[Opinion] A University’s Reflection Letter

There is always a phrase that follows when referring to business administration, the field I majored in. It is either praised as a practical discipline or criticized as a miscellaneous field. Both statements are true from the perspective of a major. In my view, business administration is the study of actions aimed at efficiently achieving corporate goals. To find these methods, it references various fields such as psychology, sociology, and engineering. Because of this, the criticism of being miscellaneous can also be taken as a compliment. As seen in terms like cultural management, content management, and tourism management, it can be interpreted as the ability to integrate with other fields.

However, the status of business administration as a practical discipline has recently suffered a significant blow. Not long ago, I heard a shocking story at the academic society I belong to. Some companies sent official letters requesting lectures for their CEOs through the society. But the letters emphasized recommending company practitioners as lecturers rather than professors specialized in the field. This caused sighs among professors. Why has business administration, once praised as a practical discipline, come to be treated this way?

Business administration studies corporate actions in various areas such as human resources and organizational management, production and service operations management, finance and accounting, customer touchpoints, products, and marketing. If business administration is disconnected from actual corporate management, why would anyone study it? A comment from a student who had just graduated and started working echoed in my ears: “Professor, I thought I learned a lot studying business administration for many years at school, but the knowledge I gained is useless at my company.” Hearing this made my face flush with embarrassment.

What must be done for business administration to truly become a discipline needed by society? A senior professor who spent a research year at Hitotsubashi University in Japan said that during his first meeting with professors there, he asked about their specific majors. One professor replied that his major was the telecommunications industry. When asked again whether his major was accounting, marketing, or production and operations management, the answer was that he specialized in wireless telecommunications operators within the telecommunications industry. At Hitotsubashi University, regardless of the major, research is conducted on industries that require it, and specialized talents are nurtured.

Korean university students learn from translated textbooks from the US or UK. Most of these textbooks contain history of development and universally applicable knowledge. At one time, there was a serious avoidance of STEM fields, and if students ranked well in humanities and social sciences, they could cross-apply to medical schools, but now the avoidance of humanities and social sciences has become so severe that the phrase “Mun-song-ham-ni-da” (literally “Sorry for being a humanities student”) is often heard. The reason is likely due to lack of specialization and practicality. Universities need to reflect on whether they are evolving with the times. Can professors confidently state their majors in front of company practitioners?

Professor Changhee Kim, Department of Business Administration, Incheon National University