![headshot](https://www.bakeru.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/matt.png)
Matthew R. Bice, PhD
Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Graduate and Online Education
Build Your Own MBA: Transformational Studies
About
In the past few years, the world has experienced a lot of change. From digital transformation and the deconstruction of centralized workplaces to new scientific breakthroughs and more emphasis on sustainable operations, businesses of all kinds are revolutionizing what they do—and how they do it.
These changes also place a new demand on the workforce. Not all organizations are looking for leaders who have specialized areas of expertise (marketing, supply chain, entrepreneurship, or finance, for example). Instead, many businesses need top-level advisors who are prepared to find innovative, cross-disciplinary ways to address unpredictable and complex challenges as they arise.
A new breed of MBA program is helping students connect the dots between departments, divisions, and disciplines to improve business results.
Baker University’s MBA in Transformational Studies is a brand new concentration area that prepares graduates to extract knowledge from multiple disciplines and fields so they can eliminate functional silos and make a big impact by marrying subjects that normally exist in their own vertical areas.
How an MBA in Transformative Studies Is Different
- It broadens and deepens your multidisciplinary knowledge and skill set.
- It helps you learn to view complex problems through a cross-disciplinary lens.
- It breaks down traditional academic walls and encourages interdisciplinary approaches that lead to innovative problem-solving and decision-making.
- It gives you the capacity to navigate change elegantly and successfully.
The Value of an Interdisciplinary Studies Degree
More than a decade ago, an American entrepreneur and industrial designer Steve Jobs described Apple’s philosophy to a room full of tech lovers by saying, “Technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts married with the humanities that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”
In other words, it took skills, insight, and expertise from three distinctly different fields to create the tech products that have changed how we look at technology. Today, most careers call for a mix of skills that reach across multiple areas.
Baker’s MBA in Transformative Studies gives you the freedom to shape your own interdisciplinary studies degree and find the right fit based on what you want to learn and where you want to go. Choosing the transformative studies concentration area lets you build your own MBA so you can align Baker’s curriculum offerings with your goals.
You’ll benefit from a functional education and practical skills to support what high-performing organizations need most.
You’re in complete control of what you learn as you create the flexible and personalized academic experience you want.
This online MBA option also equips you with skills that translate across job titles and fields. If you ever want to change career paths, then an interdisciplinary studies degree makes it easier to adapt and evolve.
Transformative Studies: How Does This MBA Work?
To earn this interdisciplinary studies degree from Baker, you enroll in the MBA program and choose transformative studies from our MBA tracks.
All students participate in four upper-level Baker graduate courses to fulfill the 12-hour concentration requirement. To achieve this, you’ll work closely with your academic advisor to choose courses from any MBA tracks we offer:
- Data analytics
- Finance
- Health care administration
- Human resource management
- Strategic management
- Supply chain management and logistics
- Venture and innovation
You can also choose courses from Baker’s Master of Science in Sports Management and Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership programs. The options are nearly limitless, allowing you to build your own MBA.
For example, you may choose to take Organizational Culture and Dynamics, a course featured in the MS in Sports Management program, and Assessment of Organizational Performance from the MA in Organizational Leadership program, along with courses from other MBA tracks, such as human resources, to build a unique skill set focused on culture and performance at all levels—from large groups to small teams and individuals.
By hand-picking courses across these master’s programs, you’ll build a distinctive viewpoint that prepares you for new types of job opportunities.
Like all Baker MBA programs, the focus of the transformative studies concentration area is on practical application. With this degree, you’ll be able to rebrand yourself in today’s competitive job market as you emerge as a relevant, valuable leader who understands business—and has a wide variety of tools and resources at your disposal to overcome obstacles.
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Why Choose an Interdisciplinary Studies Degree?
Now more than ever, companies need leaders who are comfortable with unconventional thinking.
Choosing transformative studies as your MBA concentration area takes you far beyond business as usual so you can develop your own perspective for helping businesses redefine strategies, apply innovative concepts and technology, and tackle emerging issues.
An interdisciplinary degree like Baker’s MBA in Transformative Studies represents the real world in a way that a single course of study may not. Knowledge is never developed in isolation, so our interdisciplinary degree makes sure that you’re prepared to apply new ways of thinking and connect traditionally disjointed pieces of information.
As you learn more about our MBA tracks, consider this new breed of MBA—an interdisciplinary studies degree in transformative studies may be the key that unlocks all kinds of new opportunities for you.