Abstract:
There have been three enquiries into management education in Australia over the last thirty
years. These are the Cyert, Ralph and Karpin reports. The institutional and environmental
circumstances leading to these reports are described and their recommendations examined.
Subsequent implementation of the recommendations forms the basis of assessment as to how
institutional forces can influence outcomes. Greater attention is paid to the Karpin report as
this was the most extensive and the most critical of Australian managers. The 2006
publication of The Boston Consulting Group's Value Creator's Report provided a good
opportunity to compare Karpin's recommendations with the subsequent performance of
Australian industry. It was concluded that the institutional and environmental changes which
occurred during the 1990s had a significant impact upon business performance and subsumed
Karpin's observations and recommendations.
