Journal Spotlights Bucknell's Groundbreaking Management 101 Course

Since 1979, Bucknell's innovative Management 101 (MGMT 101) course has pushed students to their limits, served as a model for other universities, and challenged instructors to continually improve and update teaching materials and strategies so the class remains cutting-edge.

That evolution, and the faculty teamwork required to keep the experiential course relevant in a changing world, is the subject of "Context and Pedagogy: A Quarter-Century of Change in an Introductory Management Course." The article is co-authored by all four current MGMT 101 professors — Jamie Hendry, Tammy Hiller, Eric Martin and Neil Boyd, management — and published in the June 2017 edition of the Journal of Management Education.

In fact, the journal spotlights MGMT 101 with a package of stories, including course originator and Professor Emeritus John Miller's original 1991 article describing the class, which requires students to create fully functioning companies, selling real products, over the course of one semester. A third article features Miller's reflections on challenges that face the course moving forward.

Although aspects of the class have been replicated on campuses across the United States, MGMT 101, which teams the student-formed companies with charitable organizations for service projects, remains unique to Bucknell, according to Boyd.

"We're proud of the fact that Bucknell is the home of Management 101," he says.