Developing Management Education in India

Ishwar Dayal
Abstract
Driven by developments in science and technology, and globalization of business, the social, public and business organizations in the West had to undertake many changes in their management structure and operating practices. In response to such changes the educational programs in the Western countries have had to undergo noticeable changes in the curricula, content, methodology and coverage. The economic and the business environment in India is also undergoing somewhat similar changes as earlier experienced by the West. It is imperative that the structure of management education in India be changed. This paper suggests a strategy for institutional development for upgrading the quality of the academic program. The strategy takes into consideration the nature and characteristics of management education and the academic inputs. Keywords: Management Education, Management Curriculum

Introduction Academic programs in management need constant modification and up-gradation to reflect the changing business environment. It is essential that course content, methodology and administrative processes within the institutions adequately meet the needs of the emerging economic and business environment. In this paper some aspects of desirable changes in the academic programs are discussed. This paper is based on discussions and a report of an 18 member committee on Policy/ Perspective on Management Education appointed in January 2000 by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. The Committee submitted its report in April 2001. Section I of the paper deals mainly with the recommendations of the Committee and Section II suggests a strategy for institutional development to upgrade its inputs. A brief reference to the task of the Committee and the characteristics of the management education is necessary to understand the context of the recommendations.
Ishwar Dayal Senior Fellow Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources New Delhi

Features of Management Education It will be easier to understand the main thrust of the recommendations of the committee, if the overall perspective of education for management is provided. This perspective emerged from detailed discussions with a number of people interested in the subject, and from the literature. The distinctive features of management education are discussed below to identify the implications for the program and on the support systems necessary for its conduct. 1. Management education has a defined focus, i.e. developing managerial competence, which operationally includes at least three aspects: (i) acquiring knowledge and learning to use this knowledge in dealing with managerial tasks, (ii) a conscious effort to develop insights about oneself so that a person can handle problems in an objective manner, and (iii) develop capabilities such as analytical, diagnostic and problem solving skills, and ability to communicate effectively. 2. The purpose of education cannot be served by classroom work alone. The program has to include a great many assignments, projects, dealing with live problems and feedback to students on their performance in these areas,

etc. Students have to develop self-confidence by interacting with others, through opportunities for introspection, and by several relevant planned inputs. As in medicine, architecture, law and other professional studies, the educational programs to prepare managers must include both theoretical and application aspects of theory. It must equally be concerned with professional values and societal issues connected with the profession. 3. The management draws knowledge from a large number of theoretical and applied areas of study. Theories and concepts derived from behavioral, biological, quantitative areas and applied subjects such as engineering, technology, etc. have to be integrated. Many events and issues cannot be explained or understood by the framework provided by any one academic discipline. A marketing situation for example, may be caused by an interplay of say, economic, behavioral and technological aspects and diagnosing the situation may require integrated perspective or interdependence between several academic areas. Problem analysis, diagnosis, anticipation of events, etc. often require understanding of the interplay of such factors. 4. Considering the nature of the organizational processes, the teachers have to employ a variety of teaching methods that can encourage students to integrate knowledge. At the same time they must apply knowledge in diagnosing situations and develop competence in the decision process. Some of the teaching methods commonly employed are the case method, incidence method, roleplay, business games, etc. 5. Most teachers have the background of the discipline in which they may have specialized for their university degrees. They have to shift their focus from knowledge per se to its application. They have to shift their focus from primarily subject discipline to application.
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6. Teachers have to develop appropriate teaching methodology and teaching material to impart meaningful knowledge to students. 7. The entire educational process also has implications for the kind of institutional leadership necessary for the educational program and a collegiate structure of administrative organization. Briefly, management education prepares a student for a managerial career, not a particular job. It is concerned with imparting knowledge that is relevant for such a career and is concerned with developing capabilities to use this knowledge in problem analysis, diagnosis, anticipating events, etc. and in decision-making. Preparation for a managerial career also involves self-appraisal on the part of the decision maker and direct concern for societal values. Management education has to provide strong conceptual and theoretical orientation but the student should also be able to use the concepts in his day-to-day work. There is persuasive data to suggest that understanding the concepts does not always guarantee use of these concepts in dealing with day-to-day situations. The process of transfer of knowledge to action is a distinct and independent exercise. A doctor is not the best patient. Nor is a child psychologist the best parent. Hence, the management study has to be concerned both with the study of concept/theory and a discipline of mind to use this knowledge at work. Apart from this, a professional program should provide opportunity to students to reflect on their own motives, strengths and weaknesses. Professionalism is characterized by an orientation to decision making, not necessarily by an academic degree or qualifications. A professional is guided by ethics and values that he must apply to his decision situations, not partisan considerations. A body of knowledge equips an individual for the tasks that he/she would have to undertake but acting as a professional is a commitment to a set of choices that he/she must apply to situations at work. Management education as a professional program of study should prepare a student to take
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on managerial responsibility as a professional. In the emerging context, educational programs must prepare a student to deal with the national and the global issues with understanding of cross-cultural differences. In substance these are the core concerns of education for management. SECTION I The Approach Besides obtaining data from published sources such as AICTE, AIMA, AIMS, UGC and others, the Committee had decided to obtain data from primary sources. Two steps were considered desirable to obtain objective data about institutions, and views on several issues by a crosssection of people concerned with management education. 1. Five Sub-committees or independent groups were formed to study in depth the areas of critical concern: The first dealt with the perspectives and further requirements of management education; the second focused on diagnosing the current status of management education; the third dealt with governance, financing, regulation and monitoring of management education; the fourth examined the support and assistance needed by non-government funded institutions; and the fifth focused on use of technology in management education. 2. Apart from the five Sub-committees, four research studies were undertaken. They obtained primary data in four areas: In-depth study of the administrative arrangements of 11 institutions to understand their teaching, administration and related matters; a questionnaire study of 513 AICTE approved institutions to understand the status of these institutions on several aspects of their academic programs, faculty, teaching methodology, support systems, etc.

a questionnaire study of heads of institutions, teachers and students to understand their views about management education, and interviews with heads of institutions to study their financing and governance systems. In addition, data on technology in education was used from a workshop on teaching technology held in Bhopal.

The Benchmarking It is possible to rely on experience, or decide on a priori basis what factors or practices characterize top compared to low ranking institution. Another approach could be to study both kinds of institutions and from this data establish the factors and processes that distinguish the two. The practices followed by high ranking institutions could be treated as benchmark, i.e., the direction for institutions to follow. It was decided to follow the second approach. It was decided to visit 11 institutions for an in-depth study in and around Delhi. The sample was drawn on the basis of an assessment made by business organizations. Their ranking of institutions for campus recruitment and personal contact for at least two years was used for inclusion in the sample. The more effective from the less effective institution differed in the following characteristics: 1. Faculty involvement in: preparation of course outline. admission process. transparency in examinations. review of courses and the program at regular intervals.

2. Institutional involvement in: conducting short programs for practising executives. establishing links with user systems on academic matters.
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3. Have a governance system where the Board meets at periodic intervals. These characteristics are consistent with the recommendations of research and educational institutions such as the Abid Hussain Committee report which reviewed CSIR (1986) and Dayal (1991) study of 15 innovative institutions in India. The benchmark data was used in reviewing the institutional practices and recommendations for improving the quality of educational programs. The Current Status The first program in Business Management was offered in 1954 by the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management in Calcutta. It was a part-time course for practising executives. Similar programs were started in the Delhi School of Economics in Delhi University, and in Madras and Andhra Universities. In 1959 George W. Robbins, Associate Dean, Graduate School of Business Administration, University of California, Los Angeles was invited at the instance of the Planning Commission through the good offices of Ford Foundation to recommend on educational program for management. The report of Dean Robbins recommended the following: An Institute of Management should be established on an All-India basis. It must be regarded as a high priority national asset, indispensable in the development of the resources of management, i.e. the manpower to translate natural resources, technology and human talent into effective organizations to produce wealth. Accordingly, it must receive financial support from industry and Government adequate for its needs in a planned, phased development. Further, that the Institute should be a postgraduate centre of teaching and research where attention is focussed on the most difficult problems of management rather than on the routine of business practices, and where education and training

include the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes and skills of management in business. (Report by Dean Robbins submitted on December 20, 1959 to Ford Foundation, p.4). The report of Dean Robbins was accepted by the Government of India and it was decided to set up two institutes, one in Calcutta and the other in Ahmedabad. The Institute of Management was set up in Calcutta in November, 1961 in collaboration with Alfred P Sloan School of Management of MIT, USA. The Institute at Ahmedabad was established in June 1962 in collaboration with Harvard Business School, USA. Later four more Institutes of Management were set up at Bangalore in 1972 at Lucknow in 1984, at Indore and Kozikode in 1997. With the setting up of the first two IIMs, many other university departments started management courses. The rate at which new institutions grew is shown in the Figure 1.
350 300 250 200 150 100 62 50 0 Between 1950 1980 (30 years) Between 1980 1995 (15 years) Between 1995 1999 (4 years) Between 1999 Sept. 2000 101 304 260 Number of Institutions

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Figure 1: Management Institutions from 1950-2000

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In September 2000, when the data was collected by the committee, India had 744 institutions recognized by AICTE. Of these 626 were set up between 1985-2000, mostly in the 90s. In the previous 35 years, 118 institutions were set up, mostly attached to universities. It is reported that at the time of writing this paper there were about 880 or so institutions approved by AICTE. In the 90s the majority of institutions were set up by individual sponsors, trusts or some business houses. The sponsors were responding to the perceived demands for management graduates. Change in the Pattern of Direction and Control Following a comprehensive exercise carried out by the Government of India on the national education policy in 1986, an autonomous body to promote, develop and supervise technical education was created called All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) under an Act of Parliament in 1987. A new chairman of AICTE, appointed in 1994, accelerated the pace of operations and the decisions it took markedly changed the character of management education in the country. While giving sanctions to a large number of institutions, AICTE was unable to create adequate machinery for development and training of faculty to teach in management courses with applied bias. monitoring institutions. quality standards in the

This was a decision which negated the logic used earlier that institutions for management education needed flexibility in academic programs such as the curricula, assessment system, program structure, etc. which the university system in India was unable to provide. During the debates on the national education policy in 1985, it was repeatedly pointed out that the university system was unable to create adequate conditions for management schools and that barring a few, many schools/faculties in the university system were unable to improve the quality of management programs. The new requirements concerning university affiliation, the inadequacy of the monitoring systems, and the shortages in faculty for teaching management (applied areas) contributed to the development of the following conditions: Institutions engaged part-time faculty or individuals on contract who taught a course and in most cases, had little involvement either with the institution or the students. A few faculty members without any experience joined institutions on low salaries and carried a heavy teaching load. They had neither time nor the necessary background to take up research or development of teaching material. They gave lectures mainly drawn from text books, or material based on their company experience. Minimal attention was given to development of libraries, computer and other support services. Except for 10% or so institutions which updated their programs and teaching technology, the quality of management education remained substandard in the sense that they paid inadequate attention to application of knowledge, self awareness among students and development of problem solving, analytical and decisionJournal of Management Research

development of research to make or adapt educational courses relevant for Indian situation. encouraging or commissioning development of teaching material on the scale needed. As AICTE was unable to monitor the quality standards in the institutions, they stipulated in 1997 that from that year onwards institutions would have to seek affiliation from a recognized university before they are given sanction to start a program of study.
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making skills. Consequently the students were unable to get the kind of jobs they believed the course would open up for them. In many cases the students got lowsalaried jobs. The public confidence in these institutions was slowly eroding because in many cases the students could not get the kind of jobs they had thought the management programs would open up for them. The quality of the output being more substandard than even the standards that were attained by the country in the 60s and the 70s, the employing organizations too became skeptical of MBA type programs in the country. The developments of management education during the 90s in India began to lose the respect of the employing organizations and created a negative image of management diplomas and degrees except from a few institutions that were known to maintain their standards of academic inputs. Such institutions numbered less than 10% of the total. Considering the current status of management education in the country, it is necessary to take a long-term perspective for handling key problem areas. The action plan would have to include both the institutional development at the micro level and the development of support systems at macro level such as faculty development, flexibility in program structure, research support and encouragement for innovation and development of appropriate teaching technology. What Needs to be Done? While considering the perspective/policy for management education, it is necessary to keep in mind that it has a defined focus. The education must provide conceptual bases for decision-making, and provide inputs for developing personal
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competence for a managerial position. It would have to respond to the changes that client systems have to bring about to remain competitive in the changing national, global, social and environmental situations. Ideally, the educational system should remain one step ahead of the changes that organizations must make. Keeping these considerations in view the areas of concern, that need urgent consideration are briefly mentioned in this paper. 1. The Program of Study The need for flexibility: The UGC and the AICTE have prescribed the courses of study, which are not mere guidelines, but are seen as total or allinclusive requirements. The external examiners set their paper based on the prescribed course outline and the reading material. The rigidity that the uniformity has brought into the program has advantages for the administrator. It ensures that all programs cover at least the minimum that the controlling agencies believe is necessary for completion of a program of study. It has two serious disadvantages for a management program as outlined above. One, that the experimentation necessary for a professional program is prevented by the imposition of uniformity, and two, that the teachers are always under pressure to complete a course rather than pay attention to holistic development of a students ability to achieve the end product, i.e. application of knowledge in problem analysis, diagnosis and decision-making. Acquiring a body of knowledge, i.e., concepts and theories, for the educational program is not enough. The knowledge acquired by a student must serve the purpose of managing organizational tasks better. Institutions outside the purview of UGC/AICTE are able to develop more innovative approaches to learning because teachers are encouraged to develop material relevant for the client organizations and use teaching methodologies that encourages development of professional competence among the students. The controlling organizations should broadly prescribe the areas to be covered, and leave detailed
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Area of Study Factors in the macro environment that influence decision making at the work place Tools that refine decision making Functional areas of business

Course Coverage Economics, socio-political, geo-political, societal, cultural, and related areas Quantitative applications, micro-economics, research methodology, case analysis and diagnostic exercises Marketing, finance, accounting, production, human resource development, industrial relations, international business and the like Productivity, total quality management, six sigma, e-commerce, business process engineering, I.T. applications and extensive use of computer in business operations. Strategic management issues, global and international trading issues, management of change, visioning, direction and governance Understanding personal intra-personal dynamics values, motives, and

Special areas of concern

Corporate perspectives

Self development programme

course structure and course development to the institution concerned and the faculty. One possible approach is indicated below. Student-centered teaching approach: There is need to involve students in the process of learning. The purpose of the program will be poorly achieved unless a student was encouraged to do things on his own. He should undertake project work, for example, where he should apply the concepts learnt in classroom for analyzing/handling live problems. Students should develop an environment of working together and learning from one another. The inputs, teaching environment and teaching technology must develop the attitudes that he should carry to the work organization. The teachers role is not in fact confined to providing subject knowledge alone but to help a student develop the ability to think on his own, an ability to distinguish between what is right and wrong, way to achieve a balance between opposing considerations and accept personal responsibility for what he does and for his decisions. Education has to be a process to discipline a students thinking.
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The Committee has suggested that in most institutions classroom contact hours should be reduced and greater emphasis on self-learning be made necessary. As a broad indication the number of courses should not exceed 18 in institutions that follow three term structure, and in two-semester structure the number should be around 14. In many institutions the institutional management believes that students will while away their time unless they are made to sit in a classroom. Some students would do so, but it is doubtful that such students would learn a great deal just by being in the classroom. They are more likely to sit in a class to complete their attendance requirements. However, if the institution were to believe that students come to the program to learn, and to acquire a higher degree of personal competence, the teachers approach should be to create conditions where the student derives some pleasure in learning what is expected of him. Indeed this phenomenon is observed in a number of institutions, which have developed their teaching approaches on assumptions that students come to the institution

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to learn. Teaching methodology: In a large number of institutions the teaching methodologies have to shift to student-centered approaches from that of feeding knowledge to students by teachers. The teaching is likely to be more relevant if the teachers are involved in developing relevant teaching material from field studies. 2. Research and Publications The quality of an academic program depends largely on the new insights that research might provide. A large number of institutions do not encourage research and publications by the faculty. It is unlikely that the teaching material can relate to the reality of the work organizations without involvement of the faculty in research or consulting. There is increasing awareness that many of the ideas and concepts that have been effective in the countries of their origin have been less effective in Indian organizations. In many countries such as Japan, France, Germany, etc. the concepts developed in America or other Western countries have been tested and adapted for their own sociopsychological milieu. The need for adaptation is greater in areas that concerns people. Each society/ nation has its own culture and tradition, values, attitudes and meaning of work, etc. that are derived from early childhood and are embedded in ones mind at conscious or unconscious level. Hence, reactions of individuals to work and relationships are in a large measure guided by attitudes, perceptions, values, sentiments learned in the process of growing up. While many industrialized countries have tested and adapted management practices to be in harmony with their culture and tradition, India has yet to do this exercise through systematic research and study. There are many other areas of research that are relevant for a transition of Indian society to successfully operating joint ventures or manage a multi-ethnic social environment. The findings of many such studies have to be incorporated in the teaching of management.
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Other areas of deep concern for research are: Institution building, sustaining innovative systems, leadership in developing societies, cases of mergers and takeover and so on. These areas for research are highlighted as illustrations. Institutions and faculty members have to develop their own programs of research. The committee has recommended that the number of scholarships for PhD should be increased and the stipend enhanced. AICTE should develop a program of research and actively promote it. It is recommended that AICTE/Government/UGC should identify a few themes and invite scholars and institutions to undertake research in relevant areas. In addition, the funds should be available for projects initiated by individuals. 3. Future Developments As in other countries educational programs of professional orientation have to keep pace, or ideally remain one step ahead of changes in public, social and business organizations. New institutions and programs would be needed in relevant areas that have not received adequate attention. Some of the problems that institutions now experience may need new perspectives and different approaches. An increasing level of social consciousness on the part of people through education, the electronic media and open expression of their democratic rights, etc., has created new expectations among employees. The formal organizations would have to take in their plans of action the changing socio-political realities. Science and technology are making special demands on system management. The institutions would have to experiment and develop programs that organizations would need. The phenomenon is already visible in countries which operate in a distinctly competitive situation. The Committee has identified the nature of training and educational programs that institutions would have to develop and the ways in which educational institutions would have to prepare themselves for the task.

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Educational Programs Demand for management graduates is linked to growth in the economy and business. However the absorption of graduates will depend upon their usefulness to the employing organizations and their value to the organization will depend primarily on the quality and the relevance of the education that institutions provide. Hence the institutions concerned and the macro level monitoring system such as the Government/AICTE/UGC would have to consciously undertake the task of upgrading the quality of education, and make the program relevant for organizations. Around 86% institutions for management education show lack of overall concern for preparing students in all aspects of managerial responsibility. The programs would need strengthening in many respects. The most important among these are the following: application orientation in courses to link practice with theory testing theories and practices in terms of their relevance to the Indian social, psychological and cultural milieu continuing interaction with work organizations to undertake assignments to better understand and develop meaning/ application of classroom teaching. New Types of Programs The Committee has suggested that in the foreseeable future, besides the courses now offered, many new kinds of courses would be needed. 1. Long term courses for specific sectors of business and public services, such as health, education, public systems and other developing sectors. 2. Long term courses for top and senior levels of management. These are often referred to as executive MBA type programs. 3. Intensive executive development programs as needed by client organizations.
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4. Non-formal educational programs. 5. Subject/industry related special programs for practicing managers, and for those who choose to change their areas of work. Some growing areas are tourism, hotel, service, international finance, etc. 6. Networking among institutions to capitalise on areas of strength of each, including exchange of students. 7. Use of technology in management teaching. 8. International Program by a consortium of institutions in the country. A large number of students and teachers have indicated that wherever possible the institutions should provide residential facilities. They believe that interaction among students is essential and they should be able to use computers for their project work. The lack of infrastructure facilities, especially in large towns and metropolitan cities handicap such interactions. The Institutional Support Systems 1. The study of 11 institutions shows that in higher ranked institutions faculty is involved in course formulation, review, admission and some other aspects of academic activity. The case studies of better-known institutions also show this pattern in the literature. In Section II the characteristics of management education are broadly identified. The nature of management program has to emphasize integration and knowledge-application in decision-making, as well as on personal development and process skills. These aspects require faculty involvement in academic work of the institution. As majority of institutions employ part-time faculty, such patterns can hardly prevail. In most institutions the teachers involvement is primarily confined to teaching a course, and not in building a package of courses needed for an integrated program of study.

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2. Another characteristic of an institution engaged in management education is that the students internalize their learning by experiencing and observing the process within the institution, or having role models among teachers, administrators and others. They learn from one another as much as they learn in classroom interactions. The values and attitudes, which are important aspects of the educational experience, are learnt more as members of the institutional citizenry, and less from lectures on the subject. The opportunity for interaction among the members of the student body and with authority figures, i.e., teachers is necessary. In the visits to institutions and discussions with groups of second year students we found that these aspects of the learning process were not adequately handled in a large number of institutions. 3. The governance system in most institutions exists on paper. In a vast number of institutions, the Board hardly met and the members were drawn more on the criteria of personal affiliation, rather than perceived needs of the institution. The purpose of the Board did not serve the purpose visualized in the stipulated requirements of the legislation in this respect. SECTION II IMPLICATIONS FOR MICRO-LEVEL AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT The quality of education and innovation in the system depends primarily on the institution. However in some areas the policy/perspective and support structure at macro level by the Government/AICTE/UGC and such bodies is essential for institutions to improve their standards. The needed areas of development are discussed at three levels: The University System The Support Systems at Macro Level

Development Approaches at Institutional Level The University System In almost all countries the university system has been responsible for spreading education among the largest number of the citizenry. In India a number of institutions were created outside the university system. This approach may have been necessary at the time these institutions were created but the university system is essential to carry education at affordable costs to the largest number of students in the country. Most university departments have not developed the programs of the requisite quality. There are many structural and administrative problems that have posed as handicaps to the development of the departments/ faculties. Some university departments/faculties of management have developed due to the extraordinary efforts of certain individuals. There are many which have not been able to even make the effort to upgrade their programs. Some of the problem areas are discussed below: 1. The departments of management are considered at par with other departments in the university, which are concerned primarily with teaching of an academic discipline. As discussed earlier, study of management is multi-disciplinary and requires teaching methodologies, which can integrate the many disciplines in analyzing, diagnosing and handling the various organizational problems. These tasks need flexibility in their approach, which the system is unable to provide. 2. The departments of management education are short of funds in spite of the fact that they generate in many universities funds through their activities. The funds so generated by the department are merged with the general budget of the university and this money is not available to the departments for their use even for developmental activities. 3. The faculty has to maintain contact with

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client organizations, participate in professional activities in the country and abroad and establish close interdependent relations with other institutions to exchange programs/activities. The many restrictive procedures applicable to departments in the university apply equally to the department of management. They do not facilitate, rather, hinder such relationships. 4. The course development and experimentation with teaching technologies is not possible due to the regulations governing academic programs. Again, the prescribed examination system in universities restricts innovation and change. 5. The environment is changing rapidly and educational system has to respond to the need of client organizations which themselves are subject to such changes. The university system is far too rigid to adequately respond to such changes. Briefly, the university system has many advantages that other independent institutions do not have in so far as they have access to research and developments in many other departments, but they can only use their advantages if the needed changes in their status are brought about. It is proposed that the departments in certain universities which have maintained high standards, should be spun off as separate schools as done in many countries, and the others should at least be given the status that is given to other professional schools such as engineering, architecture and medicine. Macro-level Support Systems To improve the quality of management education and to meet the emerging requirements of high quality managerial talent, the Ministry of HRD, the AICTE and the UGC would have to undertake serious exercise in respect of those aspects that single institutions on their own cannot manage. The most important tasks are briefly identified below:
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The Academic Content Review the perspective of management education to bring about a larger measure of flexibility in the contents of the educational program. As suggested earlier, the broad structure of the program should be prescribed but the package of courses should be left to the institution concerned. Faculty Development The facilities for faculty development are highly limited and are not effective. There is need for a full-fledged development program for fresh PhDs and managers from industry who want to take up academic teaching positions in management. These programs should include classroom involvement, exposure to fieldwork, research, consulting etc., so that the participants are able to get an integrated picture of the academic tasks. In addition short courses for existing teachers should also be undertaken in functional areas and in teaching technologies. Two or three special institutions for such programs are required. These institutions should be able to collaborate with institutions, which are engaged in postgraduate teaching should also be financially supported to undertake such programs. The Monitoring System The monitoring system has to be strengthened in terms of accreditation of the programs. This exercise should also pay special attention to the management practices and the governance system. After the first review, the institution should be reviewed every three years and thereafter every five years. Support for Research Enhanced support for research can be brought about in three ways: one, certain themes that need special study in the next 5/7 years should be funded and scholars should be invited to undertake research in those areas; two, research granting procedures should be seriously reviewed to support individual project proposals. A third step has to

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do with encouraging institutions that have adequate support systems to start Ph.D. programs. National Testing Service In India students have to apply to a number of institutions with the anxiety of getting admission. Study of management is seen as a job-oriented program of study. Most institutions have their own admission tests and they charge fairly high fees for the test. Students have to appear in many tests and incur heavy expenses to do so. Many of the tests are not validated. They are not subject to statistical analysis. It is proposed that India should have one national level test based on careful statistical analysis and the results of this test should be accepted by institutions for admission. Institutional Development As indicated earlier, primary responsibility for upgrading and maintaining the quality of education must rest with the concerned institution. However, the exercise of doing so has to be deliberate and the approach should be guided by the data derived from authentic research and experience of bringing about change in organizations. The choice of strategy to develop an institution would largely be determined by the history of the institution and the prevailing situation. This section identifies some considerations that the change strategy would have to take into account. Two distinct but related areas are the following: The administrative arrangements and the institutional leadership; and The approaches to institutional development. These concerns are elaborated below. The Administrative Arrangement and the Institutional Leadership (i) The Administrative System: The management practices of the institution have to be in harmony with the requirements of its primary task. As discussed earlier, the tasks of management
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education require that the subjects must have applied focus. Problem analysis, diagnosis and anticipation of events would have to integrate the knowledge acquired in different areas of study. Live situations can rarely be understood and resolved by segmented perspectives. The program should also provide opportunity to students to develop their own abilities and explore the values that they hold. These considerations require effective interaction among the students and the members of the faculty. In most cases departmental boundaries drawn on the basis of subjects tend to inhibit the nature of interaction required among the faculty. Yet there have to be smaller groupings where members can establish closer links among themselves. Many institutions prefer groupings based on application areas. One institution avoided departments by creating several task-related groups such as an Environmental Impact Group where subjects concerned with the macro environment which contribute to enterprise level decision-making, are grouped as an interacting unit. They include, for example, subjects such as economics, geopolitical studies, economic history, law, etc. The Strategy Group, for example had corporate policy, governance systems, financial analysis, etc. They had other Groups in which the disciplines had to develop a corporate perspective. The faculty could choose to be members of more than one group. In this way this institution was trying to diffuse departmental boundaries and channelise subject perspective to link with organizational activity. The difficulty with groups, which have application bias, is that faculty members invariably like to be known among their professional peers by the field of their specialization. This gives them professional identity. Hence, the organizational needs and the individual motives at times have to be reconciled. Apart from the rationale for the organization, the interaction among the faculty has to be around a task that concerns all members. The program development for example, is a task that could bind the faculty together. They should then be involved individually and collectively in all aspects that contribute to goal-achievement of the program.
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Broadly this would mean evolving a philosophy of the program, agreement on the outcome or goal of the program, and the course content and components of the program such as admission criteria, examination standards, teaching methodology and many such related areas. (ii) Faculty involvement: A large number of highly ranked institutions in the country follow flexible boundaries among functional groups and have a strong tradition of faculty involvement in the educational process. The intensity and the extent of involvement vary from one institution to another. The experience of the three IIMs at Calcutta, Ahmedabad and Lucknow also suggest that faculty involvement in institutional tasks is essential. The collegiate system and not the hierarchy, is necessary to support the nature of the educational program. Basically the collegiate system tends to shift responsibility, and to a large extent, the authority for decision making to those who have to carry out the primary tasks of the institution. The management of collegiate system has many drawbacks. Not everyone assumes responsibility and due to this the activity may drift. Some persons misuse authority vested in them. The peer groups need to exert influence on erring members but often they opt for soft options and allow things to drift. If the institutional leader withdraws authority from the erring groups or individuals, the act is generally interpreted as insufficient faith in collegiate system by institutional members. And the institutional leader in many cases allows the drift rather than face opposition. Notwithstanding the problems that a collegiate system has to face, the task or management education requires collaboration, flexibility and a high degree of interdependence between various components of the program. And failure to develop such a system could adversely affect institutional performance. (iii) Institutional Leadership: While compromises and adjustments are necessary in such a system, the institutional leadership has to ensure that the means and ends are not compromised. In
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such a system the leader derives his real authority from the respect for his wisdom and understanding and not necessarily from his position. While there are several instances where the directive leadership and entrepreneurial ability of the leader have contributed to the institutional growth, there is persuasive data to show that these alone do not lead to the quality of academic activity or stability of the institution. Such qualities may be needed at some stages of development of an institution but they to not contribute to strengthening its foundation. There are many examples where such institutions experience decline after the leaders inputs are withdrawn. Stability of the institution and its ability to maintain quality standards have to be the guiding motive of institutional leadership. How does such a collegiate system function? (iv) The concern for process: A teacher controls his own behavior and performance in class. He is guided in his style by his beliefs and what he considers as desirable or useful for the participants. He may be given feedback about his performance and under certain circumstances this feedback may be accepted or rejected by him. As discussed earlier, the management program is concerned with integrating the course material; it is not enough to be concerned with subject teaching. The application has to take into consideration holistic as against segmented perspective. And this requires closer coordination and in many respects, promote interdependence. If the teacher is the master in his class, how should an attitude of interdependence and collaboration be created among the teachers. This is the challenge the institutional leader has to respond to. This challenge can only be met through influencing the process or developing shared beliefs, and an understanding of the means and ends in the academic process. The following steps are needed to initiate and develop the system. a. Sharing a belief and purpose of the educational program: It takes a great deal of time to discuss and evolve a policy, a perspective of what the institution should achieve. Individuals have to raise questions, clear their doubts but the leader has
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to sense a stage at which most people concerned are reasonably comfortable with the philosophy or the purpose of the activities in which the institution is engaged. The consensus does not mean that people do not have their own perceptions but that they are willing to see that what is agreed is workable. They should accept that the approach of the community should be adopted by individual members in institutional roles. While this exercise of evolving a set of shared beliefs is an essential step towards institution building, it is necessary to reinforce it through annual review of the faculty members concerned, or the reward system that the institution practices. b. Sharing program development: A Common Task: The teachers have to participate in the development of the program and they must see it as a package, not a string of several subjects or courses. If they do not share in the evolving of the package, it is unlikely that they can see the interdependence in the courses or convey this in their teaching. This is more true in India than in Western countries. This is so because most teachers do not have sufficient familiarity with client organizations as employees or researchers. Hence, they must develop a holistic perspective through participation in course development. Normally the faculty responds to such exercises with reluctance because function or subject specialists believe that other members do not have the expertise to comment on his or her area of specialization. The fact is that one persons specialization has to link with the others, leading to a holistic approach to problem analysis and diagnosis. Often subject specialists are carried away by the logic of the discipline and not its application. Some of these aspects have to be ironed out in the course of development. The task is difficult because subject specialists often resent comments from others. However the institutional leadership has to create among the members an attitude of objectivity and mutual acceptance. (v) Review Mechanism: The attitude of testing and evaluating effectiveness is necessary and periodic review of the program by the collectivity is
Volume 2, Number 2 August 2002

essential. One difficulty is that in the Indian situation a critique is seen as disapproval of the individual and not that of the program and this leads to many interpersonal problems. Again, the institutional leadership has to ensure that critique is used constructively. The system can operate well if objectivity is promoted in appraisal of the program. These are some ways that contribute to the development of a collegiate system in educational institutions. Students learn from their interactions in the institutional environment what is right and wrong, respect for ideas, a scientific approach to problem solving and in due course evolve their own perspective in life. These are learnt as a part of experiencing the system in which they study. Students develop a set of values from their interaction with teachers, with other students and from the social life in the institution. Role models are important in the learning process. What is discussed in class and read in the literature has often to be felt by students in their life in the institution. Hence, the social environment of the teaching institution has to provide learning experiences to the students. Apart from the knowledge content what the students carry away with them, and remember in later years in life are the images and events that are embedded in the memory. Approach to Institutional Development Institutional development is not a one-time exercise. Educational activity has to respond to the environment or the client systems to which it relates. Ideally the education should influence its public because it has the opportunity to engage in experimentation and is in a position to analyze many new situations. In case it is unable to keep ahead or at least in line with changes, it would run the danger of becoming irrelevant. The effectiveness or the strength of the educational institution lies in its capacity to continuously adjust and adapt to its environment. For this reason institutions have to be concerned with constant adjustments and not one-time change. These considerations apply more sharply to
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professional programs of study, management education and training.

especially

In the present context, the institutions engaged in management education, which desire to upgrade their institutional relevance, have two types of concerns. They are: how best to initiate change, and how best to build an environment for sustaining change and seek continuous adjustment to national, global and sociopolitical situations. Initiating change: An institution that aims at upgrading itself requires a strong feeling, bordering on conviction, by the chief executive and a large number of institutional members that there is need to improve both the academic and the systems that support institutional tasks. They should also believe that systemic/ holistic changes are necessary rather then incremental or piecemeal changes. Many organizations have found that piecemeal changes often disturb the work and result in little systemic improvement. Serious appraisal of these aspects is necessary before a program of change is undertaken. The diagnosis of the system often requires hard performance data, at times from the market as well, and soft data from a cross-section of the population. The diagnosis has to be generally accepted by the institutional community. One institution had invited a consultant from abroad to suggest the changes needed in the institution. The proposed changes were discussed with some members of the faculty but no decisions were taken. This was so because the key people were not emotionally ready to accept the change. Later a group from within the institution was assigned the task. The report was discussed by the faculty and only peripheral changes could be brought about. It is extremely difficult to bring about changes in a professional/scientific organization. An underlying reason for this problem is that educational institutions are not able to deal with the problem of power and authority. The function of power is viewed as control,
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direction and imposition of ones will on the community. If power is seen as influencing action through development of people, consensus building and controlling process as against controlling people, the climate of adjustment and meaningful compromise could be developed. Such an environment is needed to bring about change. The institution mentioned earlier also viewed power in terms of control and direction. And this notion could not be resolved and no substantive changes could be made. In the Indian work organization, it has generally been difficult for an internal group to be initiators of change. Invariably the chief executive has to be a party to change and very few individuals are able to bring about change in their own behavior and in their role and relationships. Most internal team members are not able to motivate their peers to undertake self-appraisal and objective analysis of systemic issues for developing a plan of action. The institution has to carefully choose an outsider to further the processes of change at individual, group and institutional levels. Other well-established institutions should serve as initiators of change in other institutions. The change agent (institution) has to recognize that the other institutions should not become its own prototype. Each institution has to develop its own identity and ethos. Invariably, the well established institution imposes its own patterns/processes because they believe that the other institution would be successful if it were to follow their success model. McGregor, (1960) has made a distinction between agriculture and engineering approach to influencing and controlling. Given the right soil, water, fertilizers, etc., the plant will grow well. If the cultivator fails to take note of the soil and other conditions, the plant will die. The engineering approach is characterized by a design and a direction. The results will be achieved if the design and the direction are clear. The human systems need the agriculture approach. The ideas will not take root unless the soil is right and other conditions are fully taken into consideration. Hence, the helping institution will have to understand the culture, the tradition and the sentiments of the client institution. If this consideration is not made, the full plant will not
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grow; instead, one may create a bonsai. An environment of change: There is no easy way to bring about an environment of sustained change. The single most important factor that comes in the way of creating such an environment is ones own success. Success has seeds of failure. A successful institution is reluctant to change, or critically examine itself, because it believes that the practices it follows have led to its success and need no further examination. Hence, there is no need to change them. In case, however, it can indulge in serious appraisal, and evaluate what it must do differently to respond to the emerging needs of the client organizations, there is a possibility that an environment of sustained growth can be created. An effective review mechanism and a degree of End Notes

openness is necessary while evaluating the institutions technical and social situation. It is useful to have competent outsiders or a professional organization carry out audit of the system. One institution assigned this task to a few members of their Board who were on their own recognized for their professional objectivity and were fully accepted by the institutional community. The review team raised many areas of concern and encouraged discussion on such issues. They prepared a perspective paper to indicate directions for growth and discussed the paper widely. Having obtained an overall agreement on the direction the review team was able to prepare a plan of action. In this case the institution was able to bring about many changes in its activities and in their ways of doing things.

1. The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India set up an 18 member committee to recommend on Perspective and Policy on Management Education. The committee had undertaken several field studies and used the data in arriving at the recommendations. The recommendations cover all aspects of the educational programs. 2. Abbreviations used in the paper AICTE All India Council of Technical Education AIMA - All India Management Association AIMS Association of Management Schools UGC University Grants Commission FMS Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi

References
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (1986), Abid Hussain Committee Review Report. Dayal, I (1991), Organising Innovation: A Management Study, Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi. Dayal, I (1998), Reappraising Management Education, A Perspective for the Future, Mittal Publications, New Delhi. McGregor, D (1960), Human Side of Enterprise, McGraw Hill, New York.

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