Design of an Mba Program

Sabanci University Faculty of Management, which opened its doors only in the fall of 1999 to its students, is a newly established institution, therefore so is the SU-MBA Program. Benefiting from being a relatively fresh program SU-MBA had the latest of information about the business world and comparative insights from other MBA programs, of which the number is quite large in the current market. The aim of this paper is to (1) compare and contrast the ontological and epistemological assumptions, (2) amount of experiential learning and (3) job opportunities created of the current and designed SU-MBA Program, also (4) to understand how it has positioned itself with other MBA programs.

A lot of effort was put into the design process of the Sabanci University in general and of the MBA program in particular to actually make it compatible with the pre-determined teaching and research philosophy; “creating and developing together”. The question was how to shape, what had to be taught, the ontological basis, and the way it had to be taught, the epistemological basis of the whole program.

The ontological basis of the program, as can be understood from Oral (2005), was not to understand what managers do but learn how management works within the business context. So not only managers nor businesses were the core element of the ontological assumption but the whole business world. The business world can be visualized from two dimensions; one from the perspective of the business environment and the other from the perspective of the company in it. As Mintzberg (2003) explains the toughness behind creating a MBA program; “organizations are complex phenomena, it is hard to create managers out of people who never managed anything”, it can be seen that the ontological assumptions lying behind an MBA program should rely on materials of thought. That is exactly what was achieved during the Search Conference. Although very important the search conference was instrumental only in drafting a university philosophy in very general terms. The ontological basis for the MBA program was framed later. What are the factors shaping the business environment today? The three main subjects specified by Oral (2005) were Globalization, Competition and Business Networking all of which were included under the title “context-related subjects of management”. Today, it probably would not be wrong to add another subject to the three above, that is Innovation. Innovation was included in “activity management” process through the creative function of meaning management.

Science of Management and Practices have been the focus both in the academic and business world for a long time, now many managers and firms are aware of different styles of management and different approaches to managerial problems or situations. Therefore each style has been tried out at least once and probably more than once up until today. Everyone currently has some sort of an idea or sketch of the outcomes of each management style or crisis solving technique. What became of the essence in the current environment is the innovative approach. Everyone’s expectancy became innovative managerial staff and innovative managerial techniques in all areas of the business world. Every company is yearning for creative employees who are capable of adapting