MBA diary: Who’s the boss?
SOME aspects of an MBA course are reminiscent of life at the office—for instance, when the professor puts us in groups without our input. In the real world it is not unusual to find oneself working with unfamiliar colleagues from different departments. But in other ways, things at business school are quite different. For example, on group projects there is no boss.
Of course business often thrusts together people of similar seniority with different agendas, making consensus difficult. But there is usually a designated project leader, and—crucially—someone higher up the ladder to act as arbiter in the event of disputes. My MBA studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) are not like this. The professor directs the classroom, but once we break off into groups we are left to our own devices to manage ourselves, share out duties and keep the project on track. This is on top of coping with the academic challenges of the project.