I had the reader question of what would I take if I weren't getting a doctorate after my MBA. To be honest I really don't know, but I do have some pretty good ideas of what I'd be interested in.
First if I get a job working for a municipality or government in some form or another I would very likely be interested in an MPA. Like the MBA the MPA is an administrative generalist degree but one that is obviously very different in both approach and outcomes than a for profit business would be. Though the skills an MBA and MPA would be expected to have, such as in finance, accounting, human resources and management would be very similar, the utilization of those skills and the objective to be achieved would be in different worlds altogether. If I decided to get an MPA California State University, Dominguez Hills would be my top choice. A close second would likely be a Texas school or APUS.
My second area of interest was of course in the Master of Science in Leadership from Southwestern College. I've written on this degree program enough that I really don't need to get into my reasons as to why to much suffice to say that management or administration and leadership are two very different things and though the MSL will probably cover some ground my MBA already has, the outcomes and objectives would be very different. This is more of a personal development degree rather than a bestowing of hard skills and it is a degree program that I personally believe is every bit as valuable as an MBA from an organizational perspective but the degree is also a bit ahead of its time right now and as a monetary investment may not add much to the MBA. But then who knows, I believe most people eventually earn what they are worth and if I were to learn skills that made me a more effective leader and therefore manager, then perhaps it would pay to get the degree. Maybe one day…
My last area of interest would be in something technical and vocationally specific. Like an MSIT or MSIS (Information Technology or Information Systems). New York University has a great program that is actually somewhat a quasi-post MBA program called a Master of Science in Management and Systems. As the nomenclature would indicate this is a management and hard skills degree but with an emphasis of the students choice. Expensive but a well known program no doubt.
Lastly I've given thought to Liberty University's Master of Science in Management, but in all honesty this degree would cover a lot of ground I've already covered and really not add to much to my resume in the area of hard skills or diversification.
That's about it. Oh and before anyone asks, if I ever changed my mind on getting a DBA or PhD from Northcentral University then I'd probably settle on a CAGS and get an EdD or Doctor of Arts from Harrison Middleton University. It would be more for my personal gratification than anything else but much like the MSL degree I mentioned above would likely develop my critical thinking skills further than they are now and thus cause me to be more valuable to my organization. So it's a toss up.
Editing note: This was a re-posting due to some technical issues. Sorry about that.