Training in Business Administration

Abstract

ESTABLISHED seven years ago, the Department of Business Administration at the London School of Economics provides a post-graduate course extending normally over one year for men and women who intend to follow a business career. It has been found that such post-graduate students are of three main types. First, there are university graduates in economics, commerce or Modern Greats who require chiefly to learn the practical application of principles of which they are already familiar. Secondly, there are graduates in modern languages and technical subjects such as chemistry and engineering who already have technical qualifications which would often enable them to obtain immediate employment without difficulty. Later on, however, as they rise to positions of responsibility, they may find themselves obliged to exercise functions of management for which their technical training by itself provides little preparation. Training in business management should enable them to avoid many of the initial mistakes inevitable in a process of learning by trial and error. Thirdly, there are students who have already had considerable experience of business and who come or are sent by their employers to widen their outlook and increase their capabilities. At first sight it would seem difficult, if not impossible, to frame a course which would be equally suitable for these different groups, with their varying types of training and background. Experience has shown, however, that given appropriate methods of teaching, the lack of homogeneity in the class is a source of strength rather than of weakness. The work is carried on mainly in a series of discussion classes, to which each student can contribute from his own special knowledge.