Summer Reading List: The B-School Edition

Don't let the summer go to waste. Take a look at what B-schoolers will be reading poolside for enlightenment and entertainment

By Francesca Di Meglio

For aspiring MBAs, the summer is a time for quiet reflection, not to mention getting a jump on the competition through either an internship or other educational opportunities. Reading is another affordable way to expand your mind and give you deeper insight into management.

"I'm a fervent believer that information adds to knowledge, and knowledge is a powerful tool for good decision-making," says Hassell McClellan, associate professor of operations and strategic management at Boston College's Carroll School of Management (Carroll Full-Time MBA Profile), who used to have his own children read five to six books each summer and turn in one-page book reports. As a professor, he gives his students a list of 20 to 25 books, which he believes they should try to read over the course of their two years in the full-time MBA program.

Voracious readers could make for more successful leaders. Heather Elms, associate professor of international business at American University's Kogod School of Business (Kogod Full-Time MBA Profile), hopes that her students pick up the newspaper sometimes, too. "We want MBAs to be good citizens," she says. "To be a good citizen, you have to keep up with what's happening."

Judging by the readings on the minds of business school professors for the summer of 2010, the economic crisis, innovation and technology, and ethics are all top of mind. If you're looking for ideas for your own reading this summer, you might want to consider the picks below, culled from the summer reading lists that several business school professors recently shared with Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Management as a Profession

Business school students at Kogod often talk to Elms about the notion of making management a profession like medicine or law. She says her students have one of two reactions: Either they say, "I thought it was already a profession," or they say, "I thought management was about making as much money as you can."

Saddened by both responses but hopeful that students will see the value in professionalizing management, Elms says From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession (Princeton University Press, reprint 2010), by Rakesh Khurana, is a must-read book for incoming MBA students. "It will help you to understand the original motivations behind the institutions in which you'll study, the issues associated with management as a profession, and why it might be good for you if it were," writes Elms in her summer reading list.

Technology is also giving management aspirants something to think about. As iPads and Kindles become more popular and the Internet overtakes traditional publishing, businesspeople and writers alike are wondering what's going to happen to the printed word.Will it become extinct? The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2005), by Elizabeth L.Eisenstein, allows readers to look at the 1500s, a time when it was not clear whether hand-copied books or mechanically printed ones would rule the day, writes Dan Brooks, a professor at the W.P.Carey School of Business (Carey Full-Time MBA Profile) at Arizona State University, in his summer reading list.

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