Making Global MBAs

The Culture of Business and the Business of Culture

Andrew Orta

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780520325401
• eBook ISBN: 9780520974258
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

A generation of aspiring business managers has been taught to see a world of difference as a world of opportunity. In Making Global MBAs, Andrew Orta examines the culture of contemporary business education, and the ways MBA programs participate in the production of global capitalism through the education of the business subjects who will be managing it.
 
Based on extensive field research in several leading US business schools, this groundbreaking ethnography exposes what the culture of MBA training says about contemporary understandings of capitalism in the context of globalization. Orta details the rituals of MBA life and the ways MBA curricula cultivate both habits of fast-paced technical competence and “softer” qualities and talents thought to be essential to unlocking the value of international cultural difference while managing its risks. Making Global MBAs provides an essential critique of neoliberal thinking for students and professionals in a wide variety of fields.
 

1

the 

2011 

title 

of 

a 

special 

“DealBook” 

section 

of 

the 

New 

York 

Times

announces 

a 

new 

day 

in 

international 

business. 

“ree 

of 

the 

largest 

markets 

for 

initial 

public 

offerings 

last 

year 

were 

Hong 

Kong, 

Shanghai 

and 

Shenzhen, 

China,” 

reports 

the 

cover 

article.

Private 

equity 

firms 

focused 

on 

emerging 

markets 

raised 

$22.6 

billion 

in 

the 

first 

half 

of 

2011, 

compared 

with 

$23.5 

billion 

for 

all 

of 

last 

year. 

And 

Chile, 

Ukraine 

and 

ailand 

are 

among 

the 

fastest-growing 

markets 

for 

deals. 

Wall 

Street 

titans 

can 

truly 

claim 

the 

title 

of 

Masters 

of 

the 

Universe—or 

at 

least 

the 

World. 

(Sorkin 

2011)

e 

full-page 

illustration 

on 

the 

front 

page 

of 

the 

section 

underscores 

the 

message. 

In 

the 

foreground, 

a 

man 

stands 

at 

the 

edge 

of 

a 

dock 

in 

a 

light-

colored 

suit 

with 

a 

panama 

hat, 

his 

jacket 

slung 

over 

his 

shoulder, 

his 

foot 

on 

a 

well-traveled 

suitcase 

bearing 

stickers 

indexing 

multiple 

destinations. 

In 

the 

shade 

of 

a 

palm 

tree, 

he 

looks 

across 

a 

body 

of 

water 

as 

a 

container 

ship 

steams 

toward 

him. 

On 

the 

other 

side 

of 

the 

water, 

a 

waterfall 

and 

verdant 

hills 

recede 

toward 

more 

mountainous 

terrain. 

An 

imposing 

and 

dramatically 

shadowed 

peak, 

backed 

by 

sunlit 

golden 

clouds 

against 

a 

blue 

sky, 

completes 

the 

scene.

Within 

this 

stock 

setting 

of 

raw, 

fertile, 

mysterious, 

and 

perhaps 

danger-

ous 

potential, 

other 

details 

complicate 

the 

story. 

e 

container-laden 

ship 

is 

steaming 

toward 

the 

dock. 

e 

smokestacks 

of 

a 

factory 

are 

onshore 

just 

behind 

the 

ship. 

And, 

sweeping 

across 

the 

mid-range 

of 

the 

image, 

the 

ver-

dant 

hills 

and 

craggy 

mountains 

are 

dotted 

with 

wind 

turbines, 

a 

cell 

tower, 

and 

the 

skyscrapers 

of 

a 

distant 

city. 

e 

titles 

of 

some 

of 

the 

other 

articles 

in 

the 

section 

underscore 

this 

moment 

ripe 

with 

global 

opportunities 

for 

those 

o

n

e

Wall 

Street 

Goes 

to 

the 

Ends 

of 

the 

Earth

Table of contents

• Cover
• Making Global MBAs
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• 1 • Wall Street Goes to the Ends of the Earth
• 2 • Fast Subjects: The Rituals of MBA Training
• 3 • Accounting for Business
• 4 • The Currency of Culture
• 5 • Managing the Margins
• 6 • Partial Answers: The Uses of Ethnographic Capitalist Realism
• 7 • Frontiers of Capitalism
• Notes
• References
• Index