Management education in Nigeria is being subjected to increasing criticism on a number of grounds. One criticism is that curriculum in organizational behavior courses has focuses on conceptual and analytical training based on foreign texts. There is also a growing concern that private and public management executives need a broader management education along a number of dimensions.
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the MBA programs under two explicit criteria: (1) Students' human relations skills acquisition, and (2) The curriculum relevance of the MBA programs.
Research Methods. The subjects in the study were 128 MBA graduate students enrolled among selected Nigerian universities (Universites of--Lagos, Ife, Benin and Ibadan). Using perceptual data, the variables were analyzed to identify relationships and differences among them. Four research hypotheses were generated and tested using Correlation Coefficient, Multivariate Analysis and Tukey's - HSD Statistical Procedures to find differences among the selected universities.
Findings. (1) The MBA curriculum in Nigeria is found not to be statistically significant in the determination of the students' management behavior. (2) The study reveals that students that identify with Personnel Management in preference to Quantitative Analysis scored higher on human relations than bureaucracy, and vice versa. (3) Faculty qualifications, beyond teaching/industrial experiences, were found not to relate positively to students' acquisition of human relations skills. (4) The test of the ideological differences (human relations versus bureaucracy) was statistically significant among the selected universities.
On the basis of the research findings, the following conclusions could be drawn: (1) The MBA curricula in Nigeria was not found to relate positively to the students' development of human relations skills. (2) Students that identify with certain academic majors or career objectives have positive relationships to their management behavior; to be human relations oriented or to be bureaucratic. (3) Faculty qualifications beyond teaching/industrial experience were found not to relate positively to students' acquisition of human relations skills. (4) The testing on management behavior (human relations versus bureaucracy) showed significant differences among three of the universities. (5) Reform measures were recommended to those institution's Administrators, Deans and Heads of Departments. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)
