General and Management-Specific Goals

The core learning goals for business programs will likely include two separate kinds of learning.  First, there will be goals for the general knowledge and skills acquired by students.  The general knowledge and skills goals, while not management specific, relate to knowledge and abilities that graduates will carry with them into their careers.  Such learning areas as communications abilities, problem-solving abilities, ethical reasoning skills, and language abilities are the types of general knowledge and abilities that schools might define as a part of these goals. 

Second, there will be management-specific learning goals for students.  These goals relate to expectations for learning accomplishment in areas that directly relate to management tasks and form the business portion of degree requirements.  Such areas include traditional learning disciplines such as accounting, management science, marketing, human resources, and operations management, and, depending on how the school defines its mission, might include such management-specific but non-traditional areas as corporate anthropology, change management, or others.  In developing learning goals, the school should give careful attention to both the general and the management-specific learning goals.