Self-Reporting MBA Key Experience Assessment : Evidence from Lincoln University

This paper empirically provides an innovative way of thinking about the MBA program at Lincoln University (hereafter LU) by giving students an opportunity to rate their work experience based on how they currently see themselves. This manuscript develops the instrument prepared by McMillan & Hearn (2004) by creating a questionnaire including 21 statements covering ten skills. The results indicate that the average work experience of second-year MBA students is greater than that of first-year students, indicating the effectiveness of the MBA program. Furthermore, respondents with educated parents have a higher average of work experience than MBA students with uneducated parents, knowing that this factor (parent's background) does not necessarily improve business skills, but it should be considered as part of the self-reporting for work experience. By using the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), four factors were found to be the most important part of business skills for first-year MBA students while only two factors were considered important for second-year MBA students. Both groups give high rating to certain skills that are not technically taught by instructors, such as interaction with people from other countries and working outside of the country. It is concluded that students obtained these skills from other sources, such as traveling from their countries to the U.S. to work with foreign people. Thus, these findings help conclude that the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SR-Q) can be utilized as a vehicle for giving feedback on learning abilities. Because of some limitations, these results must be interpreted with caution