Changing Role of Management Education

The greatest competitive challenge facing the Industry/Corporate today is how to embrace the dynamic changes.  The business environment is in constant flux and Companies must accept the new realities.  The backdrop of such changes has catalysed a reassessment of traditional management concepts and practices.  Innovating the evolution of new management paradigm and identifying its main drivers has been the twin – challenges confronting the B-Schools

                                                                                                    

To ensure quality management education, the institutions should constantly endeavor to introduce innovative pedagogy and create a learning environment that- harnesses creative and entrepreneurial management potential. Design, methodology and approach have been thoroughly over hauled replacing the conventional methods of teaching.  Re-orientation of programmes by paying emphasis on values, ethics and quality of management education has been another significant aspect of teaching methodologies. 

Management  Guru Peter Drucker 40 Years ago said  “ To make knowledge work productive will be the great management task of this Century, just as to make manual work productive was the great management task of the last century”, This truly depicts the paradigm shift that we experience today.

Ever since the global melt down, especially in USA with its cascading ripples in South Asia and South East Asia and the current unprecedented the entire management pedagogy hitherto practiced has been put on deterioration.  It has necessitated a paradigm shift in redefining and reinventing the entire gamut of academic delivery.

In this background India the 4^th largest economy of the world, needs highly qualified managers to manage the highly competitive business enterprises.  However, Indian business schools lack widely in terms of quality of Faculty, market-driven curriculum, good infrastructure and placement.  The mushrooming of the B-Schools sans quality has added only the numbers without churning out any strategic leaders who can leverage the pace of sustainable development.

There is a little doubt that business education is a huge industry across the world .It is estimated that the global corporate education and training market is around USD 72 billion. The global management education market is to be estimated to be USD 24 Billion. It is growing at the rate of 10-12% per annum .The United states is the largest market .Since the market is lucrative and entry costs are relatively low there is a continuous growth of new entries .With the increasing competition the reputes schools are now globalizing and branding their products .This is likely to see a reputation and brand driven growth. Although the general value chain of business schools has remained relatively unchanged over the past 50 years, business schools have created some unique characteristics in their value creation, branding and niche positioning. At the same time corporations are intensifying their efforts for management development and the number of corporate universities is on the increase.

This being so, the other side of the story shows the concern for the Business School professors is how to produce good managers with the attributes of increased efficiency and effectiveness, ethics, knowledge, fluency to apply management concepts, theories and tools. We shall examine the areas of concern; the key issues which is to be focused upon in uplifting the management education and making Indian Management education world class.

When we talk about the management education, we are basically referring to the shaping up of the student to develop the competency and capability either as an intrapreneur (to join and help an organization to grow) or as an entrepreneur (to establish and grow one's own organization). This capability does not necessarily always come from possessing a piece of paper whether called "degree" or "diploma" in Management, but also by means of developing the will & skill to contribute for Self reliance and self nourishment  in nation building.

The existing system of Management Education is alienated from real life. There is a gap between the subjects and the objectives and this cannot achieve such goals as national development, building ethical, religious and spiritual values in business etc.

Management education should not only aim to meet the needs of the students but it also should match the expectations of the whole community. For this business schools should focus on educational program as well as the all around development of the students .One of the many issues facing management education today is how to teach ethical behavior, human values and international understanding without prejudice.

To bring about and assimilate the above changes the whole pedagogy will have to be recast to address the challenges.  The real challenge with B-Schools lies in lack of soft skill though students are comfortable at their domain knowledge.  Training in soft skill becomes the added responsibility of the B-Schools.  The Management schools focus on this aspect which will enhance employability matrix and be useful for the employers.  Increased interface/interaction with corporate/industries can broader the outlook of students.  Along with enabling the students for securing the right job, entrepreneurship development, motivation and fostering an incubation centre at the Management Institutes should be encouraged.  Such move will help them go for self employment thereby widening more scope for employment generation and inclusive growth.