Driving Forces That Make an Individual Aspire to Have a Masters Degree in Business - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Task: Date: For many aspiring masters students in the world today, the question that lingers on their minds is, what degree is most suited to my needs, aspirations, goals etc. first of all one has to know his/her strong points so as to determine a suitable masters degree. There exist several driving forces that make an individual aspire to have a master’s degree in whatever field they choose. Take for instance a masters degree in business administration, it is a necessity for those who would like to gain an added advantage in the current economic crisis since it is one of the several business degrees providing a vast impact on an individuals salary and their career advancement the superior the degree you have then the better your marketability . When one pursues an MBA, it is not meant to be an end but to be a means to the end since it is a degree specially designed to give one an ability to develop their career to their fullest potentials through increased speed. The MBA is able to supply three worth propositions: Skills They are inclusive of the “hard skills” of marketing, economics, finance, operations, accounting and management plus the “soft skills” of teamwork, leadership, communication and ethics critical for successful management. Networks The MBA degree offers an unlimited access to networks of other MBA students, business, faculty, alumni and community leaders. The network helps one out when job hunting in future or building expertise external to your career or current field. Brand MBA is meant to signify an individual’s management and/or leadership training depending on the school attended since every school has their brand associations that can help in opening doors to employment based on the individual school’s reputation. Some of the reasons as to why an individual may want to pursue a degree in MBA may vary depending on the individuals involved and their aspirations in life; Career Advancement and/or Career Change An individual may want to achieve a position entailing grater liability in their current field or they may prefer switching from an area of business to another maybe from marketing to sales or vice versa. Specific Management Training To obtain specific management training and/or expertise may be another reason as to why an individual may choose to pursue MBA Employable skills gained by MBA’s The employable skills that one gains through an MBA are numerous and include: Academic development or achievement: the individual is able to demonstrate high standards of performance and application. Analysis helps one distinguish relevant from irrelevant information. Communication skills on the other hand enable one to listen, speak clearly and carefully, this entails the skill to put forth your arguments coherently in both speech and writing. Cross-cultural awareness entails the working of individuals from different cultural backgrounds as a team. Adding together the skills mentioned above, one is likely to develop the following skills through the MBA and previous employment: ability to rise above difficulty and to work out problems independence, ability to develop the proficiency of managing one’s own time and/work; originality and creativity logical argumentation and inability to easily be dissuaded by others through their views and/or opinions thus one can say that having an MBA not only gives an individual increased leverage in the dictation of new jobs and/or titles, salaries but it also gives an individual leverage in their achievement of balance between reading and life outside work. According to Briggs and Briggs (1942), there exists a widely used personality test employed in many fields, education, vocational etc to help evaluate the different personality types in different age brackets. This test tries to evaluate the different personality types and preferences basing it on four psychological types with the aim of making people happier and more productive in their employment. The MBTI system is designed to start with a test in which the participants are meant to respond to questions that provide clues about their basic outlook and/or their personal preferences, the responses are then scored against a chart to see whether an individual’s preferences will lie within this four categories; Introversion (I) or extraversion (E) This attributes, extroversion (E) and introversion (I) are used to show whether a particular participant gets their mental energy chiefly from other individuals or from within themselves. Intuition (N) or sensing (S) Sensing (S) and intuiting (N) on the other hand try to explain whether an individual absorbs information greatest through figures and information or general patterns. Feeling (F) or thinking (T) Feeling (F) thinking (T) show whether an individual will tend to craft decisions based on logicality and objective criteria or will do so through their emotional intelligence. Perceiving (P) or judging (J) Another set of attributes used in the MBTI system is, perceiving and judging, this indicate whether individuals make their decisions quickly or whether the y do so at a slower casual approach leaving their options open. MBTI system then organizes the sets of attributes above into a template of sixteen different types displaying different personalities with each type indicated by four code letters like ISTP, ENFJ etc. making the MBTI personality test very popular as an evaluating tool both in colleges and the universities in helping their students in career choices that best fit their personality types. Some critics argue that the MBTI is too broad and/or ambiguous meaning that they can be interpreted to fit best fit almost anyone. Some persons worry that if and when counselors whether in the university or workplace know their “type”, the counselor will tend to be pushed in a certain direction only regardless of their desires. While another number of Critics of the personality test, MBTI, argue that the personality profiles that are used are too broad and confusing such that they can be interpreted to fit almost anyone. Some on the other hand worry that, once university career counselors or an employer knows an individual’s personality type, then that person might tend to be pushed in a certain direction regardless of his or her desires. Finally, other psychologists have criticized the MBTI system on grounds of confirmation bias meaning that the results are self-fulfilling because people tend to behave in ways that are predicted for them. That is, a person who learns that he or she is "outgoing" according to the MBTI personality assessment evaluation kit then they will be more likely to behave that way. Works cited: Hirsh, Sandra Krebs, and Jean M. Kummerow. Introduction to Type in Organizations. Consulting Psychologists Press, 2000. "Identifying How We Think: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument." Harvard Business Review. July-August 1997. Leonard, Nancy H., Richard W. Scholl, and Kellyann Berube Kowalski. "Information Processing Style and Decision Making." Journal of Organizational Behavior. May 1999. Quenk, Naomi L. Essentials of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment. John Wiley, 1999. Read More