Capacity Mapping: Re-imagining Undergraduate Business Education

Capacity Mapping:
A Framework for Re-Imagining
Undergraduate Business Education
NITLE Seminar Series
This work funded by the Mellon Foundation
May 6, 2014
Dr. Mary Grace Neville
This document emerges from a 7 year programmatic study that began locally in 2005, extended to a national
dialogue in 2006, has was then deepened by extensive reading and study on liberal arts education , business
education, and philosophies of learning and development in 2008. In Fall 2011, a new task force convened to
update and operationalize the early thinking given the university’s new reality – increasing enrollments and
constrained resources. Capacities were tested and refined in 2012 and 2013. The concept evolution continues.

Neville, marygrace.neville@gmail.com
Southwestern University
College curricula vary widely,
the half-life of information is staggering, and
18-22 year olds grow up fast.
Build Capacities for Life
So “what’s an educator to do if
today’s students will be tomorrow’s leaders?”

Which ones?(Neville, et. al. 2007)Why?(Neville & Godwin, 2013)
How? (Neville, in progress) (Colby, Ehrlich, Sullivan, Dolle, 2011)
…and What about QuickBooks proficiency?!(Colby, Ehrlich, Sullivan, Dolle, 2011)
 Inquire
 Reflect
 Experiment
 Theorize

Emergent theory suggests our industry
has crucial changes to make.
 Content centric
 Functional independence
 High efficiency (large classes with
PhD student instructors….)
 Understood by marketplace
 “We’ve done this before”“ Factory”
– Traditional Business Programs –

“Integrative learning” has a final stage of
reflection after a specialty path.
 Customized efficiency
 Accents area of functional interest
(i.e. Environmental Management)
 Functional connections indicated
 Bridges to first job
 “We can sell this as special”
“Yellow Brick Road”
– Programs Culminating in a Facilitated Seminar –

Liberal arts approaches claim to build the
capacity for life-long learning, civic
engagement, and abilities to connect dots.
– 3 Models for Delivering Liberal Arts Majors –
Liberal Arts
Whole Person

Liberal Arts
Whole Person
Distribution
Requirements

Liberal Arts
Whole Person
Distribution
Requirements
Cohort based
inclusion of
Liberal Arts

So the question became:
“what do we hope any (business) major has?”
21st Century Requirements
 Rapid change
 Global complexity
 High degrees of ambiguity
 Interdependencies exaggerated by technology
and migration
 Balance of skills and abilities
 “What else might also be true?”
Answer: Equipment for the future.

Individual &
Interpersonal
Personal
Capacity
Critical &
Integrative
Thinking
Logic &
Reasoning
Systems &
Society
Whole
Person, Strategic
Career
Skills, Tactical
Literacy:
• Reading
• Writing
• Quantitative &
Computational
Personal Capacity Map

The map now serves as a framework for
balancing course designs and integrating
capacity development across the curriculum.
Study
Level
Example
Course
Thinking & Analysis Introspective & Intellectual Human & Organizations
Literacy Logic &
Reasoning
Critical & Integrative Systems &
Society
Personal
Capacity
Critical &
Integrative
Thinking
Introductory
&
Supporting
Fdns of
Business
Macro
economics
Financial
accounting
Core
Leadership
perspectives
Financial
statement
analysis
Upper
Level
Business
ethics
Capstone

Some institutions and faculty will
actualize this faster than others.
– “Speed Bumps” we’ll need to cross –
• What balance does each slice merit in your curriculum?
• Resources?
• Strategic objectives?
• Context and culture?
• How can we scale capacity development?
• How do we teach faculty to collaborate in order to even
begin moving away from “factory” models?
• Students wired for emergent today; faculty wired from
past.

Our “Mission” should we choose to accept
it… Genuinely prepare managers/business students
for leading our 21st Century (rapidly changing) world.
1. Hold our current practices lightly.
2. Practice self-acceptance that there’s a lot you/we
don’t know.
3. Call on your courage to try something anything
you don’t know yet.
4. Be prepared to change your practice as often as
our manager/students need to be changing in the
workplace (every 6 months!).

Additional information and shared
resources are available.
• Dr. Mary Grace
• NITLE Academic
Commons, http://www.academiccoms.org
• Southwestern University’s institutional
repository, SU Scholars (available fall 2014; will include
slides, supporting manuscript, and extended annotated
bibliography)

Capacity Mapping: Re-imagining Undergraduate Business Education

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