Second-Career Academics and the Quality of Business Education

Abstract

Strong competition among business schools globally exerts pressure for improvement in the delivery of quality business education. This has resulted in business schools recruiting business practitioners and professionals as academics, who are known as second-career academics. The quality of business education depends on, among other things, the academics who teach the business units. Accordingly, this study explores how these second-career academics impact the quality of business education through insights into their lived experience in teaching business units. Hence, a hermeneutic interpretive approach is adopted within a narrative inquiry for this study. Thirty-one second-career academics from business schools at eight universities across Malaysia were interviewed individually and in focus group discussions. The dataset was analysed thematically. The findings suggest that the values that they bring towards improvement in the quality of business education are their ability to facilitate authentic learning and holistic education.