Managing Management Institutions

With over 1000 Management Institutions, it is a matter of contemplation that how does India’s system of management education compare with the quality of management education in other countries. In a competitive situation, not only growth but even survival may become difficult if preemptive action is not taken for improvement. Our management institutes should be geared to meet the challenges of changing times because the increasing global economic and social environment requires:

1.    Shortening of time between discovery and commercialization.
2.    Rapid changes in technology, work methods and work environment which demand closer cooperation between education and the world of work.
3.    Realization by society and state that education be oriented to meet the needs and challenges of development.

The World Conference of UNESCO held in 1998 at Paris recommended the following:
1.    In a world undergoing rapid changes, there is a perceived need for a new vision and paradigm of higher education, which should be student oriented.
2.    Innovative approach for critical thinking and creativity.
3.    Educate students to become well-informed, deeply motivated citizens, who can think critically, analyze problems of society, look for their solutions and accept social responsibility.
4.    The contents, methods, practices and means of delivery should undergo need-based changes based on new types of links and partnership with the community.
5.    ‘New methods of education’ implies new types of teaching, learning materials and methods of testing.
6.    Education should promote not only the power of memory but also comprehension skills and creativity.

Universities in USA as well as in UK regularly conduct workshops and seminars to help them to update their curriculum and evaluate their performance. Several of these workshops recommended that professional institutions should facilitate oriented research and intensify the commercialization of the results of academic research. These institutions should stimulate activities of faculty consultancy for industry and other organizations and thus participate in local and regional development.

This is possible only when the quality of education is improved. To be able to meet the need of industry and economy, participation of industry in education is inevitable. The cross fertilization of ideas is necessary for system improvement and integrating industrial training inputs from industries. Participation of this nature would be helpful in developing awareness of students about job function in industries, providing practical knowledge and skills and also developing students’ capability and motivation for self employment.



Ex- Vice Chancellor, Barkatullah University, Bhopal
Director, People’s Institute of Management & Research, Bhopal 
One of the basic objectives of management education is to bring about professionalism in managing the affairs of an organization by producing industry ready professionals. How many institutes are sincerely fulfilling this objective is a moot point.
Management institutes are different in their composition, goals and manner of functioning from normal hierarchical organizations. They are more flat in their structure. The thinking process is not based on any hierarchical order. Even the junior most faculty member, through his/her creative work, sincerity and communication skills can outshine his/her senior colleagues.
To be an effective institution, the system, by design, should challenge this inevitable process. The activities of an effective management institute should ideally center around a group of volatile and independent thinkers who may not like to suppress their views and feelings to the demands of hierarchical order and bureaucratic frills. The intellectual transactions can not be squeezed into the straight jacket of a bureaucratic system. The unique features viz. composition, goals and manner of functioning, make management institutions different from other institutions. This difference requires different leadership style.

1.    Headship: A linear extension of the principle of management that may hold good for other setups, if applied to a Management Institute, would bring frustration, disruption and disintegration. When and wherever, newer approaches were tried, the results have been still worse. There appears to be an inherent tendency of slipping into authoritarian pattern of management.

2.    Faculty Attitude: In a study Cohen and March found that the members of the faculty were most of the time less concerned with the content  and spirit of the decisions than with eliciting an acknowledgment of their importance i.e. who has the right to decide? Who wields power? In this context the faculty needs reexamination of their role and attitude. Management Institutes can become and remain vibrant only when the academic community is alert and actively involved in management of their Institutions.

3.    How to Manage: About managing, Richman and Farmer and Cohen have talked about the Bureaucratic, Political and Organized Anarchy models.  Bureaucratic model has its merits and demerits which are widely known. Political model, advocating democratization and participation of faculty and students in decision making, may be suitable for big organizations like Universities with many disciplines and large numbers of students and faculty.

For Management Institutes, Cohen recommends the Organized Anarchy model. Management being a multidisciplinary, multifaceted and ever growing discipline should be able to attract the best and highly qualified faculty. Intellectuals normally hold individual views. When the highly qualified intellectuals come together with their egocentric individuality, some anarchy is inevitable. This inherent individuality, independence and anarchy need to be organized and managed with a view to enhancing their effectiveness as well as the effectiveness of the institution. The success of this model depends on two other aspects viz. the right kind of faculty with right attitude and leadership. This model presupposes that the faculty consists of people of academic standing concerned about the image of the institution. The faculty is actively involved in policy decisions. The leadership is dynamic, flexible and complementary.

According to an ILO study “leadership which is obsessed with procedural and hierarchical controls is likely to encourage rigidities. On the other hand leadership that is accessible to the faculty, receptive to ideas and encourages experimentation, questioning and risk taking will tend to stimulate innovativeness and commitment on the part of the faculty. A high degree of maturity and understanding of people, therefore, is an absolute imperative for the leader while facilitating the Organized Anarchy model.
Another aspect which needs consideration is the need for strengthening the administrative sub- system. The academic faculty needs administrative and secretarial support. Care has to be taken while creating the administrative sub- system that it is facilitative and complementary. A well developed model of this type may create an adult – oriented culture and environment in the Institute which is conducive to professional education and training.

4.    Synergy and Partnership : By a synergy process a partnership can be created between management institutions, industry, R&D organizations and funding agencies like IDBI, IFCI, NSIC, SIDBI etc. who cherish a common goal viz. development of the nation. What is needed is their intense involvement and interaction, which is possible by partnership among all of them.

5.    Where to start:
The following initiative should be taken-
1.    Development of a database of facilities available in institutions, local industries and R&D organizations.
2.    Involvement of industries in curriculum development and its implementation.
3.    Faculty exchange and participation in industries and vice-versa in management institutions.

Management as well as other professional institutions should wake up before it is too late. The dwindling number of students year after year in local institutions is a warning signal. A couplet of Iqbal reads

“Apni fikr kar naadaan, museebat aane wali hai
Teri barbaadiyon ke mashwarey hain aasmaano mein
Na samjhoge to mit  jaaoge
Tumhari daastaan bhi na hogi daastaano mein”

6.    References:
1.    Gary: The Management of Educational Institutions, The Falmer Press, 1982
2.    Goode J.M: Readings in Educational Management
3.    Immegard G.I: An Introduction to the systems for educational administration (Massachusetts)
4.    Raysch E: Management in Institutions of Higher Leaning (Lexington), 1980
5.    Economic Times, June 17th, 1993.