Part-time MBA education in Japan Tadao Kagono Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan Part-time MBA education in Japan 53 Introduction The year 1989 was a memorable year for MBA education in Japan. In that year MBA education was inaugurated by two national universities, Kobe and Tsukuba, both offering a two-year part-time programme taught in the evening. In the same year Aoyama Gakuin University, in the private sector, initiated an evening MBA programme. Kansei Gakuin and Hosei Universities in the private sector and a number of national universities followed the example of these universities and opened their hitherto academic graduate schools for the education of people in work. These events add up to quite a significant change given that the only MBA education in Japan had been a two-year full-time course at the pioneering Keio Business School[1]. There were several reasons for the low level of interest in MBA education in Japan. The most significant of these was the method of human resources development preferred by Japanese companies. Graduates with first degrees have been recruited directly from universities on graduation, and then developed in-company through on-the-job training. The demand for management training of their employees, through an MBA programme, has not existed to any appreciative degree. This does not mean, however, that external management education programmes have not been available. Organizations such as the Japan Productivity Centre (JPC) and the Japan Management Association (JMA) did offer part-time programmes for management development for people in employment but these were not accredited degree programmes. The majority of universities in Japan had not offered MBA programmes because the main aim of management education at a postgraduate level had been the development of academics and researchers[2]. In this paper, the current state of MBA education in Japan is examined through the experience of the Graduate School of Business Administration at Kobe University and the research the Graduate School carried out[3-5]. The demand for MBA education in Japan It is difficult to get a clear-cut answer to the question of whether there is a demand for MBA education within Japan. Principally this is because a demand in the market does not manifest itself until there is a supply to meet the demand. Within Japan, the provision of MBA programmes is small and consequently the demand for them is limited. Journal of Management Development, Vol. 15 No. 8, 1996, pp. 53-64. MCB University Press, 0262-1711
Journal of Management Development 15,8 54 A key to assessing the future of MBA education in Japan is the level of the Japanese demand for overseas MBA programmes. Many large Japanese companies have regularly been sending their future managers on overseas MBA programmes, particularly to those in the USA[6,7]. Also there are many individuals who go abroad to receive MBA education at their own expense. Thus the Japanese account for as much as five per cent of the total student numbers in the top American business schools[6]. According to a survey carried out by Kobe University in the companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1988, 96 of the 284 responding companies (33.8 per cent) had the experience of sending their employees on overseas MBA programmes[3] and of these 96 companies 54 were planning to expand the scheme. A further 90 companies out of the 284 with no experience said they were planning to send their employees in the near future. The average annual number of employees sent so far varied with companies (effective answers = 86)[8]: thirty companies sent fewer than one employee a year; twenty-four companies between one and two employees; twenty companies between two and five employees; eleven companies five or more employees; one company regularly sent 30 employees on average each year. These factors may indicate an existing demand for MBA education in Japan. However, the meaning of these figures requires careful interpretation. The aims of a company in sending their employees to overseas MBA programmes may reveal some of the meaning behind the figures. The same Kobe University survey (1989) reveals the main aims of 91 companies in sending their employees to overseas MBA programmes, as shown in Table I. Almost 70 per cent of the respondents placed improvement in international awareness and gaining ability for business judgement as their top priorities, followed somewhat behind in third place but still well ahead of the rest, by gaining specialist knowledge. The 91 firms were asked to evaluate the degree of the effect the MBA study has had on the employees sent abroad, on each of the items in Table I. The degree of effect was divided into: large, medium and small. Table II shows the responses of companies which note a large effect (multiple answers). Number Percentage Table I. Aims in sending employees to overseas MBA programmes Improvement in international awareness 35 38.5 Gaining ability for business judgement 28 30.8 Gaining specialist knowledge 16 17.5 Formation of personal network 7 7.7 Improvement in language ability 3 3.3 Others 2 2.2 Total 91 100.0
It is interesting to note that, for all items, more than half of the responding companies think that the effect of overseas MBA study on their employees is large, and in the top three items, the evaluation is extremely positive. The fact that 56 per cent of these companies which have experience of sending their employees intend to increase the numbers they will send on future courses indicates that Japanese companies evaluate the overseas MBA programmes very favourably. Part-time MBA education in Japan 55 Number Percentage Language ability 90 98.9 Improvement in international awareness 85 93.4 Understanding of the local society and culture 82 90.1 Gaining specialist knowledge 67 73.6 Formation of personal network 62 68.1 Gaining ability for business judgement 54 59.3 Table II. The largest impact of overseas MBA study on individuals by items However, a comparison between the two sets of data highlights some serious issues: the purpose for sending their employees to overseas MBA programmes; and the perceived benefit the overseas MBA programmes had on the employees. One fact is that it shows the effect on business judgement ability, which comes second among the items representing the aims for overseas MBA study, is evaluated the lowest when it comes to the company assessing the effect on the employee. Nor is the evaluation for specialist knowledge very high. On the other hand, the item improvement in language ability which appeared low on the list of aims, and understanding of the local society and culture, not even on the list, are very highly evaluated for the beneficial effect. A conclusion to be drawn from this is that overseas MBA study is more effective in the development of employees who will be useful in international business, rather than in the acquisition of abilities in business judgement and specialist knowledge. Yet these last two are at the centre of management education. Thus, it has even given rise to the private joke that MBA means Mastering Being in America! Of the 54 companies that are planning an increase in the number of their employees sent overseas, reasons given for doing so were: (1) a need for the development of employees for international business, by 38 companies (70.3 per cent); (2) development of employees with business judgement ability, by 10 companies (17.9 per cent); (3) specialist knowledge, by six companies (11.8 per cent).
Journal of Management Development 15,8 56 It can therefore be seen that despite their professed purpose of sending their employees on overseas MBA programmes for developing business judgement ability in them, what the Japanese companies are really aiming at, and succeeding in getting, is the development of language skills and intercultural understanding in their employees, which are useful in functioning in international business. The discrepancy between the professed aims and evaluation of the results has become the source of many problems relating to the graduates of these MBA programmes. Two issues which are frequently pointed out by personnel and educational specialists are the difficulty of the graduates fitting back into the workplace after their return, and their propensity to leave the company. These problems are precisely the result of the discrepancy between the aims and evaluation of the effects. The MBA programmes in the USA and Europe are dedicated to the development of management specialists with an ability to make sound business judgments, and the curriculum is built upon this premise. Employees who go on the MBA programmes are sent with this clear purpose in mind, and receive education structured to achieve that end. They return to work, at the end of the programme, with a confidence that they have acquired these abilities. What awaits the Japanese graduates at work are evaluation criteria that place weight on the acquisition of language skills and intercultural understanding which will be useful for international business. Rather than being given jobs in which they can exercise their newly acquired ability for business judgement, they are expected to meet the company s need to staff the international business division. In fact, in the Japanese organization where the traditional seniority-based promotion system still predominates, it is rare for an MBA to be appointed, soon after his return, to a post where his business judgement ability is called for. In the Japanese workplace, where more emphasis is given to experience gained on the job, such general ability as business judgement is not highly evaluated. The gap that exists between what the employee has gained from studying for an MBA on the one hand and what the company really values on the other, can generate a whole range of frustrating situations for the employee[9]. Despite this, there are several major reasons why Japanese companies still regard as important the sending of their employees on overseas MBA programmes. One of these is that their need for staff for international business is rapidly increasing. The second one is that the system of sending the employees on overseas MBAs acts as a magnet for attracting good candidates when recruiting. However, another important reason is that it has a significant developmental effect on the employees sent on the overseas MBA programmes. The experience of an entirely different culture, and of the struggle with and victory over many difficulties, contributes positively to the growth of these employees as a whole person. On their return they are much more mature people. This is probably reflected and symbolized in the comment that,
the countenance of those people, who have returned from successfully completing their overseas MBA programmes, has altered markedly from what they were before they went. The overseas MBA programme gives them a chance to grow as individuals. Which countries of the world do the despatching companies think offer more effective programmes? According to the Kobe University survey, the USA takes the lion s share with 92.1 per cent of the responding companies citing it as the country of their choice (multiple answers), followed by the UK (50.6 per cent), Germany (27.0 per cent), France (24.7 per cent ), South East Asia (11.2 per cent) Switzerland (7.9 per cent ), Australia (4.5 per cent ) and Canada (4.5 per cent). Except for Australia and South East Asian countries, the rest are the advanced economies of the West. The order of their importance matches the strategic priorities the Japanese companies give when locating their manufacturing and other business bases, and the need for staff to run their international business. The weight given to the USA is overwhelming, reflecting the attraction of the MBA from the US business schools. In contrast companies sending their employees to postgraduate programmes within Japan account for only 19.1 per cent, and most of these are to engineering postgraduate schools. It is probably not overstating the case if we say that the main purpose of the Japanese companies for sending their employees on overseas MBA programmes is for development of specific skills which are not easily obtained within Japan. Part-time MBA education in Japan 57 Will MBA education take off in Japan? Why was it that many MBA programmes provided by universities suddenly appeared in Japan in the 1990s? Apart from the recent deregulation of the higher education system by the Ministry of Education which incorporated flexibility to the postgraduate sector, the reasons can be identified both on the demand side and the supply side. On the supply side, the decrease in the opportunity for universities to expand is one major reason. Undergraduate education in Japan has already reached a very high level of diffusion. At present, as the children born to the postwar baby boom generation are reaching the age for going on to university, a temporary increase in the demand for university places will occur. After that the number of eighteen year olds in the population in Japan will decline. The population of this age group numbered 2.05 million in 1992 but this will fall to 1.51 million in the year 2000. This will mean that there is only a limited possibilities for expansion in the future for undergraduate education. Worse, this may threaten the continued existence of some universities. Faced with such possibilities many universities are beginning to move their emphasis to the postgraduate level education[10]. One area receiving attention is MBA education. There is another factor that is more positive. Research in the universities in Japan tends to be highly academic, with little practical application. Lately there has been a growth in the number of academics specializing in management who are interested in applying theories to practice within universities, and this is another reason behind the increase in supply.
Journal of Management Development 15,8 58 Changes have also been discernible on the demand side. For example, education specialists in industry have begun to recognize that there is a limit to in-company off-the-job education. In-company education suffers from a narrowness of vision and a lack of breadth in talent in those who organize and run it. Companies have increasingly come to find that they need more staff with specialist knowledge and skills in staff functions. Management education at postgraduate level has the potential to meet these needs. Experiment at Kobe University s Graduate School in Business Administration and its outcome The Faculty of Business Studies at Kobe University began offering MBA education in 1989 with the specific intention of creating a unique Japanese MBA education concept and an educational system. Below is its basic concept[11]. (1) the Kobe MBA education is for those who are currently working in companies and are committed to stay with them. Consequently, the programme was organized with the company-sponsored students in mind; (2) the programme aims to develop the professional knowledge and skills in participants which will enable them to exercise business judgement at an advanced level; (3) an emphasis is put on project-based research work as the method of teaching. The approach is to base the individual or the group research undertaking on a specific topic, which enables them to provide an answer to a specific strategic issue their company is facing. The faculty gives guidance in developing a solution to the problem; (4) the limitation of the faculty resources restricts the range of topics the students can undertake to research in each year; (5) in consideration of the fact that students are at work full-time, the course is held as an evening programme so that they can combine both work and study, for the time being. Japanese employment and human resource development practices are different from those practised in the USA. Therefore an MBA course based on an unadulterated American MBA programme, with its underlying educational concept and educational system, would not have been successfully adopted by the Japanese. As the Kobe MBA programme is an experimental project, a committee, consisting of personnel and human resource development specialists from the companies sending their employees, was established to continuously evaluate and monitor the content of the programme. A specific area of research is decided for each year, and between one and three programme tutors are appointed to support the project-based research. Each year the area of research for that year and for the next two years are made known. Table III below shows the areas of research from 1989 to 1995 and the number of applicants and acceptances for each year.
Entrance selection is based on the submission of a research proposal, recommendation by the candidate s company, an interview and a test of English. The programme is run over two years. Each year is divided into two semesters and each semester consists of 15 weeks of lectures, given from 6.30 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. on five nights from Monday to Friday each week. Wednesday evening each week is set aside for a seminar given by the programme tutor on a specific topic of research. Part-time MBA education in Japan 59 Academic Students year Area of research Applicants accepted 1989 Business strategy 41 17 1990 Marketing 32 15 1991 Management control 31 18 1992 Human resource management 39 16 1993 Finance 33 18 1994 Cost management and business strategy 48 26 1995 Distribution and organizational 54 36 management Table III. Areas of research and number of students for 1989-1995 The programme is divided into a core and electives: Core subjects: business strategy; institutional analysis of business; decision analysis; financial accounting; management control; marketing; finance; market analysis; international management. Electives: subjects that relate to the specific research area each year. The Kobe MBA programme is still in the stage of experimentation. Our aim is to establish a philosophy of MBA education which is truly appropriate for Japan. We will do this through experimenting with various educational systems, curricula and teaching methods rather than by expanding the scale of the programme. In addition to the evening lectures, between four and six weekend overnight classes are organized during the two-year programme. Also an overseas study tour and a research tour are undertaken once or twice during the two-year period.
Journal of Management Development 15,8 60 In 1993 a revision of the MBA core subjects was effected at the same time as the revision of the academic core curriculum of the Graduate School of Business Administration. As a result a new course was inaugurated in which students can apply to spend one semester of their two-year programme in a business school overseas with which Kobe University has an exchange arrangement[12]. From 1995 between three and five students choose this course each year. The year 1994 saw the opening of a twelve-month, full-time MBA programme. Students wishing to come on to this programme take a year from their work and devote it to study. This new programme was the outcome of a recommendation of both the students and their employers. They concluded that combining full-time work and evening classes, five evenings a week, was causing a strain so that the employees/students could not give their full attention to either. This problem will be examined later in the paper. Despite the project-based research area varying each year, the number of applications is holding up, reflecting an underlying demand for the MBA education in society at large. Only half of the total number of students are wholly supported by their companies which pay both their fees and living expenses. The other half are self-financing, although some have managed to obtain financial support from their companies after their application has been successful. A systematic survey to evaluate the experimental MBA education at Kobe University was carried out in 1994[13]. This survey included a separate group of graduates of overseas MBA programmes to provide a comparison[14]. Of the results, the following points are of particular interest. First, on the effects of the MBA education, the respondents were asked to give their answers on a seven-point scale. Figure 1 shows the number of respondents of each group who answered positively on each of the seven items. There was little difference between the two groups on change in horizon, specialist knowledge and logical thinking, but on peer network, mixing with people from other sectors and attitudes towards life, the Kobe students scored much lower. Where the Kobe students scored highly was on network with academia. Second, of five items concerning their life at work after graduation (Figure 2) the overseas MBAs score more positively than the Kobe graduates in three. Of these three their scores are considerably higher for utilizing knowledge and possibility of promotion. One of the two items where the Kobe students score significantly higher, is the feeling of alienation at work. Looked at dispassionately, the results indicate that, except for strengthening the personal network with academia, the Kobe MBA education is less effective than the overseas MBA courses. One cannot help but come to a conclusion that at this stage of the development, there is a low possibility of the Japanese MBA programme providing the MBA students who will become the core human resource of the Japanese companies with requisite skills. Third, a comparison of the careers of the two groups after graduation shows that MBA education, whether undertaken in Japan or overseas, has the effect of
Network with academia Logical thinking Attitudes towards life Specialist knowledge Part-time MBA education in Japan 61 Mixing with people from other sectors Change in horizon Peer network 0 20 40 60 80 100 Unit: per cent Key Kobe MBA Overseas MBA Figure 1. Effect of MBA education raising the level of inter-firm mobility (Figure 3). Forty per cent of the overseas MBAs and 44 per cent of the Kobe MBAs either have moved or are considering a move to another company. Utilizing knowledge Specialization Feeling of alienation Possibility of promotion Mixing with people from other sectors 0 20 40 60 80 Unit: per cent Key Kobe MBA Overseas MBA Figure 2. Life at work after graduation
Journal of Management Development 15,8 62 Unit: per cent 60 50 40 30 20 10 Figure 3. Choice of career after graduation 0 Remaining to be loyal Key Kobe MBA Considering change of job Overseas MBA Changed job Conclusion: the future of MBA education inside Japan MBA education within Japan is still in the stage of experimentation. The experiment shows that clues to the future expansion of the MBA education in Japan are to be found in the following points. First, it depends on whether or not the providers can establish an educational system, curriculum and method for the MBA education which meets the needs of the Japanese business community. These must also take into consideration not only such matters as curriculum organization and deciding on the combination of appropriate methods of teaching, but also the choice of appropriate forms and durations of study, and its relation to the company-based project. The specific nature of the demand for such education renders a two-year, full-time course too long. The two-year evening course is found to place too much pressure and strain upon the students, so that they face the possibility of many problems occurring at work. At the present stage, a one-year full-time programme appears to be most appropriate, but it is difficult for companies to spare their future core staff for a whole year. Second, it depends on the Japanese MBA education programme being equal to the task of providing the appropriate kind of education and training which equips the would-be business leaders of the future for the task they undertake in their respective companies. This relates closely to the first question, and touches upon the fundamental issue of what the postgraduate business education is for. Should it aim at developing generalists, or should it be for turning out specialists?
Third, following on from the second point, it depends on whether or not companies can provide appropriate career paths for those who received a Japanese MBA education. Although the MBA education abroad has problems for the recipients when they return to their companies, at least it has a clear mission for developing the staff for international business. At the present stage, there is no provision of clear career paths for the graduates of Japanese MBA programmes. Exceptionally, as is the case with one of the companies which send their employees to the Kobe University s MBA programme, a practice of indicating the kind of job its employee could have when he successfully completes the MBA programme, is established. The motivation of the student, who comes to the programme with a clear career objective, is high and the quality of project-based research he undertakes is excellent. These three issues are closely interrelated. At the present stage, clear answers to them are difficult to find because the number of graduates of the Japanese MBA programmes has not reached a critical mass. Given this situation, the provision of MBA education in Japan will remain supply-led for sometime. However, it can be envisaged that, once the provision of MBA education reaches a certain scale and a clearer answer is established for each of the three questions above, the spread of MBA education in Japan is likely to gather momentum rapidly. Part-time MBA education in Japan 63 Notes and references 1. The International University of Japan in Niigata aims to provide the western style MBA programme in Japan, and all teaching is done in English. Waseda University offers nondegree level management education. 2. Okazaki-Ward, L., Management Education and Training in Japan, Graham & Trotman, London, 1993. 3. Committee for Creating a New Concept of MBA in Japan at Kobe University, Research Report (in Japanese) (often abbreviated to CCNCBJ 1989) School of Business Administration, Kobe University, Kobe, 1989. 4. School of Business Administration (Kobe University), In Search of A Centre of Excellence in Management Education (in Japanese) (often abbreviated to SBA-Kobe 1992) School of Business Administration, Kobe University, Kobe, 1992. 5. School of Business Administration (Kobe University), (often abbreviated to SBA-Kobe 1994) A Challenge to an Open Academism (in Japanese), School of Business Administration, Kobe University, Kobe, 1994. 6. Newsweek (editorial), Mastering being in America: Japanese are flocking to US business schools, Newsweek, New York, 6 February 1990. 7. Fuchberg, G., Business schools wary of foreign influx, Wall Street Journal, New York, 3 January 1990. 8. Selection method also varies. Thirty-eight companies (40.9 per cent) made their selection from people who applied. Thirty-five companies (36.6 per cent) combined their selection from among applicants and company nominations. Seventeen companies (18.3 per cent) selected only company nominee(s). 9. Ono, Y., Japanese firms question worth of MBAs (in Japanese), Asian Wall Street Journal, Tokyo, 28 April 1992.
Journal of Management Development 15,8 64 10. Daiamond (editorials), Skewed restructuring of national universities (in Japanese), Daiamond, 12 February 1994. 11. Tamura, M. and Tani, T., Towards a unique concept of Japanese MBA (in Japanese), Nihon Keizai Shinbun, Kobe, 6 December 1990. 12. Examples of the foreign universities with which Kobe University has an exchange agreement are UCLA, University of Washington, Manchester Business School, ESCP, Koblenz University. 13. Tamura, M., A report on the effects of business education in management (in Japanese), Working Paper 9403, School of Business Administration, Kobe University, 1994. 14. Two versions of the questionnaire were prepared for this survey. One was directed to the personnel manager of the companies who sent their staff on the course. The other was for graduates of and students on the Kobe MBA programme and for graduates of overseas MBA programmes. Adjustments were made to some of the questions so as to be more appropriate to the respondents background. Questions were omitted from the questionnaires where they were meaningless to one group, even if they were relevant to the other group. However, many of the questions remained common to all three parties so that the results can be compared. The questionnaires were sent and returned by post. All three groups were sent the questionnaire on 1 September 1993, and the deadline was 20 September. The companies in the survey were drawn from among 253 firms who had responded to the survey carried out by this Graduate School of Business Administration on The Educational Needs of Adults at the Graduate School Level in November 1992. Of that number, 119 had actually sent employees on postgraduate programmes, including those in engineering. The number of effective questionnaires returned from this group was 66. The Kobe University group of respondents consisted of the graduates of the MBA programme and current students numbering 76 in total. The questionnaires for the graduates were sent and returned by post, but the current students filled in the questionnaire during a practical session at the University. In total 62 questionnaires were collected from them. For the overseas-educated MBA group, the majority of the respondents were members of BEE Club. They are basically those Japanese MBAs who have either entered an American MBA programme in 1986 or graduated from it in 1988. BEE stand for Business School Eighty-Eight. When the BEE Club held a meeting to which MBAs of American business schools of other years were invited, the questionnaires were distributed to 249 participants who were asked to return them by post to Kobe University. There were 55 responses from this group. Further reading Amano, I., How to Implement the Reorganization of Universities (in Japanese), Nihon Keizai Shinbun, Tokyo, 7 January 1996. Ministry of Education, Japan s Policy for Education, Okurashô Insatsukyoku, Tokyo, 1988. Saito, T., Modern Management Education (in Japanese), Chûô Keizai-sha, Tokyo, 1988.