I can hardly believe it. We've already hit week seven and I'm still reeling from the shock of being back on the MBA programme.

This term has accelerated beyond reasonable expectations. People have already begun saying the May exams are just around the corner. Sometimes I think they must secretly be relishing the prospect. I, on the other hand, am busily ensconced in the by now familiar regime of daily fire fighting. There is far too much happening on a short-term basis even to contemplate longer term implications. (Note classic MBAesque timeframe analysis reference!)

Anyone who said - and they said it in their droves - the second term was easier than the first, must have been delusional. At least last term the subjects were reasonably finite and containable. There was a beginning, middle and end to most of them.

This term is essentially all about case analyses. Broadly speaking this usually involves looking at sprawling, mammoth, global corporations and pondering conundrums they might face.

Should Nucor Corporation invest $340 million (€369 million) in that yet-to-be-proven thin-slab steel casting technology? Hell, why not! It's 1986 for God's sake, industrial technology is where it's at. But then again, Nucor's core competency is low-cost production efficiency, why should it start messing around with skills it knows nothing about?

Or how are Sweden's Asea and Switzerland's Brown Boveri going to handle the cultural implications of a mega merger between the two engineering giants. After all Sweden is noted for its feminine culture, while the Swiss and Germans have a more masculine orientation. What's the best way to manage and get the best out of the two cultures working within one organisation?

Then there are problems of corporate governance facing a public company like Manchester United. How does the company decide on the best strategy for its stakeholders, who include fans, directors, corporate investors, sponsors and players. Who has the most worthy influence and power when it comes to making decisions?

These cases provide useful bases for specific analysis and diagnosis. It's figuring out the right analytical tools to use that's the problem, and there's never any simple answer, it's more a matter of arriving at a justifiable conclusion. MBA Learning Lesson No.407: the world of business isn't monochrome, there are distinct shades of grey too.

Of course this is hardly a conclusion Archimedes would be jumping out of the bath over. But even financial reporting and corporate finance? It's a disturbing discovery that these are among the blackest arts of them all.

These subjects masquerade about, resplendent in their bold balances, ratios and percentages defying anyone to question their finite figures. But these disciplines often employ the most artful means to arrive at their intimidating conclusions. And why wouldn't they? The order of the day is increasing shareholder value, apparently. Meanwhile this usually translates down to the footsoldier firefighting ranks as keeping the boss happy.

But guess what, the boss isn't even doing what he or she is supposed to be doing. Take the findings of a reading that sought to establish - What do managers do?

According to Henry Mintzberg, a renowned academic observer of organisational behaviour it certainly isn't planning, organising, co-ordinating and controlling, as we've long been led to believe. Based on a diary study with 160 British middle and top managers, he found that they worked, without interruption for a half hour or more, just once every two days. Instead of being expert systematic planners, their activities are more likely to be characterised by brevity, variety and discontinuity. They tend to respond to their environments through a continuous flurry of daily activity.

Then there's the idea that managers can only function if they have detailed aggregated information at their fingertips. The time and expense that organisations put into developing integrated management information systems are a clear reflection of this.

But no, apparently managers prefer verbal media, telephone calls and meetings, to detailed reports the size of phone books. When making decisions the manager will tend to rely on specific titbits of data gleaned from a range of sources - including hearsay, gossip and speculation - rather than concrete data.

This is why team working is now viewed as an effective means of tackling the traditional problems faced by the manager. Contemporary thinking believes if employees are given more autonomy, more will get done. But that's a whole other can of worms. . .

For my own part, a new term has brought with it a new working team, and I don't think any of my team mates will take offence when I say this has been slightly traumatic. Having spent the first three months of the course getting to know one team it is disorienting to face into a new one, and go through the same process all over again. But as we are frequently reminded, we live in a climate of constant change, and no doubt this is all part of the MBA masterplan.

On a lighter note I received an e-mail the other day entitled You've Been in MBA land Too Long When. . . :

You ask the waiter what the restaurant's core competencies are.

You decide to re-organise your family into a "team-based organisation".

You actually know what a paradigm is.

Your Valentine's Day cards have bullet points.

You explain to your bank manager that you prefer to think of yourself as "highly leveraged" as opposed to "in debt".

You start to feel sorry for Dilbert's boss.

(And my own addition:)

The annual college ball takes place on a Monday night in February.

None of your May Ball madness for us, matey! Nevertheless, 600 graduate business students came out in all their glory last Monday night for a good old-fashioned black-tie bunfight.

Although we MBAs cut a slightly older, more jaded dash, I'm pleased to report we held our own with the best of them. There were even shock reports of messy MBA sightings on Leeson Street in the wee small hours.

The next MBA Diary will appear on March 26th. Madeleine Lyons can be contacted at lyons@ireland.com