CSU Fullerton to Offer MBA Concentration in Organizational Leadership

Not long ago, an MBA degree was regarded by many people as a passport to a lucrative professional job in a field such as investment banking or strategy consulting. While many students still pursue these career paths, a growing portion of them are looking for purpose as well as profit in their jobs.  In fact, making a positive social or environmental impact has overtaken pay and other perks as the top reasons MBA students pursue their career, according to an often-cited survey by Bain & Company, which, ironically, is a consultancy firm.  Curriculum changes are underway as business schools respond to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) revolution. Schools have been criticized for their apparent role in the global financial crisis and for focusing too heavily on maximizing shareholder return. Today many top MBA programs include an impact-related module, such as impact investing or social entrepreneurship.  The career opportunities in this field have flourished. CSR was previously something many companies merely paid lip service to, but they are making “impact” a fundamental piece of their business plans. There are now 2,655 certified “B Corporations”, or firms that verify their high social and environmental performance, across 150 industries and 60 countries, including the ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s and the social media company Hootsuite.  Picking the right program, however, is crucial. So we’ve ranked the best MBAs for social or environmental impact, below. 

Effective supply chain management (SCM) practices have become essential to firms in many industries, particularly since globalization has widened the geographic distances between suppliers, manufacturers, and customers

Human resources management, as a function, is growing ever more powerful after years in the doldrums thanks to recent developments like mass allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace following the #MeToo movement. Meanwhile, with employers gathering unprecedented data on workers, an exciting new frontier of people analytics is opening up.

The manufacturing and industrial sectors are huge (and growing) parts of the global economy. To tap into these lucrative fields, MBA students can pursue related functional concentrations like operations management or supply chain management.