ngineering, health sciences, and all the rest as a means of qualifying these specialists to become effective business executives. The fact that a high proportion of MBA graduates seek careers in finance, or that, within organizations, these graduates emphasize the financial aspects of management, does not change the structure of MBA education or the character of the degree. Those individuals drawing this conclusion also tend to overlook the fact that vast layers of middle management positions are being permanently eliminated through downsizing and organizational restructuring for reasons unrelated to the character of the higher education of the individuals who have typically filled those positions. Changes in the ways in which information is managed and used within organizations have reduced the requirements for middle managers, and these positions will not be resurrected regardless of the degree qualifications of managerial job applicants (Drucker, 1988, pp. 45 53).
The foregoing discussion was not intended to indicate that an examination of the relationship between an individual's higher education and the probability of selection for employment by an organization or promotion within an organization is not an important research topic. Rather, the foregoing discussion was intended to emphasize that such research should not be based on questionable assumptions.
In the conduct of such research, a distinction must be made between selection for employment and promotion in the context of an applicant's educational qualifications. For an individual with no or quite limited work experience, higher educational attainment assumes great importance as a selection criterion. For the individual with extensive work experience, however, the criteria for selection for employment or for promotion within an organization will include that individual's performance record, as well as other qualifications, such as higher educational attainment.