I live in the Greater Washington, D. C. area, a place that has more government employees per square mile than any other place in the nation. Many of these employees are actively pursuing MBA degrees either in traditional schools (evening and weekend programs) or through questionable online courses. But why?
If you look carefully at the course offerings in reputable MBA programs, you will see that very few have a direct application in government operations. Accounting courses, for example, stress double-entry methods that are not used in government. Similarly, traditional MBA courses in marketing, corporate finance, managerial accounting, and strategic planning do not fit well with the way governments operate.
A better course of action for government employees is to work for degrees in public administration. There are only five universities in the Greater Washington, D. C. area that offer Master of Public Administration (MPA) degrees that are accredited by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). They are:
American University, Washington, D. C.
Howard University, Washington, D. C.
George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia
University of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland
Government employees who continue to work toward MBA degrees or unaccredited online MPA degrees are wasting their time and money.
Government employees go after MBA's for two reasons. The first is accessibility. MBA programs are pretty good at catering to working adults and MPA programs are not.
The second is that MPA's are not respected. In my case I don't want to be a better bureaucrat and that is my perception of MPA programs. Additionally MBA programs offer principles in strategic planning, analysis and economics that are universally applicable.
Posted by: T-Bone | December 20, 2007 12:47 PM | Permalink to Comment