The Relevance of a Liberal Arts Education to Business School Graduates: An Assessment of Alumni

Kristi M. Bockorny, Ph.D. and Hannah D. Walters, D.B.A. Posted on
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.64010/JCDU9766

Abstract

A liberal arts education fosters a cross-discipline, undergraduate education that prepares graduates for a career and for life (AAU&C, 2020). In this study, business school alumni assess the relevance of their liberal arts education to their business degree. Zaichkowsky’s (1985) personal involvement inventory (PII) is used to assess perceived relevance. Data are collected via a survey administered to business alumni from a Midwest, regional state university. The cognitive dimension of the involvement construct was evaluated with a seven-point semantic differential-type scale measuring five items: important, relevant, means a lot to me, valuable, and needed. The affective dimension of the involvement construct was evaluated with exciting, appealing, and fascinating items also measured on a seven-point semantic differential-type scale. Alumni from this sample recognized, cognitively, the functional purpose of liberal arts education, whilst less oriented toward the affective purpose. More specifically, alumni ranked important, useful, valuable, and beneficial as highest in terms of relevance of general education to their business degree, while the lowest included exciting and fascinating.

Introduction

The question, “Is the liberal arts college doomed?” has been around for nearly 100 years. In the 1930’s, American education first appeared to be moving away from the traditional four-year liberal arts (McConaughy, 1938). McConaughy partly blames the leaders in the fields of professional schools, such as education and business for the training of teachers and executives, for the apparent vanishing of liberal arts programs (1938). In the history of business education, there have been concerns that business schools are too focused on academic rigor and less on job-readiness, leaving a gap in graduate skills (Garner et al., 2019). Some employers claim that college graduates are not job-ready when they enter the workforce and expect university education to be akin to job training, while universities and faculty cringe at the idea of college as merely job training (Garner et al., 2019).

Today, scholars and business executives believe that a solid liberal arts education is critical to develop business students into future business leaders (Harrison & Akinc, 2000). Leaders are needed in every industry to generate solutions to the pressing problems in the world, care for others, and help build a sustainable future (Maak & Pless, 2009). University and faculty members believe “that university is a place for self-discovery and learning how to develop life and critical thinking skills that are not specific to any one industry” (Garner et al., 2019, p. 440). Some universities are trying to do a better job of blending a liberal arts education with professional career readiness (Lewis & Kelly, 2017).

Chew and McInnis-Bowers point to an “attitude among professional students that liberal arts, or general education classes are to be quickly checked off a list of graduation requirements” (2004, p. 2). It may be that the impact of the general educational experience may not be realized until long after graduation. This leads the authors to question if business alumni perceive their liberal arts education as relevant to their business degree. This study will analyze the level of involvement and relevance of liberal arts courses amongst alumni who majored in business. This study will also investigate if there is a difference between affective and cognitive involvement, among business alumni.

This research is based on one regional state university in the Midwest of the United States, but the challenges and concerns raised are applicable to other business schools and liberal arts institutions as they look to update their general education course offerings and business core curricula to meet the needs of their communities and to prepare their students for varying career paths.

Literature Review

Liberal Arts Education

The value of a liberal arts education has long been debated. Since the 1930’s, people have been asking whether there is value in a liberal arts education (McConaughy, 1938). According to the Association of American Colleges and University (AAC&U), liberal arts is defined as “an approach to undergraduate education that promotes integration of learning across the curriculum and co-curriculum, and between academic and experiential learning, in order to develop specific learning outcomes that are essential for work, citizenship, and life” (AAU&C, 2020, para. 3). Though the term “liberal arts” may sound political, it really has little to do with politics. Liberal arts refers more to an encompassing education path that encourages students to think deeper and wider than just learning the terms (Dix, 2016). It forces students to ask the “why” rather than just accepting knowledge based on what is stated in a textbook. Universities are trying to identify curriculum that will align with the value of traditional liberal arts education, while ensuring the skills being developed in the classroom will be demanded by employers (Woodside, 2018).

A liberal arts degree typically prepares a student with knowledge from the natural sciences (biology, physics, and chemistry), the social sciences (communication, psychology and sociology), the humanities (literature, English and history), and the arts (music, theater, and art) (AAC&U, 2020). Liberal arts education is credited with producing graduates who are creative, critical thinkers, and humane (Ew-est & Kliegl, 2012). According to Skinner and Lawson (2006), liberal arts education offers a student a well-rounded education, a diverse understanding of an assortment of topics. A liberal arts education prepares a graduate with an array of skills that could be applied to various careers rather than for a specific job (Garner, Gove, Ayala, & Mady). Over their lifetime, today’s students will have an average of 11.9 career changes (Pasquerella, 2019). The diverse knowledge and encompassing skill set provided by a liberal arts education prepares students to successfully navigate through the ever-changing society that exists today. According to Krislov (2017), the goal of a liberal arts education is to educate the entire individual rather than educate for a specific job or position.

Liberal Arts Education and Business Education

Business education, which is typically not associated with liberal arts education, is often categorized as professional or practical education (Chew & McInnis-Bowers, 2004). However, the call for blending a liberal arts education with a business education has been discussed for well over a century (Eliot, 1923; Pierson, 1959; Gordon & Howell, 1958; Chew & McInnis-Bowers, 2004). Those in favor of blending the two together believed that business graduates would find value in developing critical thinking skills and communication (Eliot, 1923). Even with the proponents for blending liberal arts education with business education over the years, some argue the divide between liberal arts education and professional education cannot be closed. There seems to be two distinct philosophies; one developing students for thinking and creating and another for teaching students to get a job (LaHurd, 2007).

The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), an accrediting body for business programs around the world, strives to provide students with the skills needed to succeed in the workplace through continuous improvement. A brief description from ACBSP’s website states:

ACBSP’s accreditation process follows the Baldrige model. The accreditation focuses on recognizing teaching excellence, determining student learning outcomes, and a continuous improvement model. ACBSP’s student-centered teaching and learning approach, which is measured and analyzed for quality, ensures that students gain the right skills from their educational investment. Institutions with programs accredited by ACBSP are committed to continuous improvement that ensures their business program will give students the skills employers want. (ACBSP, 2020, para. 1)

In accordance with ACBSP’s goals of going beyond just business skills and providing students with the skills needed to succeed in the workforce, it can be argued that business students benefit from a liberal arts education.

Many business schools watch industry trends and listen to feedback from industry leaders to help guide curriculum development. Some claim that business schools focus too much on internships and work-specific simulations to prepare students for industry rather than for comprehensive learning (McK-innon & McCrae, 2012). Examples of this include job-specific certifications and endorsements that can be earned by completing specific activities or assessments. Corporate leaders are pursuing graduates who have strong communication skills, are able to listen, be persuasive, critically analyze problems, create solutions, and work with others (Scott, 2014). This would indicate that students who have been prepared at a liberal arts institution with a business major would be well-suited to be leaders in various industries. One could argue that business alumni who graduated with a business degree from a liberal arts institution would be able to discern whether they were prepared adequately for the workforce.

Involvement

Consumer behavior researchers frequently use involvement to measure an individual’s interest in a particular product. Zaichkowsky defines involvement as “a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs, values, and interests” (1985, p. 342). Involvement includes making a product appear relevant, which in turn, causes the consumer to be motivated to buy the product (Zaichkowsky, 1985). Involvement has been measured in various contexts; including attitude formation and change (Petty et al., 1983), information search (Bloch et al., 1986), and information processing (Greenwald & Leavitt, 1984).

Involvement is a motivational state construct. This means involvement is open to development and is malleable (Luthans, Avey, Avolio, Norman, & Combs, 2006). The antecedents of involvement may cause the involvement level to change; therefore, indicating that involvement is not a stable trait (Zaichkowsky, 1994). Three antecedents were identified as impacting the level of involvement including the characteristics of the individual, the characteristics of the stimulates, and the characteristics of the situation (Zaichkowsky, 1986; Block & Richins, 1983). Based on the situation and the antecedents, the level of involvement could be impacted.

There are two views of involvement that have emerged, cognitive and affective involvement. Cognitive involvement represents the functional perspective of the product or service. This includes the knowledge and rational experience an individual experiences when using the product (Zaichkowsky, 1994). Affective involvement signifies an emotion or feeling that a product or service could generate (Zaichkowsky, 1986). The view of involvement elicited in a given situation could be mainly cognitive, mainly affective, or both at the same time, depending on the experience.

Zaichkowsky’s (1985) Personal Involvement Inventory (PII) was initially developed to measure an individual’s involvement level with a given product or experience. This scale originally measured an individual’s motivation of involvement using 20 items rated on a seven-point semantic differential scale. The focus of this scale was on products, advertisements, and purchase decisions. The average Cronbach Alpha of the PII relating to products is .95 – .97 and .96 when analyzing advertising (Zaichkowsky, 1994).

There were some concerns regarding the initial scale. One of the main concerns of the PII was the repetition of similar themes or ideas. This concern was recognized and Zaichkowsky reduced the 20-item scale to a 10-item scale (1994). Nine of the original items were retained and one new item was added, involving/uninvolving. Celuch and Taylor (1999) introduced an eight-item PII scale. The eight-item scale still maintains the affective and cognitive involvement dimensions.

Business Alumni’s Involvement with Liberal Arts Education

A liberal arts education is one academic path a high school graduate, interested in business, can pursue. As business majors complete their education and move into careers in industry, the value of the liberal arts education on their current position in the workforce is of interest. Throughout their college studies, a business alum may have wondered why they had to take the liberal arts courses rather than just focusing on business topics. However, now that these business school graduates are in industry, the importance of a liberal arts education may be realized. According to Boston University’s Questrom School of Business’ assistant dean, businesses are looking for employees who have “the ability to think, the ability to write, the ability to understand the cultural or historical context of whatever business decision they’re making” (Ap-pelbaum, 2016, para. 8). These skills are at the heart of a liberal arts education.

This study will analyze the cognitive and affective involvement of a liberal arts education from the perspective of a business school alum. In a 2018 study, Walters and Bockorny analyzed the cognitive and affective involvement of a liberal arts education from current business students’ perspective. Through that study, it was discovered that business students view their general education as relevant when measured by the cognitive dimension of involvement, but not relevant when using the affective dimension.

Since involvement can be developed and malleable, one could contend that when business students graduate, become alumni, and progress through life and their career, their perspective may change. As mentioned above, the antecedents of involvement include the characteristics of the individual, the stimulates, and the situation (Zaichkowsky, 1986; Block & Richins, 1983). All three of these antecedents would most likely change when business students graduate and become business alum. This research will analyze business alumni’s involvement of their liberal arts education to determine its relevance to their life and career since graduation.

An ancillary purpose of this research is to determine if the PII scale is appropriate for measuring the level of involvement among business alumni regarding their liberal arts education. Another purpose of this research is to analyze the PII eight-item scale for fit. The eight-item scale was introduced by Celuch and Taylor (1999) and still maintains the affective and cognitive dimensions of involvement.

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Alumni will perceive their liberal arts education as relevant measured by the cognitive dimension of the PII scale.

Hypothesis 2 (H2): Alumni will perceive their liberal arts education as relevant measured by the affective dimension of the PII scale.

Hypothesis 3 (H3): The PII scale is appropriate for measuring business alumni’s level of involvement in their liberal arts education at the university level.

Methodology

Data was collected through an online survey in order to assess alumni perceptions of the relevance of their liberal arts education, as it relates to their business degree. Approximately 4,000 alumni from a Midwest, regional state university business school were invited to participate via email in 2019.

Five questions on the survey were related to demographics. The remainder of the survey assessed the perceived relevance of general education to a business degree using a seven-point semantic differential-type scale. Zaichkowsky’s full 20-item personal involvement inventory (PII) was used to assess perceived relevance (1985). Three hundred thirty-five surveys were submitted. Of the 335 surveys, 197 were incomplete, resulting in a total of 138 completed surveys to be analyzed in the study, for a response rate of 3.5%.

Results

Demographics

The five demographic questions on the survey assessed gender, age, ethnicity, graduation year, and major. Percentages in the following discussion do not necessarily sum to 100% due to rounding, multiple ethnic backgrounds, or double/triple majors. Sixty-two percent of respondents were male and 38% female, while one respondent opted not to answer the question. Fifteen percent of respondents were between the ages of 20-29, 13% between the ages of 30-39, 15% between the ages of 40-49, 28% between the ages of 50-59, 21% between the ages of 60-69, 8% between the ages of 70-79, and 9% opted out of this question. Ninety-four percent of the respondents were white or European American; 3% were American Indian, Alaska Native, Indigenous, or First Nations; 1% were multiracial/biracial; 1% were Asian or Asian American; while the remaining 1% preferred not to answer.

Eleven percent of respondents graduated between 2015-2019, 11% graduated 2010-2014, 7% graduated 2005-2009, 7% graduated 2000-2004, 9% graduated 1995-1999, 9% graduated 1990-1994, and 56% graduated prior to 1990. The alumni’s majors were differentiated within the School of Business: 16% Accounting or Professional Accountancy; 3% Banking; 29% Business Administration; 3% Economics; 6% Finance; 2% International Business; 20% Management; 2% Management Information Systems; 12% Marketing; and 7% other.

Descriptive Statistics

Since the university in this study uses general education language to describe their liberal arts education, the alumni were asked to rate the relevance of their general education as a whole to their business degree. Table 1 reveals that alumni found general education important, useful, valuable, and beneficial with the highest reported means. It also demonstrates that alumni perceived general education as not very exciting or fascinating, indicated by the low mean scores.

Zaichkowsky’s original 20-item instrument was used for data collection, however, Celuch and Taylor (1999) recommend the use of a reduced eight-item subset in order to measure the affective and cognitive dimensions of the involvement construct. The rest of the data analyses will focus on the eight-item PII subset. The construct of cognitive dimension of the involvement scale includes important, relevant, means a lot to me, valuable, and needed. Exciting, appealing, and fascinating comprise the affective dimension of the involvement construct.

Correlation Analysis

A correlation analysis was conducted to get a preliminary measure of strength and direction of association between two factors. Spearman’s Rho was used due to the non-normality of the data. A correlation matrix is show in Table 2.

In the correlation analysis, the items within the cognitive dimensions were found to more strongly correlate to other items within the cognitive dimension (important, relevant, means a lot to me, valuable, and needed). The same was found for the item correlation within the affective dimension (exciting, appealing, and fascinating).

An aggregate score was calculated for the affective dimension and the cognitive dimension. A paired-samples t-test was then conducted to compare the scores of the cognitive dimension versus the affective dimension. There was a significant difference in the scores for the cognitive dimension (M=5.35, SD=1.41) and the affective dimension (M=4.55, SD=1.44); t(136)=9.970, p<.001. These results suggest that alumni’s perception of general education is more cognitively involved than affectively involved, as it relates to their business degree.

Ad Hoc Analysis

An ad hoc analysis showed no significant difference between alumni gender and cognitive dimension or affective dimension. Also, a t-test comparison of alumni with quantitative majors (Accounting, Banking, Economics, and Finance) versus qualitative majors (Business Administration, International Business, Management, and Marketing) resulted in no significant difference in perception of general education relevance in either dimension.

One of the aims of the analysis was to identify if there is a point after graduation when the relevance of general education peaks. When charting the cognitive and affective dimensions means according to graduation year, it shows that both cognitive and affective peak for alumni who graduated between 1995-1999 which equates to 20-25 years after graduation.

Exploratory Factor Analysis

The next step in the data analysis was to conduct an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to determine if a single factor adequately describes the collected data. The EFA analysis of the eight-item subset included factor extraction using principal components and varimax factor rotation. Two factors were set to extract. Coefficients of .50 or less were suppressed. The rotation converged in three iterations.

Structural Equational Modeling

Structural Equational Modeling (SEM) was utilized to assess the construct validity and theoretical relationship among a set of concepts represented by multiple measured variables (Hair et al., 2009). A single group measurement model was developed and administered. The measurement model specifies the indicators for each construct and enabled an assessment of construct validity (Hair et al., 2009).

The measurement model in SEM defines relations between the scores on the measuring instrument and the underlying constructs they are designed to measure. The measurement model, as shown in Figure 1, shows the relationships between the observed measured items and the unobserved latent factors. The rectangles represent the observed measured items or the observed survey scale items while the circles signify the latent variables that are measured by the observed measured items. The single-headed arrows represent the impact of one variable on another, while the double-headed arrows represent covariances or correlations between pairs of variables (Byrne, 2006).

Figure 1. Measurement model. The factors include the affective dimension and the cognitive dimension.

A single-group measurement model was run using EQS in robust mode to adjust for the non-normality of the data. The first observed measured item for each unobserved latent factor was fixed to one in order to address model identification.

Goodness-of-fit indicates how well the specific model reproduces the observed covariance matrix among the indicator items (Hair et al., 2009). Due to the limitations cited in literature with the Independence Model Chi-Square test statistic, the goodness-of-fit measures evaluated for the present study include Bentler and Bonett’s (1980) Normed Fit Index (NFI) and Bentler’s (1990) Comparative Fit Index (CFI) (Byrne, 2006). The third fit measure used in this study is the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), which corrects for both model complexity and sample size by including each in its computation (Hair et al., 2009). These fit measures are summarized in Table 4. The NFI and CFI fit measures represent a well-fitting model (Byrne, 2006). The RMSEA indicates a reasonable fit.

Discussion

This paper examined the impact and relevance of liberal arts education on business alumni using Zaichkowsky’s personal involvement inventory (PII) scale. Alumni ranked important, useful, valuable, and beneficial as highest in terms of relevance of general education to their business degree, while the lowest included exciting and fascinating.

Hypothesis 1 was supported. Alumni did perceive their liberal arts education as relevant measured by the cognitive dimension of the PII scale. The mean for the cognitive dimension among was 5.35 on a scale of one to seven, with one representing the least relevant and seven being the most relevant with a standard deviation of 1.41. In addition, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) confirmed that variables of the cognitive dimension adequately described the collected data as shown in Table 3 above.

Hypothesis 2, which states, alumni will perceive their liberal arts education as relevant measured by the affective dimension of the PII scale, was also supported. The mean for the affective dimension was 4.55 with a standard deviation of 1.44, on a scale from one to seven. As shown in Table 3, the EFA confirmed that the three variables (exciting, appealing, and fascinating) of the affective dimension loaded accurately to describe the collected data.

Lastly, the empirical results from this study demonstrate strong support for the reduced set of eight-items from Zaichkowsky’s (1994) scale modification. The proposed scale reduction appears to capture both affective and cognitive dimensions within the context of this study. As a result of the fit measures of the SEM measurement model, hypothesis 3 is supported. Specifically, given the NFI, CFI, and RMSEA fit measures the authors conclude that the PII scale is appropriate for measuring business alumni’s level of involvement in their liberal arts education at the university level.

Alumni from this sample recognized, cognitively, the functional purpose of liberal arts education, whilst less oriented toward the affective purpose. Specifically, alumni found it important and valuable, but not very exciting or fascinating. This has implications for faculty at liberal arts colleges and universities. First, faculty should consider presenting their topics in more appealing or interesting ways. Second, colleagues from business and liberal arts must explore the blending of business and liberal arts to “anchor students in the fundamental outcomes expected from study within the liberal arts to be demonstrated through their application to the study of business” (Chew & McInnis-Bowers, 2004, p. 3).

In a comparison to Walters and Bockorny’s 2018 study of business students and their perception of general education, this study found a significant difference between alumni and students. An independent samples t-test compared the scores of the cognitive dimension and affective dimension for students and alumni. There was a significant difference in the scores for alumni cognitive dimension (M=5.35, SD=1.43) and students cognitive dimension (M=4.99, SD=1.41); t(302)=2.18, p=.030. Similarly, there was a significant difference in the scores for alumni affective dimension (M=4.53, SD=1.51) and students affective dimension (M=4.13, SD=1.51); t(302)=2.18, p=.023. These results demonstrate that alumni’s perception of a liberal arts is more cognitively and affectively involved than students, as it relates to their business degree.

Despite the controversy of the value of liberal arts education, the findings of this study provide supporting evidence for the value and relevance of liberal arts education among business alumni. According to Pasquerella, 80% of employers agree that students need a strong foundation in the liberal arts (2019).

Limitations and Future Research

A limitation is that this study relies on self-assessment, similar to other studies using Zaichkowsky’s PII scale. A second limitation was poor survey design resulting in a low response rate. Of the approximately 4,000 alumni invited to participate, 335 surveys were received. However, 197 were incomplete, leaving 138 usable surveys to be analyzed in the study. This represents a 3.5% response rate. After further analysis of the 197 incomplete surveys, it appears the respondents completed the demographic questions but did not complete the PII scale items.

Another limitation is that data were collected only from alumni who graduated with a business degree from a regional Midwest university. As such, the use of a single business school and university limits the general-izability of our findings. This study should be replicated in other professional majors, such as education, engineering, or law, and conducted at other universities in other parts of the country. This research could also be extended to other geographical locations to determine if location (urban versus rural, east coast versus west coast) affects the value perception of a liberal arts education.

Conclusion

To answer the 100-year-old question, “Is the liberal arts college doomed?” No. This research showed that even though American higher education is under siege, alumni recognize the value of liberal arts education. The broad learning and cross-cutting skills gained in their liberal arts education proved relevant to business alumni. As a result of the liberal arts education, business alumni are better prepared to become business leaders and global citizens for a better tomorrow.

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