peter71 wrote:
So I have two basic questions:
1) How does one get a job at the #300 ranked B-school? Is it indeed possible to do without working hard or, frankly, without even being very bright? Can one then maintain that job without ever publishing anything?
2) While I'm not ruling out the possibility that the answers to 1) are "yes, yes, yes", then how do B-schools manage to navigate budget fights with univ. administrators who typically went through the tougher arts & sciences process . . . is the #300 ranked B-school just such a cash cow that the issue of funding from the larger university never comes up, or what? If that's not the case, I just can't imagine why hard science departments that produce grant revenue for unis and, frankly, do work that's probably more socially useful than finance/insurance/real estate haven't been raising a stink specifically about this issue forever . . .
All best,
Pete
Hi Pete,
You ask two very good questions and I'll try to answer them. Bear in mind that I got my Ph.D. in Management almost 41 years ago and have been away from academia over 20 years. Yet, from reading and talking with former colleagues, I don't believe that the salary situation has changed that much.
To get a job at an AACSB accredited business school in a tenure track position generally requires having a doctoral degree from a reputable business school. It doesn't require that the degree be from a top tier university unless one aspires to teach at one. Can one do it without working hard? Almost certainly not. Most people over age 18 realize that nothing worthwhile is easy. It takes commitment, sacrifice and time. Can one do it without being exceptionally bright? My opinion based on years of observation is that one has to be well above average in intelligence but it doesn't take a rocket scientist mentality to get through doctoral program in business. This is simply because business is not rocket science. Can one maintain the job without publishing anything? Probably not in most of the AACSB schools. Of course, after acquiring tenure, job security is almost a given. To paraphrase the old line from, "Love Story," tenure means never having to say you're sorry.
Now, to answer the big question that you want to know the answer to: How do business school faculty manage to get those great salaries? The answer is very simple. It's a simple matter of supply and demand. Doctorates in business are scarce as hen's teeth. Universities that want to acquire/keep their business schools accredited have to have a high percentage of Ph.D.'s in the respective fields. How scarce are they? Here's a statistic that will likely astound you: When I was getting out of grad school, the number of newly minted Ph.D., CPA's in the United States was approximately 30 per year. No, that's not a typo: Thirty new Ph.D.'s in Accounting with a CPA certificate in a nation of well over 200 million people back then. When I was in my last year of grad school at LSU and on the job market, I got letters from over 100 universities in 37 states and a few foreign countries, asking if I would be interested interviewing for a position. The latest AACSB salary survey tells me that things haven't changed that much. Salaries today, adjusted for inflation, are actually higher now than back then.
Do all those administrators with non/business Ph.D.'s resent having to pay so much for b school faculty? I'm sure they don't like it but they have little choice. Business schools are university cash cows. Unlike medical schools, engineering and science departments, b schools have low overhead and generate good revenue through large enrollments. In addition, bright business school grads who make smart career choices, work hard and get lucky, make megabucks. Some of them give back to their alma mater through creating scholarships, endowing professorships and paying for buildings/facilities named after them.
University salaries are not based on the academic rigor of doctoral programs or how difficult it is to get a Ph.D. in a given field. Whether they choose to admit it or not, a university is an economic entity and business is not rocket science. It's about supply and demand. In that sense, university life really is the real world.
One other perk of being a b school faculty member is the opportunity to generate outside income through writing books (both text and trade types), speaking to businesses, and consulting. A 9-month teaching year amounts to about 32 weeks of work. That leaves plenty of time to work on profitable ventures. Having a second income provided me with the economic wherewithal to leave academia at age 47.
Best wishes, |
Michael |
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Invest your time actively and your money passively.