Ronald Taylor

Making Business Schools Responsive to Customers: Lessons Learned and Actions

This article addresses a paradigm shift in schools of business from product-driven to consumer-driven institutions, necessitated by competition, consumer demands for distance learning, and private-sector alternatives. The new standards pronounced by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) represent an attempt to facilitate this paradigm shift. The extent to which the AACSB accreditation process can increase organizational flexibility and customer responsiveness is discussed via a simplified strategic management model. Although the accreditation process is an valuable evaluation tool, creating effective customer responsive organizations should begin with strategic planning at each of the individual business schools.

The View from the Trenches: A Steering Committee's Retrospective on Implementing the New AACSB Accreditation Standards

Abstract The accreditation standards adopted by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) are based on the concept of continuous improvement and have many implications for business schools and their faculties. This article comprises one steering committees look back at its experience in implementing the new standards. It discusses reasons why faculty members resist the change to the new standards, identifies pitfalls that may be encountered in organizing for the self-evaluation, and makes recommendations that may help other schools in their preparations for accreditation or reaffirmation.

Advisory board engagement: Assisting undergraduates with resume development

ABSTRACT Resumes of students with limited work experience are by nature underdeveloped and frequently poorly designed. Although many tools and resources are available, students often underutilize them. Faculty at a northeastern university sought to address this problem by engaging members of its college of business advisory board to provide students with real-world advice. Many advisory board members are senior executives who can advise students on how to improve their resumes and make them more professional and powerful. To assess the effectiveness of this intervention, pre- and postsurveys were conducted and analyzed. The authors discuss the results and draw some conclusions. D. Kolbs (1984) model of experiential learning provides a conceptual framework.

A Measure Focusing on Part-Time/Full-Time Employees

This paper examines the differences between part-time and full-time employees using a recently developed measurement scale, partial inclusion as an underlying theoretical framework. Differences were found among part-time employees as they had higher levels of inclusion and involvement.