Self-study
Support We are in a new industrial revolution that requires management trainees to develop "action learning" from real experience within business and industry, rather than getting tied up with theory and academia. ████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ████████ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ █████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ████████████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ████████████ ████████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ████████ ███████ ██████ █████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████
Summary
Business schools should let executives set the curricula for management training courses. Why? Because when it comes to management training, academia is too theoretical and out of touch with the needs of the business world.
Notable Assumptions
In her premises, the author focuses entirely on why academia is failing management trainees and then jumps to the conclusion that executives should be setting curricula. But she’s only looking at one half of the equation—she says why academia needs help, but she doesn’t say why executives, specifically, are the ones to provide that help. The author must assume that executives can bring some kind of educational value that academics don’t provide.
25.
The argument relies on which ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████
a
Academics in business ███████ ████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████████
Too strong. The author isn’t arguing for the removal of academics from the teaching process, but rather for allowing executives to be included. So she doesn’t need to assume that academics have no valuable experience. She just assumes that they’re missing some kinds of experience or knowledge that students need and executives have.
b
Academics in business ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ████████
Too strong. One premise is that hypothetical case studies are used “too often,” but that doesn’t suggest that they’re the only case studies used. It’s possible that academics use real-world case studies too—just not often enough. So the author doesn’t need to assume (B).
c
Academics are not ███████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████████ █████████
The author doesn’t suggest that academics can’t teach the curricula; in fact, her conclusion specifically says they can. So she doesn’t assume (C). (To the contrary, she must assume that academics are capable of teaching the curricula.)
d
Academic training outside ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████ ████████ ████████
This compares academic training outside of business schools to within business schools. But it doesn’t matter how responsive academic training is to the needs of business. The problem is that management training isn’t responsive enough, and the argument is purely about how to fix that. There’s no need to assume anything about any other kinds of training.
e
Today's business executives ████ ████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████
The author never explains why executives, specifically, should be setting management curricula instead of academics. She must assume that executives can provide insights that academics can’t. Otherwise, there’s no reason to conclude that executives should be involved.