Statistics in Management Education

Abstract

Results of two surveys are presented and indicate the statistical knowledge of past students from Master of Business Adminstration programmes, their usage of statistics together with their opinions about the statistical content of Master of Business Administration degree courses. These views are contrasted with the results of a second survey of academic staff who teach statistics on such programmes. We find that past students recommend a greater statistical content than is currently taught but, paradoxically, most of the academic staff associated with teaching the subject believe that the statistical content of their programme will decrease in future years.

Teaching Statistics With Student Survey Data: A Pedagogical Innovation in Support of Student Learning

“…The first is that statistics is useful and important in the business world (Stray, Nauder, & Wegner, 1994). The second is that statistics courses are boring and anxiety provoking (Conners, McCown, & Roskos-Ewoldsen, 1998;Zanakis & Valenzi, 1997).…”

Reassessing the Curriculum-Competency Alignment in MBA Programs

“…Another important point to note is the fact that while the b-schools seem to focus a lot on development of analytical skills, when it comes to teaching statistical techniques the focus is weak; that too when statistical methods are considered important in various functional areas of management and help the managers in decision making processes (Stray, Naude, & Wegner, 1994;Tamura, 2007). As the data suggests, the focus on teaching courses that fall in the category 'Managing Decision-Making Processes' is lower in both Indian as well as the US context when compared to the '% Coverage Benchmark'.…”

“…This also reflects the findings by McAlevey et al (2001) that statistics does not hold the high ground in the business schools. While the business schools are keen on teaching other analytical techniques, the lesser focus on statistical techniques is surprising; one of the reasons could be the lack of time and knowledge on part of the business school faculty (Stray et al, 1994). Another reason could be the nature of responsibility for instructors on teaching courses in statistics: as argued by McAlevey et al (2001), in business schools statistics courses are in most cases taught by instructors whose primary interests lie in other areas of management.…”

Pragmatism and rationalism in the development of management science methodologies in the UK and France

“…Before designing the questionnaire, a number of similar instruments were reviewed (Mingers and Taylor, 1992;Ehie and Smith, 1994;Stray et al, 1994;Clark and Scott, 1995;Ledington and Donaldson, 1997). A draft questionnaire was circulated amongst members of the quantitative methods/systems senior lecturers at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School (management science subject group) and their comments were incorporated.…”