure and content in American and European business education Models for business education and management knowledge

7 1. Introduction and Summary of Report 1 Teaching the art of management in business schools is an entirely American creation, that has been slow to gain foothold in Europe. Gunnar Eliasson 1997 Now, there are consulting firms providing thought leadership. There are corporate universities. There are distance learning providers sniffing around at the periphery of edu-tainment. Increasingly, B- schools look ill equipped to seize the day. Stuart Crainer October Introduction The two statements above are reflections on the current situation in management education seen from a European and Anglo-American perspective. Eliasson argues that the business school is entirely an American phenomenon. His argument links up with a range of earlier contributions from European scholars and practitioners, attempting to draw a clear line between the European and American tradition in business education. Industry and the public of Great Britain have also historically been critical of business education. There were thus not many business schools in Britain until in the 1980s, when there was a strong growth in programs in Masters of Business Administration (MBA). Since then there has emerged a much more pragmatic view of business schools, reflected by an increase in the range and number of media devoted to the reporting of business and 1 This is a revised version of what was originally report # 8 to the EU project the Creation of European Management Practice (CEMP). See 5

8 financial news. This new trend may be exemplified by the second quote referred above, and the recently published investigation into the "big business" of management education: Gravy Training, written by the U.K.- based journalists Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove (1999). The authors place business schools in a global perspective, arguing for a less fundamental historical split between the European and American traditions. They are so spellbound by the recent rise of the new international business schools and MBA programs in Europe and Britain that they largely end up ignoring the traditional continental traditions of business economics, Grandes Écoles and Handelshochschulen. 2 Or it may be that they are aware of these alternative traditions, but think that it is irrelevant for the future of business schools and elite recruitment in Europe. In contrast to Eliasson and many others, they do not think that it is the American idea of business schools that represent the major challenge to the European ways of educating and cultivating managers. Rather, it is corporate universities and other private providers of executive selection and training services that supposedly will challenge European traditions and provide "thought leadership" in management and business education in the twenty-first century. Sponsored mobility and contest mobility Historically the recruitment of industrial elites in Europe has been "a family business" (Marceau 1989), following a logic of "sponsored mobility", whereas the American system for elite recruitment has been closer to a logic of "contest mobility" (Turner 1960). These ideal-typical concepts were introduced by Ralph Turner to differentiate between a system in which elite recruits are chosen by the existing elite (the British form) and in which elite status was determined in an open competition (this was supposedly the American form). To get access to the elite in a system of sponsored mobility is like getting accepted to a private club; a current member must sponsor you. In a system of contest mobility outsiders also have a chance, and the school system is regarded as the key element in creating such openings for new entrants into the elite. By using the term sponsored mobility to describe the European business systems, I mean to emphasize the fact that it has been 2 For further details about the Handelshochschulen and the Grandes Ècoles (the big schools)see Appendix I, p and p

9 a requirement for those who want to be recruited to top management positions to have a privileged class background and access to the right kind of networks. The institutions and rituals that have been used to select European business elites have to a large extent been based on the idea that leaders are born and have to be cultivated within closed circles. A partial exception from this general pattern, seems to be the French system of Grandes Écoles, due to their strong criteria for selection based on competition taking place in secondary schools and the concours; a nationally competitive exam. 3 European recruitment practices have changed, and the idea of teaching management and using management schools to select elites is now being taken seriously even in many of the most respectable European universities (Oxford, Uppsala, Sorbonne). The Business School phenomenon, and the associated idea that an MBA or an Executive MBA is an appropriate background for someone who wants to reach to the top in industrial management has increasingly gained foothold (also) in continental Europe. The rise of transnational companies and the internationalization of educational programs may represent a threat to the traditional elites that have been more closely associated with family firms and national states. Jean Marceau (1989:183), who studied the role of INSEAD in the creation of an international business elite in the 1980s, has suggested that the international business elite would come from even more restricted background in the future. 4 Similarly, Anne-Catherine Wagner (1998) has studied the social background and lifestyles of those entering international schools in France. She concludes that a new international elite is being created and structured by a specific set of elite institutions and values, and that this social group is likely to strengthen its position with the increasing internationalization of economic activities. Leslie Sklair (2001) has emphasized that this new transnational class has a consumerist and global vision. Many of the most famous and successful executives of the 1990s, such as Rupert Murdoch and Percy Barnevik, are good examples of socalled global visionaries. 3 More about the concours on pages 51 and The students accepted at INSEAD had already been preselected by national elite institutions. Forty European universities provided almost all graduates to INSEAD (Marceau 1989:47). 7

10 The North Americans face some of the same dilemmas associated with globalization of economic and cultural affairs as the Europeans, but things may look different across the Atlantic. American elites have established other kinds of governance structures, are less oriented towards nation-states and more centered on the idea of professional management, both within industry and within research and education. With the possible exception of the French Grandes Écoles and also the alumni associations linked to more recent establishments (such as INSEAD), there has not been developed strong alumni associations in Europe. Educational institutions in Europe, in general, have been more oriented towards filling public sector positions, and there has been less status differentiation and competition among them. The trend towards increased competitions for students, and state withdrawal from funding and regulation of higher education may increase the need for evaluation, accreditation and the introduction of similar kinds of governance structures in European higher education as in the USA. Europeanization or Americanization of Education Systems? An example of the introduction of subject-based evaluation on a European scale is the EQUIS initiative in the area of business and management studies. 5 EQUIS was developed on a voluntary basis by a network of higher education institutions working in cooperation with industry. It is the purpose of EQUIS to serve as an instrument for comparison and benchmarking and promote a shared vision of quality standards among European institutions for business education. A number of leading management schools have already gone through the process and won EQUIS accreditation, and it seems more likely than ever that independent subject-based evaluation across borders is going to have an impact on European higher education (Haug 1999). 5 The European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), is the EFMDs (European Foundation for Management Development) own accreditation system. 41 schools have been accredited by EQUIS as of January , among them 37 of European origin. They compete with other accreditation institutes, such as the International Association for Management (AACSB ) and the Association of MBAs (AMBA) in the United Kingdom (Hedmo 1999). Their world-wide ambition is underscored by the fact that they have now accredited their first school in the United States, and also one in Asia and Africa. See also appendix 1. 8

11 It is not only the new accreditation institutions and the media-initiated rankings of educational institutions that stimulate educational institutions to adopt standardized degrees and similar organizational characteristics. The European education ministers also have contributed to this development by stating their intention to establish a system of easily readable and comparable degrees in order to promote European citizens employability and the international competitiveness of the European higher education system (Bologna declaration 1999). Both the education ministers and the European Found for Management Development (EFMD) see the introduction of the MBA degree and similar short master degrees as a way to enhance internationalization in higher education (Haug 1999). The EFMD-initiated agency of national accrediting bodies (EQUAL) has established guidelines for MBA programs in Europe, and they clearly see it as an important task to distinguish between the MBA degree and other masters programs that are pre-experience and more specialized: The MBA is a postexperience degree seen as a career accelerator or a means to make a career shift after a minimum of 2 or 3 years' professional experience. Programmes designed to help young graduates prepare for their entry into professional life should normally carry an alternative title... The MBA is a generalist degree in business administration. In line with the previous guideline it is a broadening programme. As a result a specialized Master's degree should not be called an MBA (EFMD 2000). As will be documented later in this report, there is now also a Europe-wide trend away from the traditional disciplinary fields of recruitment, from engineering and law to business administration and economics. Globalization and new technologies have created changes in the way business firms are run and organized, and also new career patterns among professionals and managers. Business education programs are oriented towards breeding a new kind of international manager. Executive training and MBA-programs are not any longer oriented towards a small group of privileged individuals, who have been pre-selected by family and peers to walk the managerial ladder. As stated explicitly in the EQUAL guidelines, it 9

12 is also to be used as an opportunity for those who want to be proactive and move into sectors and jobs providing new career opportunities, instead of risking being left behind by changing technologies and markets. Firms use such programs to change organizational cultures and develop new knowledge-based capabilities. A new ideology of "co-management" and "self-management" has been developed. It is an individual's own responsibility to make the right kind of career moves and participate in the management of the firm. More and more people have to engage in managerial training in order to show their willingness to adapt, and demonstrate high career ambitions. It has thus been reported in journals and newspapers like the Economist, Financial Times, and Business Week that there is a strong growth in the market for executive education, and that there are major opportunities for those educational institutions and individuals that want to take advantage of this expanding market. Business journalists and commentators like Crainer and Dearlove, based in the United Kingdom and the USA, may underestimate how the current transformation processes are still influenced by educational systems and business systems in each European country. The linkages between educational systems and labor markets have developed over a long period. Education systems serve as a selection device for talent, and are heavily embedded in larger systems of skills formation and learning. The relationship between business systems, labor markets and educational systems are not likely to change over night. The American Business school and the credentials associated with it, primarily the MBA-degree, has existed for 100 years, and the functional equivalents of these schools and degrees have only been partly developed in some European countries in the post-war era. A Diplom-Kaufmann in Germany, a Siviløkonom in Scandinavia, an Italian Laurea, a Spanish Carrera and a Diplôme at a French Grande École, are all well recognized within each their labor markets. Each of these qualifications are more European than American, and they are embedded in specific business systems and systems for recruitment of business elites, that may not adapt easily to the influx of the new MBA-graduates. There have been developed several networks of European business schools that take it as their task to create a European standard. Others seek to copy the "best" American business schools, but still in a relatively unique European way. Nioche (1992) has argued that there 10

13 may be a "war of degrees" in European management education with two competing standards, a pre-experience European masters degree on the one hand, and a post-experience MBA degree on the other. Initiatives taken by CEMS, the Community of European Management Schools, to establish a European specialized master's degree challenges the prospect of the American MBA becoming the standard in European business education. The CEMS Master's Degree has been developed jointly among 17 universities and some 50 international companies in the 1990s. After four to five years of study the CEMS students graduate with two passports: the CEMS Master's Degree and the graduate degree of the university they belong to. The purpose of CEMS is to promote the qualities of graduates educated in the traditional way wide and seal a strategic alliance between major business schools and leading international companies (Spoun 1998, Noir sur Blanc; Interview with Nicole de Fontaines General Secretary, CEMS). The first students graduated in By the end of the 1990s it was apparent, however, that the CEMS master had not become the same kind of challenge to the MBA as the Airbus had been to the Boeing in the early 1990s, as Nioche (1992:23) hoped for. CEMS was only one among several alternative standards to the MBA. The number of MBA programs provided by European universities and more specialized schools has increased dramatically in the 1990s, but the European MBA programs tend to be shorter and more tailor-made for the executive education market than the American MBA. Ideal-typical models in business education It is possible to distinguish between three ideal-typical constellations of structures and content in business education. Firstly, the American schools of business administration (Wharton, Harvard etc.). Secondly, the European schools of business economics (Cologne, Berlin, Wienna, Stockholm etc.). Thirdly, the international business school (INSEAD, IMD etc.). In the third part of the report I will discuss how the Anglo-Saxon and Continental models for business education differ from each other. Is the international business school a European invention? Is it likely that this model may set the trend for the future development in business education? Since the 1960s more and more European institutions have legitimated their existence by 11

14 building partnerships with American business schools and by developing curricula and strategies based more on the American idea of business administration than European business economics. The major exemplars of such institutions, such as INSEAD and London Business School, are not yet able to match the cream of the crop among American business schools in ranking, social status and international brand recognition. The prospects of this happening in the future should not be ruled out, but it will still be useful to recall some of the reasons why the position of business schools in European societies is weaker than in the United States. American business schools have for decades provided major consulting firms and industrial enterprises with managerial recruits. 6 They have also developed partnerships with other and more intellectually respectable circles within universities, and more recently with consulting firms and practicing managers. It is these partnerships, along with the consistently strong demand for such education from students that underpin the legitimacy and social respectability of business schools in American society. The European counterparts to the American business schools, the Handelshochschulen and the departments of business economics, have been under state regulation, and have not been forced to take such an active role in society, until recently. While American programs are validated by their reputation and accreditation, European educational programs have traditionally been accepted only if they are sanctioned and funded by the national board of education. European universities have been organized in less flexible ways, and they have been less interested in making short-term adjustments to changes in labor markets and industry. With the possible exception of Great Britain, Europeans have accepted a broader role for the state and interest groups than in the United States. It is generally believed that the state and interest groups, particularly labor unions, ought to have a great deal of influence both in the setting of educational standards and in business life. This has left less room for independent industrialists and educational entrepreneurs to play a key role in society. 6 There has been a change, however, from graduates entering industrial firms directly to taking a more indirect route through consulting firms and investment banking (Useem 1996). Crainer and Dearlove (1999: 63) report that consulting firms took one-third of the class of 1994 from Stanford and Wharton and that of 610 MBA graduates from Kellogg in 1996, 42 percent joined consulting firms. 12

15 The various European countries have also developed other ways of understanding leadership and management than the American way. It has been more taken for granted that other groups and personalities ought to take the lead rather than business leaders or "general managers" of the American kind. The idea that management and leadership ought to be professionalized has not been as easily accepted. The fact that European universities and departments of business economics have been more regulated by the state has made it easier for European intellectuals to maintain disciplinary monopolies. Economists and other established scholars have resisted the idea that management and other practical disciplines should be taught in universities. For some European governments, the MBA does not merely represent an American degree but a sample of the American educational system that is difficult to integrate into existing national educational structures. The MBA degree is often thought of as a form of continuing education in Europe, rather than as a masters or graduate degree. Many universities, for example, do not allow MBA students to pursue a Ph.D. until they obtain a Master of Science (Msc) or LicSc in economics. 7 The challenge the Europeans now face is a strong growth in executive training and an invasion of consulting firms and e-learning alliances that offer their services in processes of management selection, training and development (Byrkjeflot 2001). This creates a new transparency around topics that European scholars have been very reluctant to get involved in, and they are still ill prepared to give advice in and discuss such matters. Most Europeans would probably not regret the loss of American business school's ability to provide "thought leadership" reported by Crainer and Dearlove (1999). European business schools or departments of business economics have not been thought of as leaders in this sense. Until quite recently, there have not been many intellectuals or politicians around that have wanted to be associated with such institutions. The American business schools have also had a problem with gaining intellectual respectability. They have not been as respected among students or among academic, cultural and political elites as other disciplines and professional schools, e.g. 7 See Appendix 8 for an overview of early MBA providers in Europe. 13

16 law and medicine. A study of test-takers between showed that the group that intended to go into business administration placed lowest among 20 academic groups in high school rank and verbal SAT score, 17 th in SAT quantitative score, and 19 th in educational aspirations (Adelman 1988:36). Earlier studies have also found that students in business education, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels were close to the lower end in intelligence scores (Wolfle 1954: , Pierson 1969:153). There are now signs that the highest caliber among American business schools are attracting more qualified students and staff and that their standing accordingly is on its way to be improved also among academics and intellectuals. It is a long history behind this recent turn of events, however. The growth in American business education came much earlier than in Europe. A large share of the American business schools have been experiencing the era of "the new look" ( ), which was the period when the idea that business schools could provide "thought leadership" was launched and showed the first sign of being taken seriously. The "new" European business schools and educational programs in management have emerged in a climate that was very different from the era of the "new look". One should think that the idea that consulting firms and corporate universities might be taken seriously as participants in the intellectual and cultural development of a society is even more foreign to the European than the American mentality. There is no strong intellectual tradition for doing business studies within European universities, and it may be the case that there is a greater vacuum to fill. Paradoxically, consulting firms and corporate actors may gain an even stronger position in executive education and selection in Europe than in the United States, partly due to the stronger resistance among European academics against incorporating business studies within the university. Many of the new business schools in Europe are not integrated in universities, and they are not part of a university as it has been defined traditionally, i.e. as a multi-disciplinary and research based institution. For instance, it has been pointed out that most of the 20 private universities that have been established in Germany during the last ten years offer only mainstream subjects, and preeminently among them business administration and business economics (Uni-Spiegel Dec ). 14

17 1.2 Summary of Report. Pathways to top management The focus in the second part of the report is on how European managers traditionally have been selected, educated and cultivated within firms and managerial labor markets. The form management education takes in a given geographical and historical context must be understood in relation to how networks of business elites have been established and maintained and in terms of the knowledge interests and values underpinning existing managerial practices. The predominant selection criteria for prospective managers in Europe have been "sponsored mobility", which means that social class and family background have been more important than type and level of education. Historically, engineers, lawyers and accountants have been more common in the upper ranks of European managerial hierarchies than those educated in business schools or in economics. Engineering schools have historically been particularly important for those who want to get to the top in industrial firms. The engineering predominance has been most significant in continental Europe and in the Scandinavian countries. The French system was the most meritocratic and elitist; it has been a precondition for getting to the top, both in the public sector and in the largest industrial firms, that one had an education from one of the Grandes Écoles, and primarily from ENA (École Nationale d Administration) or one of the engineering schools. The best students from a school like the École Polytechnique first enter state practice and then move on to take the top positions in the largest and most prestigious private firms. Those with lower grades from the Grandes Écoles go directly into managerial positions in less prestigious private firms. It has also been a big advantage in some other countries to have a background from specific elite schools, such as Oxford in Great Britain or Harvard in the United States. It was important for British managers to be cultivated in gentlemanly manners, and it was thus more accepted for them to spend their time in universities studying humanistic and classical subjects. On the other hand, it did not matter as much exactly what school one went to in the Nordic countries, Germany and Italy. 15

18 European responses to the American Challenge Part 3 of the report is a discussion of variations among the European countries in the structure of management education and the way they have responded to the American challenge in business and management education. There are at least four distinctive models of European university business education: The British universities, the Grandes Écoles, the dualistic northwestern university system and the more unitary university system associated with Italy and Spain. The terms unitary and dualistic systems refers to a distinction between systems where most disciplines have been integrated within the university and systems where there has been a higher degree of differentiation between universities and vocationally oriented institutions, such as polytechnics and regional colleges. There is often a status difference attached to the split between colleges and universities, indicating that universities are the most prestigious and provide doctoral degrees, whereas colleges mainly do teaching and are more oriented towards practice. The status differences between vocational colleges and universities, and between vocational and general schooling on the secondary level, have been more important in Europe than in the United States. This is due to the fact that schooling has been more of a class issue in Europe where business elites have used the state as an ally, and forced educators to support vocationalism. Historically, the alliance between middle classes and educators has been stronger in the United States and all major attempts to establish vocational programs in secondary schools and colleges were for this reason defeated (Rubinson 1987). There are however examples of dual systems, where the vocational colleges have developed a strong position also in research and in management, such as is the case with the German technical universities and Fachhochschulen. Historically the independent European business schools have either been based on the German Handelshochschulen tradition (Bergen, Copenhagen, Stockholm) or more directly modeled on American business school, principal among them Harvard Business School (INSEAD, Paris; IESE, Barcelona). There have also been developed new departments for business administration within traditional European universities. The first 16

19 independent business schools were often based on the German tradition, whereas the departments and schools that were established within the universities and after the period of "new look" have developed more affinities with the so-called Carnegie-Tech-tradition. 8 This tradition has been associated with operations research and organization theory. The organization theory tradition has been among the fastest growing disciplines in European social sciences since the 1970s. It has been a plus for this research tradition in a European setting that it has both been used to analyze public and private sector. Then there are also other paradigms more closely associated with other American traditions, such as the strategic and managerial approach observed to important in France in a study of citation practices. 9 The French Grandes Écoles had not developed a strong research tradition and it is therefore not accidental that the more scientific traditions of organization theory and operational research have attracted less attention in France. There are thus both structural and philosophical reasons for the contrasts between the European and American tradition in management education. The more developed status of American management education may be due to the relative "statelessness" of American society as well as to the early development of "multiversities" and the associated functionalist philosophy of education. The American model of business education has to a large extent been associated with Harvard Business School. Other models may also have been influential, however, such as the vocational approach associated with the Wharton school and the more scientific and quantitative tradition associated with Carnegie Tech and Chicago Business school. 8 This refers to the new Graduate School of Industrial Administration (GSIA) that was established at Carnegie Institute of Technology in the early 1950s. Carnegie Tech has been associated with a more scientific program for business studies, organization theory representing the more qualitative part of the program and operational research a more quantitative strategy. Within about five years GSIA came to be regarded as the one of the two or three best business schools in the nation. Herbert Simon, who was one of the founders of the tradition, observed that European universities,.. moving into business education for the first time, generally found the scientism of GSIA a more comfortable model than the unfamiliar case method of the Harvard Business School" (Simon 1996:154). 9 See Engwall (1999) who found that "among the France-based authors, the most common words were strategy, strategic, and management, while the Scandinavian researchers were inclined to use words like accounting, organisation, and organisational". 17

20 European departments for business economics and Handelshochschulen have been more open to adopt the Carnegie tech-tradition, whereas the more practical oriented business class of Britain and the French elite schools have been more happy with the case study approach developed at Harvard Business School. The more scientific traditions within business education, such as operational research, have almost collapsed since the 1970s, due to changes in epistemological climate and increased diversity among knowledge elites. The American tradition of business administration has again been moving in a more practical and humanistic direction, creating stronger opportunities for those environments in Europe that have developed links with Harvard Business School and similar schools. Literature: Adelman, Clifford "To compete or not to compete", Educational Record, Spring 1988 Bologna declaration The European Higher Education Area. Joint declaration of the European Ministers of Education. Convened in Bologna on the 19th of June Byrkjeflot, Haldor E-learning alliances. The new partnerships in business education, LOS-senter Notat N0102. Crainer, Stuart and Des Dearlove Gravy Training. Inside the Business of Business Schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Crainer, Stuart interviewed by Tom Brown Who Needs B-schools? Who Needs Leadership? Management General October. Derossi, Flavia Profile of Italian managers in large firms, in International studies of management & organization. Vol. 4: