Mihnea Moldoveanu is a big name in Integrative thinking @ Rotman. He just published an article in Business Week that might be of interest to many of you. Excerpts:
The MBA is a much-needed selection machine which comes on top of the selection machines called high school, college, and a two- or three-year work assignment. Like all selection machines, the MBA works best because it is based on a clearly defined selection criterion, which is twofold. It selects for general intelligence and conscientiousness, not for lateral or divergent thinking, moral development, or epistemological sophistication, as we do yet know how to measure these.
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So the critics are right, the MBA is in crisis—because it selects for and cultivates traits and skills that are increasingly vacuous and superfluous. The markets are right in that the dominance-hierarchies and markets of today need one more selection engine. Out of this tension arises the opportunity for designing the thinker of the future. Let the design work begin.