Yale School of Management

The Yale Management Integrated Curriculum

At the Yale School of Management, our mission is to educate leaders for business and society. This mission reflects the vision and expectation that our graduates are inspiring leaders who own and solve hard problems that matter. In keeping with this mission, the school has pioneered an MBA curriculum designed to better meet the management challenges of contemporary organizations.

The Yale Management approach is designed to accomplish two goals: first, to instill a general competency in meeting the challenges of management; and second, to facilitate students’ development of their own personal career aspirations. In teaching what is general, our aim is to establish a higher standard of professional management; in cultivating what is personal, our aim is to establish a higher standard of leadership.

Instead of teaching management topics in separate, single-subject courses like Finance or Marketing, Yale teaches core subjects in an integrated way, providing frameworks and concepts in a richer, more relevant context. By creating a teaching and learning environment that actively draws connections between the traditional MBA subjects, Yale’s innovative approach not only requires more disciplined thinking, but also inspires more creative problem-solving.

In addition, by incorporating into assignments and classroom sessions the raw materials and resources a contemporary manager must use—for example, through the novel Yale Management Case Portal, which features original source documents such as 10-Ks and analyst reports, along with Yale faculty-developed articles, interviews with individuals involved in the business situation described in the case, plus articles and video clips from business news outlets, and other multimedia content—the Yale curriculum equips students with the tools, insights, and habits of mind they will need to succeed in today’s business environment.

At the same time, other elements of the Yale Management experience focus on aligning students’ professional goals with their values and aspirations. In the first year, for example, the Leadership Development Program and the Careers course provide opportunities both for focused introspection and for a broader understanding of possible professional roles and paths. Resources such as faculty-authored Career Guides and Career Development Office programs and workshops provide tools and direction to refine and support students’ professional objectives. Participation in student clubs and other co-curricular activities develop personal and professional leadership skills.

The heart of this new way of thinking about the traditional MBA is a series of eight multidisciplinary courses, taught by teams of senior faculty from different academic disciplines. Called Organizational Perspectives, these first-year courses are structured around the organizational roles a manager must engage, motivate, and lead. The roles are both internal to the organization: the Innovator, the Operations Engine, the Employee, and Sourcing and Managing Funds (or CFO); and external to the organization: the Investor, the Customer, the Competitor, and State and Society.

Prior to the Organizational Perspectives courses, all first-year students take part in a six-week Orientation to Management, which provides a foundation of the basic tools and language of management that the rest of the first year builds upon. In January, all first-year students participate in a 10-day International Experience trip to study various aspects of the global business environment. Yale was the first major business school to require international study as part of its MBA program. Classes and assignments both before and after the International Experience help place these trips in proper context and serve as further learning opportunities. The Yale first year culminates in the Integrated Leadership Perspective, in which students apply their learnings to a series of complex case studies of organizations of varying scope, size, and sector.

Yale has incorporated the integrated approach into its elective offerings as well. (Students take one or two electives in the second term of the first year; the second year of the Yale MBA program consists entirely of electives.) Special sequences of electives allow students to explore particular career paths, such as marketing or investment management, using a multidisciplinary outlook that correlates to current practice in these fields. At the same time, the school offers a wide range of disciplinary electives that allow students to undertake advanced study in areas such as finance or strategy. In addition, Yale Management students may avail themselves of a wide range of courses offered in other schools and departments at Yale University.