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Why Management education is fundamentally different from most undergrad or post...

Why Management education is

fundamentally different from most
undergrad or post grad courses

Aug 3, 2015, 03.01PM IST by Shiksha

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By Prof Ashutosh Kar

While taking classes with blue-eyed
management wannabes in the classroom, I
constantly get a feeling that many students
dont really understand how the course
they have chosen is so different from what
they have been studying so far.
When you study law, medical science, or
engineering, or for that matter even
literature, history or geography, you are essentially reading about things that are
proven to be right or true or simply, things that dont change much with time. There is
certain finality to these courses and your assimilation isnt much dependent on how
others in the class are reacting to the course. Discussion in the class might help you
understand a certain concept (e.g. the flow of current in a circuit) better, but the
reality doesnt change.
The other thing about most non-management courses is that they deal with
inanimate things or things that behave almost in the same manner all the time. A
human heart will always pump blood in the same manner, time and again. If it

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doesnt, then its a disease which will also manifest itself in a manner most likely
observed previously.
Therefore its easy to apply rules, theorems, laws to situations studied in these
courses and figure out the course of action with a relatively high degree of certainty.
Not so, in case of a management problem.

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A management problem arises almost always out of the actions of people. How will I
market this product so that customers buy it? How should I hire this time so that

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employees stick with my firm longer? How will I roll out this new Technology
implementation so as to cause minimum disruption to work? What features should I
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As you can see, all the above questions have the involvement of people in a major
way. And people are difficult to predict or apply laws/rules to. And thats where the
biggest difference of Management Education stems from. Secondly, management
education is not a fundamental stream of knowledge. It incorporates the elements of
a large number of faculties including Technology, Psychology, Cultural Studies,

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Sociology and Economics. What this means that Management Study is in a constant
state of flux.
Therefore, what worked yesterday may not work today. What works in USA may not
work in India. What worked with company A may not work with Company B. What

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worked for CEO X may not work for CEO Z.

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However, in all fairness, some aspects of Management Studies have certain degree of
finality. For example, in Finance, given all required information, the value of a firm
might be calculated with a high degree of accuracy. But thats not the point. Because

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When you make that financial product, you need to know how and whom to sell the

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product, and what kind of people with what risk appetite will buy it.

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even if you practice Finance, a lot of your decisions are going to be based on people.

what is right or what is wrong? How do you take a decision objectively? How will you

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I will try to answer these questions partly after putting down the myths perpetuated

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In such as case, how do you get finality to your studies? How do you take a call on

by students year after year. And these myths are based on the previous
school/college experience that they have (and has worked for them mostly!).

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1. I understand what the teacher says. So I dont need to interact or ask

questions in the class.
Management education is about perspectives. Most management problems have
multiple angles and unless there is a healthy discussion in the class, students minds

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dont get trained to think in various angles while solving a problem. For example, a
problem which might look entirely financial might have a human angle to it; a
problem which looks predominantly a marketing issue might have a financial angle.

commented
on NehaAg's answer

When students interact with each other and with the teacher in the class,
perspectives evolve. For the same question, answers might vary based on the
students experience, behavioural traits, attitude, world-view and many other factors.
Discussions enrich the learning and produce mature managers.

2. Its all there in the book. So I dont really have to listen to the lecture.

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Books teach concepts. However, unlike machines in engineering, people dont

necessarily follow all concepts. Or putting it in another way, most concepts taught are
either over-simplified or are developed in a context. When you face a real-life
situation, the context might change or its too complicated to fit a single concept.

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Therefore, experience matters. A teacher most often brings into the class an
experience which makes you understand the nuances of a concept so that you know
how to use that information better.
3. Let me focus purely on academics. Extra-curricular activities are for those
who are not focused on studies.
Unfortunately, there is no Lab in Management where you carry out practical studies
and see things happening; like you apply voltage, see a motor running and measure
its speed to understand what is taught.
In Management studies, the Lab is your everyday interaction with your peers. You will
notice that assignments are predominantly Group Work and not individual
submissions. Group discussions are a part of admission process. When you work in
teams, you understand people better, you learn about team dynamics, and difference

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in opinion. When you participate in extra-curricular activities, join clubs and organise
events, you start to learn task prioritisation, leadership, time management, conflict
management and much more. You put to use your marketing skills to sell an idea to
students, your human resource skills to motivate others to join you, your finance
skills to manage in a tight budget and technology skills to seamlessly coordinate
between various organising groups.
Participating in competitions, making business plans, doing field research and visiting
industries are also vital to assimilating management studies better.

4.Studying the night before the exam is good enough. It has always worked for
me.
While this never really works because of the limited retention capacity of the brain,
it's worse in case of management studies.
A good manager isn't someone who only knows all the financial formula or
remembers all the P's of marketing. The study demands that you constantly
juxtapose your book and classroom learning with what is happening around you.
Does the failure of the recent product from a large company adhere to what you have
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been taught? In hindsight, why did the product fail if so many heads had been put
together to launch it?
A continuous learning process enhances your perception about things. It makes you
ask relevant questions and helps form opinions. Studying just the night before the
exam doesn't make you learn much.

5. I want to specialise in Marketing. I don't need to spend much time and effort
on other non-marketing courses.
Management problems don't come segregated in specialisation buckets. A single
problem always has multiple facets, as I had discussed earlier. Therefore, at least in
the first year, a student must pay equal attention to all the subjects.
To take the example of a recent event, that is the Maggi issue, the problem that now
stares Nestle in the face is not just financial. It's a human resource problem, keeping
employees motivated to stick to the company and keeping senior management
morale high. It's a marketing problem, winning back customers or ensuring that
customers don't desert other Nestle products. It's an operations problem, ensuring
that the Maggi production line doesn't go waste.
Even as a manager, on a much smaller scale, you will be solving problems that have
elements of various areas of management. MBA is meant to make you a master of
business administration, not just human resource administration or financial
administration.

6. As long as I focus on what is taught in class, I don't need to be updated on

current affairs.
The myth is partly dealt with in the Maggi example above. Only when you read about
the world of business can you have questions popping up in your mind, seeking an
explanation. Learning only concepts without a business context is like learning to
swim without water.
The more you read about current affairs of the state, the economy and business, the
more you understand the environment businesses operate in and the more you
appreciate what you learn in class.
It's pertinent here to also mention that Management Education is truly boundary-less.
It's not just meant for the conventional corporate managers who run businesses. It's
equally relevant for a doctor running her clinic, a lawyer running her law firm, an
entrepreneur putting all resources together to get the start up off the ground, a
fashion designer wishing to launch her own boutique or someone wanting to run her
NGO more professionally.
Keeping an open mind is important as is the desire to ask contextual questions based
on the interplay between classroom learning and environmental experience.
About the Author
Professor Ashutosh Kar is an alumnus of IIM
MBA

ENGINEERING

Ahmedabad and is currently an Associate

DESIGN

OTHER COURSES

STUDY ABROAD

Professor in the area of Information

COUNSELLING

Technology at the KIIT School of Management

(KSOM), Bhubaneswar, a part of the KIIT
(Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology)
University. He joined KSOM after serving in
organizations such as Syntel, TCS and IBM
Global Services. You can read more of his
articles on CAT, Management Studies and others on his blog http://www.gogoodness.com.

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