Abstract:
This article reviews the book "A Social Contract With Business as the Basis for a Postmodern MBA in a World of Inclusive Globalisation," by Jopie Coetzee. The last two decades have been filled with robust criticism of MBA education. These
critiques have ranged from Henry Mintzberg’s condemnation of the MBA as a 1908 degree
with a 1950s strategy to the late Sumantra Ghoshal’s fundamental assertion that the theories
academics teach in business schools lie at the root of what is wrong with management
education (Mintzberg, 2004; Ghoshal, 2005). The scope and depth of the criticism leaves
little room for yet another book condemning MBA education. To its credit and my surprise,
A Social Contract with Business as the Basis for a Postmodern MBA in a World of Inclusive
Globalisation, moves beyond the critique discourse to propose a transformative MBA degree
underpinned by a new social contract between society and business.