Am I ready to graduate? Management majors’ perceived collegiate skill development

Abstract

We examine 15 skills of graduating management majors as measured by self-rated perceptions of change during their college tenure. The sample includes 520,052 students from 697 higher education institutions in the United States. The research questions are: (1) As judged by management majors themselves, how much have their skills changed as a result of higher education? (2) How do these self-perceptions compare to other students? (3) What is the estimated impact of a management degree on these changes? Notable findings include that at least 90% of students reporting stronger, if not much stronger, skills in the categories of general knowledge, critical thinking, analytics, problem solving, and knowledge of their chosen field (management). However, other skills such as leadership are reported by 16% of management students as experiencing no change. The ratings of communication skills categories of public speaking and writing reported 17% of each category as no change or weaker skills is these areas. Study findings are discussed along with recommendations for future research.