Personal and Professional Development for Business - Essay Example

?Personal and Professional Development for Business The idea of developing capa for people already involved in management through management training and professional development in management schools is noble, but to purport creating managers out of inexperienced individuals in a classroom is sham (Mintzberg 2004, p.5). In the recent years, MBA programs have been construed as general education in the practice of managing rather than specialized training in the functions of business; however, Henry Mintzberg, one of the leading influential teachers of business strategy argues that “Management is, above all, a practice where art, science and craft meet”. In light of this statement, this paper aims to provide a critical analysis of the value of management education from a range of perspectives. In today’s complex and highly challenging global business environment, business leaders are predominantly engaged with the task of transforming nondescript firms into a billion dollar corporations. Tough business environment conditions and emerging trends in the traditional business world have created a knowledge gap that business schools have ardently strived to fill through management education. Through management education, business schools are seriously rethinking the concept of leadership with a special focus on the need to train the next-generation managers (Uba, 2011); the training seeks to raise a breed of next-generation managers fully equipped with knowledge and skills to deal with the emerging global challenges in the business world. The need for such training is justified by the dynamic nature of modern enterprise; traditional managers rarely had to move past the basics of what was taught and even then, the scope was often limited to their immediate environment. The need to raise a breed of next generation managers who have been equipped with the necessary tools to deal with the emerging business challenges is the underlying importance of Management education. In addition to that, management education directly correlates with business and economic development because it highlights key essential areas of focus in the global business environment. For instance, corporate social responsibility and corporate sustainability have been flagged as essential elements in business management today thanks to Management education (Uba, 2011). Business management has taken on a much broader meaning in today’s workplace in response to globalization that has resulted into new complexities and interdependence between multinational corporations, the environment and society. Many companies have become multinationals and they are required to compete in environments radically different from the ones in which the managers were trained. For these reason, they must be flexible so they can tackle the new social political and legal challenges that will unequivocally come their way, such versatility can only achieved through intense and progressive training. Given the myriad complexities and interconnectivity at the workplace in response to globalization, business management in the 21st century tends to take on a multi-faceted approach that calls for integrative business tools. Management education provides an avenue for managers to adapt to the changes at the workplace by building their capacity to deal with emerging complexities and challenges of interconnectivity. Managers are put to task to meet their fiduciary responsibility to both customers and shareholders, while paying close attention to environmental, socio-cultural and political considerations at the workplace. The role of management education is to empower managers to execute these roles effectively and efficiently to lead their organizations into achieving optimum results and excellent success. Management education helps shape the attitudes and behaviour of business leaders through a number of ways; the most prominent way in which management education does this is through business education, research and management programmes. Management education also achieves the above through training and other pervasive yet subtle activities such as the spread and advocacy of new business values and ideas at the workplace. In this spirit, management education has an incredible capacity to transform management practice in organizations thus fostering economic, personal and professional development. Management education empowers managers to generate cost both for the organizations and for society, while moving towards the establishment a wide-ranging and maintainable global economy. MBAs have traditionally been highly regarded in the business world because many Multinational corporations have predominantly relied on this highly coveted credential to achieve business success. However, Henry Mintzberg further argues that such success is delusory because the approach used in training the leaders undermines leadership; the individuals who graduate with MBAs do not possess any first-hand knowledge about actual management and this leads to dire socio-economic consequences. For instance, the graduates usually are inexperienced about customer needs and expectations, workers, products/services and processes in general. In this regard, fresh MBA graduates do not possess the relevant hands on experience that is necessary for successful management of corporations. Knowledge in management can only be gained through intensive personal experience as a manager interacts with daily practicalities of the highly demanding decision-making process at the workplace. Intensive personal experience in management is an integral part of management that graduates of MBA lack, unlike the corporate support staff who have amassed vast first-hand knowledge about customers, products, workers and processes. Unfortunately, lack of management training and the respective credentials of management training often subjects individuals with this experience to subservient roles at the workplace, under the leadership of people who lack legitimacy to lead. Management education programs can only help shape leadership potential in individuals who have already amassed leadership experiences through intensive life experiences; this means that there are somewhat natural leaders because management requires tacit knowledge and understanding. The tacit knowledge and understanding that makes excellent managers can only be gotten through intensive experience in managerial positions, and not through classroom management education. Management education that aims to create managers out of the classroom, from inexperienced students, is not only wasting time, but it also demeans the concept of management. Another crucial role of management training is that it fosters and nurture the relationship between the beneficiary and their employee in this case the manager by showing commitment to their success. When a firm invests its time and resources in the training of its managers, they feel appreciated and are likely to stay on for longer and utilize their skills as they will be intrinsically motivated. Management is neither a science nor a profession like medicine or law, and that is why it cannot be taught in any classroom (Mintzberg 2004, p.10). Unlike management, science entails the development of systematic knowledge through empirical research that is justifiable. Ironically, even though Management hardly entails building a body of Knowledge, it does apply science knowledge and concepts. Effective managers are those that can draw knowledge from their vast experiences, sciences and everywhere else in the decision-making process while executing their leadership mandate as managers. Management is more of an art than a science, and as the art, management is categorized by insight, hallucination and instinct (Mintzberg 2004, p.10). In addition to being an art, management is also a craft because it predominantly relies on the experience gained through actual management of organizations. In this respect, management entails both as much doing in order to think and thinking in order to do, a blend of a bit of science, art and craft yields the ideal manager at the workplace. Unlike courses and professions, what makes managing difficult to teach is that there is no single tried and tested method of managing that is distinguishable which can be used as yardstick. In this case, managing varies considerably depending on the context in question; different situations may call for different measures all of which are justifiably correct even though they may look contentious or contradictory on the surface. The argument that effective management takes place where craft, art and science meet does not apply to the classroom situation where students are very inexperienced in managing because then those three aspects of managing have nowhere to meet. Prior intensive experience in managing provides the room or ground for craft, art and science to meet, and in this respect, managing, unlike professions that can be taught in a classroom, is a practice. Effective managing can only take place where there is craft, art and science, but the traditional inexperienced classroom situation of management education has no room for craft. It is for this same reason that management education has been termed as wrong education to the wrong people using the wrong methods of instruction. To emphasize this ground further, it has been argued that the only way of learning how to be a manager is first becoming one then learning on the job; that is, effective managers have to first act like managers before they can eventually understand the roles of managers. Henry Mintzberg contends that in a classroom where there is no experience in management, like in the conventional MBA classroom, there is simply nothing to do because there is no room for craft. It becomes difficult for inexperienced students to understand management as a practice because of their inexperience in concrete management situations of management practice. Trying to make the inexperienced MBA students in management education to understand the practice is inconceivable like trying to explain the essence of humanity to individuals who have never met real human beings. Management as an art can only be looked at/examined, discussed and even admired in the conventional MBA classroom, however, nothing happens beyond that. The inexperienced MBA students look on disinterestedly as non-artists in an art workshop because their inexperience in management impedes their capacity to appreciate the art being presented to them. Conventional MBA classes in management education have a narrow and distorted interpretation of management because they do not view management beyond analysis (Mintzberg 2004, p.10). In this case, management education is predominantly science oriented but it gives the MBA a wrong impression that management is all about making systematic decisions and formulating deliberate business strategies that translate to business success. However, the true essence of management goes beyond analysis as depicted in the shallow and misguided interpretation of management education; it is a combination of craft, art and science, which unfortunately lack in the conventional MBA classroom. However, the argument that management cannot be taught in classroom does not underscore the value of management education, especially to experienced managers at the workplace. Management education is still valuable to managers because it reinforces their intensive experiences through instruction and little by little, practicing managers become excellent in their practice. Apart from enhancing management capacity, management education equips the managers with useful skills/techniques and tools of successful management in a complex and highly integrated business environment. For instance, management education enables managers to have a global perspective while still maintaining a local appeal in their situational contexts. Management education also enables managers to work with and through people while using the contingency approach in solving business dilemmas at the workplace in today’s complex and integrated global business environment (India Education, 2012). In as much as the importance of management education to managers in the fast-paced and uncertain global business environment cannot be ignored, management education has always been the inevitable target of budget cuts in most organizations (Simkovits, n.d). This has been against strong indications of the perfect correlation between management education and management practice and the eventual ramifications for organizations in the end. The lack of investment in management education results to profound consequences for the organization because it becomes difficult for managers to keep track of all the changes and trends in the highly complex and dynamic global business environment. For instance, the lack of management education can result to poor human resource management, which eventually boils down to poor customer service and low output for the organization. Management education is an effective strategy for the visionary managers who wish to remain abreast of information and knowledge in a fast changing global business environment (Ashaj, 2013); sound management education enables managers to have foresight in terms of trends and the strategic direction for their organizations. This management knowledge in turn enhances the quality of management decisions and actions, thus reducing the margins of error in manager judgement. Above all, management education leads to strategic repositioning of organizations, which enables them to respond to tough economic challenges in the event of economic downturn. For example in the last half decade, many countries have suffered from the effects of a global economic depression from which they are still trying to recover; the European Union(EU) crises is embodiment of the severe economic problems. In economies that have been thus affected, managers need to become more innovative and cushion their firms from the negative effects. For them to be useful in this regard, it is vital they undergo training and further education so they can widen their scope of reasoning and functions; management training, which draws from relevant and universal experiences, is invaluable (EzineMark, 2011). Management education is not only important for organizations at the workplace but also for the individual managers involved in the actual leadership of the organizations; in this view, management education broadens the managers’ perspectives about the role of individuals in the growth of business and society. In this respect, it is evident that management education gives managers a competitive edge in the global business environment that enables them to make a connection between business and society in general. For instance, a recent study reveals that managers working through their corporations have made huge contributions to the society through goodwill initiatives and donations in kind to humanitarian programmes. This shows how management education has not only transformed managers into excellent leaders, but also how it has reinforced the manager’s sense of commitment and affection with people in the society (Shishodia, 2011). In view of the above, management education goes beyond building the capacity of managers to respond to complexities and unprecedented eventualities in the dynamic business world; management education also entails creating managers who can handle the familial daily life problems that affect individuals in society. Proper management education leads to significant impacts on individuals in strengthening the relationship between organizations and the society. Effective managers are those that can manage the afore mentioned familial problems that are common to individuals in society to enhance the quality of life of others in the course of bringing change in society. Ultimately, management is indeed above all, a practice where art, science and craft meet and this underscores the value of management education for the practicing managers in particular. Management education enhances the leadership skills for managers by equipping them with the relevant tools and skills of leadership that enable them to make informed and well-calculated business decisions. However, management education for inexperienced students as in the conventional MBA classes is absolute sham because the inexperience of the learners impedes their capacity to understand management as a practice. Management education is only effective and worthwhile when it is offered to practicing managers who already have experience in the complexities of actual organizational management. On the contrary, management education that is offered to fresh, young and inexperienced people is a waste of time because they lack a tacit knowledge of customers, workers, products and process at the workplace. The only feasible way of learning management is not through management education but through intensive experience while on the job; effective managers have to first act the part of management before they can now understand the role of management. References Mintzberg, H. (2004). Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and management development. California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Uba, C. (2011). Value of Management Education. businessworldng.com. [Online]. Available at: http://businessworldng.com/web/articles/2089/1/Value-of-Management-Education/Page1.html [Accessed on 29 March 2013] Shishodia, A. (2011). Importance of Management Education for Individuals. Sooperarticles.com. [Online]. Available at: http://www.sooperarticles.com/education-articles/importance-management-education-individuals-303682.html [Accessed on 29 March 2013] Ashaj. (2013). The Importance of Management Studies for a Successful Corporate Career. Hubpages.com. [Online]. Available at: http://ashaj.hubpages.com/hub/The-Importance-of-Management-Studies-for-a-Successful-Corporate-Career [Accessed on 29 March 2013] Simkovits, H. (n.d.) Leadership and Management Education: More Important in a Tougher Economy. Business-wisdom.com. [Online]. Available at: http://www.business-wisdom.com/articles/ArtclManagementEducation.html [Accessed on 29 March, 2013] India Education. (2012). Importance of Management Education. Indiaeducation.net. [Online]. Available at: http://www.indiaeducation.net/management/business-education.aspx [Accessed on 29 March, 2013] EzineMark. (2011). Importance of Business and Management Education. EzineMark.com. [Online]. Available at: http://college.ezinemark.com/importance-of-business-and-management-education-7d2d59ac4609.html [Accessed on 29 March 2013] Read More