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Humanities graduates have an edge over MBAs in interpersonal skills
Many humanities programmes incorporate debating, communicating, and critical thinking, creating well-rounded graduates
What does it take to make a mark in the corporate world and make it to the top? One prerequisite is a relevant academic qualification and in many cases it is an MBA (master’s in business administration) degree or a management diploma. But do MBAs really make great leaders as they work their way up the ladder?
HR experts and researchers say MBAs tend to have better business know-how. But it is executives with a background in science, engineering and humanities who have an edge over MBAs when it comes to certain skills and responsibilities.
Evan Sinar, chief scientist and vice president, Development Dimensions International (DDI), a US-based global HR consulting firm, says, “From our data for India Inc, we find that MBA graduates are stronger than those from engineering, social science, natural science, and IT backgrounds in their coaching skills. However, their skills are weaker than IT graduates in customer focus, driving execution, establishing strategic direction, leading change, and operational decision making.”
Sinar says organisations should carefully consider the skill profile of an employee for their leadership roles to determine if and how a particular educational background’s strengths will be well-suited to high performance. “Organisations can choose to either put more emphasis on a particular skill in the hiring process or plan a learning path for leaders to ensure that they develop necessary skills,” he says.
A recent report by DDI titled High Resolution Leadership looks at the eight skills and qualities of executives and leaders with different academic backgrounds and finds out how these translate to performance at work.
While those from business and law backgrounds are found to have financial acumen and are business savvy, leaders from natural sciences and humanities backgrounds fare better than their colleagues with a management qualification, when it comes to driving their way to results.
Leaders with humanities and social sciences qualifications do better than their peers from any other discipline in communication. Top executives with a degree in IT do as well as those from a management background when it comes to driving execution. Executives who have studied natural sciences and humanities beat all others as far as inspiring excellence is concerned. In fact, those with a humanities qualification do as good as management graduates in interpersonal skills such as influence and also record strong performance in result-oriented roles such as entrepreneurship.
Many humanities programmes incorporate debating, communicating, and critical thinking, creating well-rounded graduates. Natural science, social science, and IT graduates were near average in most leadership skills.
A leader’s educational degree, though often earned long before the person reaches upper management, remains a potentially powerful influence due to the knowledge and skill acquired through this formative experience, says the report. Degrees are also used as proxy variables, with assumed insight into a leader’s capabilities, and are closely linked to compensation a decade into one’s career, it says.
So how do educational degrees from different academic disciplines translate into leadership skills?
According to Anil Sachdev, founder and CEO, School of Inspired Leadership, those who have studied liberal arts often think out of the box and have broader perspectives.
“Psychology, history, sociology, literature etc all help in the process. Science teaches critical thinking skills and mathematics sharpens it further. Philosophy and theology build the curiosity to discover one’s spiritual core and enables people to discover happiness within them,” he says.
Sachdev believes that leadership is not about leading others. “If you lead your bodies and perception in the right ways and are physically fit, if you are able to lead your emotions through ups and downs and have strong positive emotions with an analytical ability and creativity, you become an effective leader. You must also be able to take quick decisions,” he adds.
Even though MBAs are believed to have a better business sense, it is difficult to say if MBAs make the best of managers, say experts. MBA as a course helps students get familiar with management practices, systems and processes, true learning comes from experience and exposure, says Thammaiah BN, managing director, Kelly Services India.
