Practitioner faculty have traditionally maintained a core teaching function at most professional schools. Imagine a medical school where students receive instruction from someone other than a practicing Master physician. In other words, what if a professor in such medical school has an in-depth understanding of medicine in theories, but does not have enough field
experiences (i.e., performing actual brain surgery or diagnosing panicked patients who are losing vital sign in ER.) A student in business program might complete an entire program never having met a faculty member who had P & L responsibility, who managed an asset more valuable than their home, or who supervised a single employee (save an occasional graduate
student). Could a business student from such instruction understand why company stock is crashing one Friday afternoon?
This paper advances immediate impact of relevance and practice by arguing for the central role of practitioner faculty in schools of business. After briefly reviewing the current literature on these \"invisible\", yet essential real-world knowledge source, the authors discuss methods of integrating practitioners into core teaching roles. For adult students who have a modicum of business experience, we argue that the Problem Based learning model developed in medical education may be more productive than current MBA plans. This model demands the expertise and credibility that practicing managers and leaders bring to schools of business (clinical
adjunct professors, if you will). We suggest that not only will teaching improve by this integration, but also the quality of research will become much immediately beneficial especially to countries that are undergoing financial struggles.