Opposites May Not Attract,But They Can Complement: Integrating Finance and Organizational Behavior in the MBA Curriculum

Abstract

Traditional MBA curricula have been criticized for lacking integration across functional courses. Some schools have responded with expensive wholesale curriculum overhauls. Lower cost approaches may also be effective. The article describes an integrated case assignment between core Finance and Organizational Behavior (OB) classes, involving a merger and acquisition. The OB class assigned student teams to role-play the negotiations of the acquisition deal, whereas the Finance class assigned them to prepare the necessary financial analyses. The assignments were jointly evaluated by professors from both courses. The schedule of the exercise is described, and student reactions and faculty insights are presented.